Uto-Aztecan historical phonology

On Mon, 1 May 2000, Nik Taylor wrote:

> dirk elzinga wrote:
> > Here's a partial Uto-Aztecan cognate set for *tama 'tooth':
> > Nahuatl      tlan-
>
> Interesting.  But, how did the Nahuatl get that way?  Did the /m/ become
> /w/, and then was lost?  And where did the /l/ come from?
I think that the *m became /n/ in Nahuatl, but I'm not sure.
PUA *t often became /tl/ adjacent to /a/ in Nahuatl (that should
be a voiceless lateral affricate).

Nahuatl is the Uto-Aztecan language I know the least about; most
of my research has been confined to Numic, with brief excursions
to Tubatulabal, Hopi, and Takic (Luiseño and Cupeño are Takic),
all of which are Northern Uto-Aztecan languages.

Dirk

--
Dirk Elzinga
dirk.elzinga@m.cc.utah.edu