[Aztlan] Tepache

[John F. Schwaller]

>Santamaria's Diccionario de Mejicanismos derives 
>tepache from "azt. tepiatl, bebida de maíz," and 
>Molina's Nahuatl dictionary has the entry 
>tepiatl 'bebida de maíz crudo."  Just how this 
>gets to be "tepache" is another question, but 
>probably through the honorific/diminutive form *tepia-tzin.



There is a parallel discussion going on in the 
nahuatl at lists.famsi.org discussion list.  In 
spite of what Santamaria wrote, in all likelihood it comes from:

pachtli - something crushed

The one outstanding question is the role of the 
te- prefix  Te- usually is the nonspecific human 
object marker or the nonspecific possessive, 
e.g.: temictiani (he routinely kills someone = 
murderer) or tenantzin (someone's honorable mother).

There is no clear way that "tepiatl" could end up 
"tepache"  under the rules of Nahuatl phonology.



John F. Schwaller
President
SUNY Potsdam
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