Content created: 2001-01-06
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Lesson 2: Nouns

A Nahuatl noun is always either "possessed" or "absolutive" (free-standing), and its form varies accordingly; when it is absolutive it takes a distinctive absolutive ending; when it is possessed, it takes a distinctive prefix showing the possessor; in compounds or with other affixes it also drops the absolutive suffix. By convention, dictionaries enter nouns in their absolutive form.

Plurals

1. Plurals were not always stable, and the same root might take now one plural suffix, now another.
2. In general, inanimate objects are always treated as singular, regardless of their number. But style often allowed them to be used metaphorically as though they were animate, so we know the plurals of many seemingly inanimate nouns.
3. For many nouns, the addition of a plural suffix was often (not necessarily always) accompanied by the reduplication of the first syllable, always with a long vowel (and loss of h if there was one):
   • pil.li = child < pï.pil.tin = children;
   • cih.tli = hare < cï.cih.tin = hares.
   (In these lessons I use the sign < to separate a singular from its plural, and I have sometimes inserted periods between the syllables to show the structure of a compound.)

Examples

• töch.in = töch.tli = rabbit < tö.töch.tin = rabbits
• cih.tli = hare < cï.cih.tin = hares
• cih.tli = grandmother < cih.tin = grandmothers
• oc.tli = pulque
• tëuc.tli = lord < të.tëuc-tin
• yelohualiz.tli = hamlet
• ä.tl = water
• azca.tl = ant
• cihuä.tl = woman, wife
• xal.li = sand
• cal.li = house

Exercises

Do not include the long mark over any vowel and do not use periods to separate elements. (The program is too dumb to understand that that can be part of a right answer.)

Each space can be filled in only with the right answer; if you enter anything else, the Answer Ghost will make it vanish as soon as your cursor leaves the box. You can use all upper-case or all lower-case or can capitalize the first letter of each answer (because that is automatic in some browsers).

If you get stuck, place the cursor in the nearest "Uncle Box" and the correct answer to the most recent item you attempted will briefly appear there. One item is already filled in as an example. It cannot be changed.

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