"De"

January 26, 2011 at 10:32pm ~ Jose Velasquez
Is there word for "DE" (of) in Nawat???

February 6, 2011 at 8:45pm ~ Alan R King
There are two ways to translate "de"="of", as illustrated by these examples:

(1) itukay ne techan = the name of the town
(2) ne siwatket (i)pal Kushkatan = the women of Kushkatan

(1) shows the older way, which it is recommendable to use when possible. Here it is the i- of itukay that gives the "de" meaning: i-tukay means "name of", "nombre de". This is the same i- as the possessive prefix meaning "his, her, its", and the usual considerations apply. With inalienables (like -tukay) this is the preferred construction since the i- is obligatory anyway. With alienable nouns you must make sure always to use the possessed form with i-. So for example, "the wife of my brother" is NOT i-siwat ne nuikaw, because there is no such word as "i-siwat": it has to be isiwaw ne nuikaw.

(2) shows the other way, using the preposition ipal, which is quite often shortened to pal. This should only be used when the first construction is impossible or awkward or might be misunderstood. For example, we have to say "ne siwatket pal Kushkatan" because if we tried to say it the other way, "ne isiwawan Kushkatan", we would be saying something different: Kushkatan's wives! But do not over-use the (i)pal construction or you will not be speaking very good Nawat.

Note also that there are some uses of "de" (and "of") where what I just gave is NOT the right Nawat translation. These other cases have to be considered individually. Here are a few examples:

me acuerdo de mi abuelo = nikelnamiki nutatanoy (NOT "nikelnamiki ipal nutatanoy")
me río de ese hombre = nikpakilia uni takat (NOT "nipaki ipal uni takat")
hemos hablado de tu padre = titajtaketztiwit ipanpa muteku (NOT "…ipal…")

And note that when "de" = "from" (not "of") it also will be translated differently:

viene de (from) Sonsonate = yaja witz Sentzunat (or: yaja witz tik Sentzunat)

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