Spanish Borrowings in Mösiehuali

(Tetelcingo Nahuatl)

• General rules
• Older borrowed forms
• Adding of affixes
• Examples
• People's names
• Borrowed verbs
• Fruits

General rules

When loan words from Spanish are brought into Mösiehuali (Tetelcingo Nahuatl) several kinds of systematic changes are made.

• For each stressed vowel in Spanish, the corresponding long (i.e. tense or diphthongized) Mösiehuali vowel is substituted. (See the Tetelcingo vowel chart.)
• Similarly, the "short" vowels are substituted for the corresponding Spanish un-stressed vowels.
• Regardless of where the stress falls in Spanish, the normal Mösiehuali penultimate stress is imposed.

Various changes in the consonants and syllable structure may also occur, in order to bring the word into conformity with the normal patterns of Nahuatl. Two common changes are:

• the disappearance of a word-final n
• the insertion of a vowel (often the "short" version of whichever Spanish vowel comes next) in order to break up and make pronounceable clusters of consonants which are not permitted in Mösiehuali.

Words that in Spanish end in an unstressed vowel

• end in j [h] in Mösiehuali. But,
• word-final j is not pronounced. As a result, this j is written only when a suffix or another stem follows it.

To words that in Spanish end in a stressed vowel

• an n is added in Mösiehuali. As in the above-mentioned case of j,
• the n is neither pronounced nor written when in final position.

The phoneme /w/ is labial in Mösiehuali when it precedes a front vowel. In such cases it is pronounced (and written) like the b [] of Spanish. In some of those cases it is voiceless [], and thus corresponds, both in pronunciation and orthography, rather to the f of Spanish. As a result:

• Spanish hu ([w]) shows up as b or f preceding a front vowel
• b and f become hu or ju [W] preceding a back vowel

Consonants may also suffer the effects of other morphophonemic rules of Mösiehuali. For example, obstruents generally become j [h] when they precede an identical (or closely similar) obstruent. One such case is that of cruz cross, where z [s] becomes j before tz.

Older borrowed forms

In loans which are a century or more old, there was less tolerance for some of the foreign phonemes which are permitted in later borrowings. For instance:

• the voiced stops or fricatives b, d, and g, turn voiceless: p, t, and c/qu [k]
• d may be pronounced l or r
• r becomes l or sometimes t

Combinations of phonemes which do not exist in native Nahuatl words may be simplified or reinterpreted. For example:

• br may become pl or pel
• ue may become owe

Spanish s and j [h] were pronounced differently in the time of the older loans, As a result:

• s often becomes x [š]
• j often becomes x [š]

In the older borrowings it seems also that there was more of a tendency to hear long vowels. Vowels that in Spanish carry a secondary accent, or which are followed by a nasal, may be interpreted as long.

A number of borrowed words have two forms, one older and the other more recent. Generally the older borrowings involve more changes, the newer fewer. Examples given below include Sabado Saturday, cruz cross, and pobre poor.

Adding affixes

To any stem that is produced according to these rules, the normal Mösiehuali affixes for the appropriate grammatical class (part of speech) can be added. Sometimes the meaning of the stem will shift as well.

Examples

The following examples exemplify these patterns. (The sound files attached to the examples average about 40K.)

ó > u (the corresponding long vowel), final j [h] does not appear

ó > u, affixes no- my and -hua plural possessed, final j [h] appears

ó > u, rr > r, penultimate stress

á > ö, non-stressed i > i , n disappears, penultimate stress

same, plus plural -te; final n appears

é > ie, penultimate stress

á > ö, penultimate stress

an^ué interpreted as ànuwé, é > ie, à > ö, unaccented u > o, w > before a front vowel, penultimate stress

ju [hw] > xohu [šow], á > ö, add -tzi honorific, final j [h] appears, penultimate stress

hw > f [hw > h], é > ie

(older form)
s > x, á > ö, d > t, ò > u, penultimate stress

(newer form)
á > ö, ábadò > ábro, penultimate stress (preserved)

ó > u, b > p, j > x, final n disappears

é > ie, f > hw, final n does not appear, penultimate stress

add -tic adjective, final n appears

(older form)
crú > corú, add -tzi honorific, s > j [h] before tz

(newer form)
add -tzi honorific, s > j [h] before tz

(older form)
póbr > prób > porób, ó > u, final j [h] does not appear

(newer form)
póbr > prób, ó > u, final j [h] does not appear

ó > u, i > i , penultimate stress

s > x, br > pl, r > l, é > ie, add me plural, final j [h] appears, penultimate stress

á > ö, s > x, add cal-co house-place = saints' shrine, final j [h] exceptionally fails to appear

outsider, foreigner
á > ö, unstressed i > i, cr > qu [kr > k], s > x, (tⁱ > tiy), final j [h] does not appear.

outsiders, foreigners (women)
ó > u, s > x, ñ > ( j) n, r > l, add -te plural, final j [h] appears

People's names

The names of adults are marked honorifically. Adult men's names normally take the almost-prefixal form ru sir, Mr. (It is derived from the Spanish form don by normal processes for older borrowings.) So don Manuel comes out in Mösiehuali as  ru Mönobiel. The names of adult women (with the exception of one's own wife) take the honorific suffix -tzi, as in  Xohuönajtzi (doña) Juana or Lady Jane.

Borrowed verbs

When verbs are borrowed from Spanish into Mösiehuali, the infinitive form is used (the form that ends in -ar, -er, or - ir). To it is added the ending -oa [-owa] if the verb is transitive, or -ibi if it is intransitive. Then the appropriate subject and object prefixes are added, and any other affixes of time, aspect, etc. that may be required. For example:

á > ö, add - ibi , penultimate stress

The same, plus -s future

á > ö, add -oa, mark object with qui-

the same, with quim- them, and deletion of final -a in preterite.

á/à > ö, gu > hu, add -oa, mark object c-, penultimate stress

add -oa and other affixes, penultimate stress

convenir > mistakenly borrowed as if it were convener, é > ie, add -ibi, penultimate stress

add -oa, mark object mitz- you sg., penultimate stress

Fruits

A particularly interesting group of loans consists of names of certain agricultural products, mostly fruits, with the inclusion of a bird, the dove or pigeon. These apparently were borrowed in pluralized form even though their meanings may be singular, and they end in x rather than the s of the modern Spanish form. They also exhibit certain other anomalies; for instance, both alöxöx orange and plötönix banana have the long a vowel ö for a non-stressed a as well as a stressed one (where it is expected); plötönix has i where the Spanish has o; three of these words end in xöx or the almost indistinguishably similar xox, which no other words of the language do, and so forth.

á > ö, > w before a non-front vowel, s > x

á > ö, a > ö (exceptional), o > i (exceptional), s > x, penultimate stress

n^ué interpreted as nowé, é > ie, w > before a front vowel, s > x, e > (exceptional)

á > ö, j > x, s > x

g > k, s > x

n interpreted as article (i)n + separate word aranja, r > l, án > ö, a > ö (exceptional), j > x, s > x

ó > u, stress

--David Tuggy

The Mösiehuali speaker whose voice is heard in the sound files is Trinidad Ramírez Amaro.

See also:

• A greeting in Mösiehuali
• See how to build the following long word in Mösiehuali: nehualmoyecastemojmolunijtzinutinemisquiöni.
• Mösiehuali vowels
• Mösiehuali consonants
• Mösiehuali honorifics
• Vocabulario mexicano de Tetelcingo
• Richard S. Pittman's "The Phonemes of Tetelcingo (Morelos) Nahuatl" gives more information about the vowels and consonants of Mösiehuali.