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bescomatl

A Long Word in Mösiehuali

(Tetelcingo Nahuatl)

Mösiehuali words can get to be quite long. Consider, for instance, the word:

nehualmoyecastemojmolunijtzinutinemisquiöni

It means: You honorable people might have come along banging your noses so as to make them bleed, but in fact you didn't.

Here is how it is built up:

Nahuatl English
  moluni   bloom or boil
  moluni + a causative cause to bloom/boil
moj reduplication + molunia   cause to bloom/boil strongly/repeatedly
yecas nose + te stone     the hard part of the nose
yecaste + mojmolunia   bang the nose so as to make it bleed (bloom/boil)
mo reflexive +  yecastemojmolunia   bang one's own nose so as to make it bleed
  moyecastemojmolunia + tzinoa reflexive honorific honorable person(s) bang their nose(s) so as to make it(them) bleed
  moyecastemojmolunijtzinoa + tinemi go doing it honorable person(s) go along banging their nose(s) so as to make it(them) bleed
(the change of ia to ij before tzinoa is normal)
hual hither + moyecastemojmolunijtzinutinemi   honorable person(s) come along banging their nose(s) so as to make it/them bleed
(the change of oa to u before tinemi is normal)
ne you plural + hualmoyecastemojmolunijtzinutinemi   you honorable people come along banging your noses so as to make them bleed
  nehualmoyecastemojmolunijtzinutinemi + s future ( + qui plural) you honorable people will come along banging your noses so as to make them bleed
(Although qui plural is necessary for this form to be correct, it does not appear on the derived forms below)
  nehualmoyecastemojmolunijtzinutinemis + quia conditional, would have you honorable people would have come along banging your noses so as to make them bleed
  nehualmoyecastemojmolunijtzinutinemisquia + ni counterfactive you honorable people might have come along banging your noses so as to make them bleed, but in fact you didn't
  nehualmoyecastemojmolunijtzinutinemisquiöni   (the change of quia to quiö before ni is normal)

The word is 18 syllables long, but its English translation is even longer!

--David Tuggy

See also:


In general:
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© 2004 Instituto Lingüístico de Verano, A.C.
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