nahuatl language

Writing system

At the time of the Spanish conquest, Aztec writing used mostly pictographs supplemented with a few ideograms. When needed it also used syllabic equivalences; Father Durn recorded how the tlacuilos could render a prayer in Latin using this system, but it was difficult to use. This writing system was adequate for keeping such records as genealogies, astronomical information, and tribute lists, but could not represent a full vocabulary of spoken language in the way that the writing systems of the old world or of the Maya civilization could. The Spanish introduced the Roman script, which was then utilized to record a large body of Aztec prose and poetry, a fact which somewhat diminished the devastating loss caused by the burning of thousands of Aztec manuscripts by the Catholic priests. See Nahuatl transcription.

History

Literature

Nahuatl literature is extensive (probably the most extensive of all Amerindian languages), including a relatively large corpus of poetry (see also Nezahualcoyotl); the Nican Mopohua is an excellent early sample of transcribed Nahuatl.

Bibliography

de Arenas, Pedro: Vocabulario manual de las lenguas castellana y mexicana. 1611 Reprint: Mxico 1982
Campbell, Joe and Frances Karttunen, Foundation course in Nahuatl grammar. Austin 1989
Carochi, Horacio: Arte de la lengua mexicana: con la declaracin de los adverbios della. 1645 Reprint: Porra Mxico 1983
Garibay, Angel Maria : Llave de Nhuatl. Mxico 19??
Garibay, Angel Mara, Historia de la literatura nhuatl. Mxico 1953
Garibay, Angel Mara, Poesa nhuatl. vol 1-3 Mxico 1964
Hill, Jane and Kenneth Hill, Speaking Mexicano: dynamics of syncretic language in Central Mexico. Tucson 1986
von Humboldt, Wilhelm (1767-1835): Mexicanische Grammatik. Paderborn/Mnchen 1994
Jimnez, Doa Luz (?-1965): Life and Death in Milpa Alta Norman 1972
Karttunen, Frances, An analytical dictionary of Nahuatl. Norman 1992
Karttunen, Frances, Between worlds: interpreters, guides, and survivors. New Brunswick 1994
Karttunen, Frances, Nahuatl in the Middle Years: Language Contact Phenomena in Texts of the Colonial Period. Los Angeles 1976
Launey, Michel : Introduction la langue et la littrature aztques. Paris 1980
Launey, Michel : Introduccin a la lengua y a la literatura Nhuatl. UNAM, Mxico 1992
de Len-Portilla, Ascensin H. : Tepuztlahcuilolli, Impresos en Nahuatl: Historia y Bibliografia. Vol. 1-2. Mxico 1988
Len-Portilla, Miguel : Literaturas Indgenas de Mxico. Madrid 1992
Lockhart, James (ed): We people here. Nahuatl Accounts of the conquest of Mexico. Los Angeles 1993
de Molina, Fray Alonso: Vocabulario en Lengua Castellana y Mexicana y Mexicana y Castellana . 1555 Reprint: Porra Mxico 1992
de Olmos, Fray Andrs: Arte de la lengua mexicana concludo en el convento de San Andrs de Ueytlalpan, en la provincia de Totonacapan que es en la Nueva Espaa. 1547 Reprint: Mxico 1993
del Rincn, Antonio : Arte mexicana compuesta por el padre Antonio del Rincn. 1595 Reprint: Mxico 1885
de Sahagn, Fray Bernardino(1499-1590): Florentine Codex. General History of the Things of New Spain (Historia General de las Cosas de la Nueva Espaa). Eds Charles Dibble/Arthr Anderson, vol I-XII Santa Fe 1950-71
Simon, Rmi: Dictionnaire de la Langue Nahuatl ou Mexicaine. 1885 Reprint: Graz 1963
Simon, Rmi: Diccionario de la Lengua Nahuatl o Mexicana. 1885 Reprint: Mxico 2001
Sullivan, Thelma D. : Compendium of Nahuatl Grammar. Salt Lake City 1988
The Nahua Newsletter: edited by the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies of the University of Indiana (Chief Editor Alan Sandstrom)
Estudios de Cultura Nahuatl: special interest-yearbook of the Instituto de Investigaciones Historicas (IIH) of the Universidad Autonoma de Mxico (UNAM), Ed.: Miguel Leon Portilla

External links

Ethnologue reports on Nahuatl
Nahuatl Learning Resource List, by Ricardo J. Salvador
Brief Notes on Classical Nahuatl, by David K. Jordan
Nahuatl (Aztec) family, Summer Institute of Linguistics
Nahuatl Summer Language Institute, Yale University
Basic Introductory Grammar, by Acoyauh
English → Nahuatl, Nahuatl → English (Florentine Codex Vocabulary 1997, by R. Joe Campbell)
Nahuatl → English (Basic Dictionary, by Acoyauh)
Spanish → Nahuatl, Nahuatl → Spanish (Ohui.net)

Polish: http://www.jukatan.host.sk/slownik.html
French: http://www.ifrance.com/nahuatl/nahuatl.page.html

Nahuatl is a Native American language indigenous to central Mexico. It was the lingua franca of Mesoamerica during the 7th century AD through to the late 16th century, at which time its prominence and influence was interrupted by the Spanish conquest of the New World. Also known as Mexican language, or the language of the Mexica (ie. Aztecs), it was not only spoken by the Aztecs but also their predecessors (the Colhua, Tecpanec, Acolhua, and the famous Toltecs in one interpretation of the term). Recently, there have begun to appear more and more suggestions, from several diverse fields of Mesoamerican research, that Nahuatl might have been one of the languages spoken at the legendary Teotihuacan. Today, the term Nahuatl is frequently used in two different senses which are quickly becoming increasingly incompatible:

the Classical Nahuatl language described above (and which is no longer spoken on an everyday basis anywhere)

any of a multitude of live dialects (some of them mutually unintelligible) that are still spoken by at least 1.5 million people in what is now Mexico. All of these dialects show influence from the Spanish language to various degrees, some of them much more than others, but it is important to note that some aspects of the essential nature of the Classical language have been lost in all of them (much as it happened to Classical Latin as it developed into the different Romance languages).

Overview

Nahuatl is still the most widely spoken Native American language in Mexico; however, most, if not all, of the speakers of Nahuatl are bilingual, having a working knowledge of the Spanish language. In fact, until recently, a significant number of the Nahuatl speakers outside the valley of Mexico were bilingual too, speaking both Nahuatl and their own mother tongue. A famous example of bilinguism was Malintzin ("La Malinche"), the native woman who translated between Nahuatl and a Maya language (and later learned Spanish as well) for Hernn Corts.

Classification

Nahuatl is related to the languages spoken by the Hopi, Comanche, Pima, Shoshone, and other peoples of western North America, as they all belong to the Uto-Aztecan language family.

Genealogy

Uto-Aztecan 5000 BP^*

Soshonean (Northern Uto-Aztecan)
Sonoran^**
Aztecan 2000 BP

Nahuan

Nahuatl (Central & Northern Nahuan) --Mxico(State), Puebla, Hidalgo
Nahual (Western Nahuan) --Michoacn
Nahuat (Eastern Nahuan) --Veracruz
Nawat (Southern Nahuan, also known as "Pipil") --Pacific coast of Chiapas, Guatemala, El Salvador

Pochutec --Coast of Oaxaca

^*Estimated split date by glottochronology

^**Some scholars continue to classify Aztecan and Sonoran together under a separate group (called variously "Sonoran", "Mexican", or "Southern Uto-Aztecan"). There is increasing evidence that whatever degree of additional resemblance that might be present between Aztecan and Sonoran when compared with Soshonean is probably due to proximity contact, rather than to a common immediate parent stock other than Uto-Aztecan.

Geographic distribution

Dialects and local variants

List I. Nahuan subgroup members, sorted by number of speakers: (name subgroup code – location(s) ~approx. number of speakers)

Huasteca Este NAI – Hidalgo, Western Veracruz, Northern Puebla ~450,000
Huasteca Oeste NHQ – San Luis Potos, Western Hidalgo ~450,000
Guerrero NAH – Guerrero ~200,000
Orizaba NLV – Central Veracruz ~140,000
Puebla Sureste NHS – Southeast Puebla ~135,000
Puebla SierraAZZ – Puebla Highlands ~125,000
Puebla Norte NCJ – Northern Puebla ~66,000
Central NHN – Tlaxcala, Puebla ~50,000
Istmo-Mecayapan NAU – Southern Veracruz ~20,000
Puebla Central NCX – Central Puebla ~18,000
Morelos NHM – Morelos ~15,000
Oaxaca Norte NHY – Northwestern Oaxaca, Southeastern Puebla ~10,000
Huaxcaleca NHQ – Puebla ~7,000
Istmo-Pajapan NHP – Southern Veracruz ~7,000
Istmo-Cosoleacaque NHK – Eastern Morelos, Northwestern Coastal Chiapas, Southern Veracruz ~5,500
Ixhuatlancillo NHX – Central Veracruz ~4,000
Tetelcingo NHG – Morelos ~3,500
Michoacn NCL – Michoacn ~3,000
Santa Mara de la Alta NHZ – Northwest Puebla ~3,000
Tenango NHI – Northern Puebla ~2,000
Tlamacazapa NUZ – Morelos ~1,500
Coatepec NAZ – Southwestern Mxico (State), Northwestern Guerrero ~1,500
Durango NLN – Southern Durango ~1,000
Ometepec NHT – Southern Guerrero, Western Oaxaca ~500
Temascaltepec AZZ – Southwestern Mxico (State) ~300
Tlalitzlipa NHJ – Puebla ~100
Pipil PPL – El Salvador ~20
Tabasco NHC – Tabasco (extinct?)
Classical NCI – Valley of Mxico (academic and literary)

Sounds

Classical Nahuatl makes use of 4 vowels (a,e,i,o) but distinguishes between a long and a short variant of each one of them. It uses two semivowels (/w/ and /j/), a glottal stop, and 10 other unvoiced consonants. It is an agglutinating, polysynthetic language that makes extensive use of compounding and derivation. It has very well developed honorific forms. Syllable structure is either CV or CVC. Stress, non-lexical in most varieties, always falls on the next-to-last vowel with the sole exception of the vocative, in which it falls on the last one.

Consonants and semivowels

Table of Nahuatl consonants and semivowels, in IPA notation (see IPA-SAMPA chart for Nahuatl) followed(→) by the proposed Nahuatl Standard Transcription:

bilabial	alveolar	alveo- lateral	alveo- palatal	velar	labialized velar	glottal
rowspan="3" \| stop	unaspirated	p → p	t → t			k → k	k^w → q	aʔ... → ...
aspirated
ejective
rowspan="3" \| affricate	voiced
voiceless		ts → z	tɬ → tl/ł	tʃ → c
ejective
rowspan="2" \| fricative	voiced
voiceless		s → s/	ɬ → l	ʃ → x	h → h
rowspan="2" \| liquid	voiced
preglottalized
rowspan="2" \| nasal	voiced	m → m	n → n
preglottalized
colspan="2" \| semivowels	w → v	j → y

Vowels

Table of Nahuatl vowels, in IPA notation (see IPA-SAMPA chart for Nahuatl) followed(→) by the proposed Nahuatl Standard Transcription:

colspan="2" \| front	colspan="2" \| central	colspan="2" \| back
colspan="2" \|	long	short	long	short	long	short
rowspan="2" \| high	tense	i: →
lax	i → i
rowspan="2" \| mid	tense	e: →	o: →
lax	e → e	o → o
rowspan="2" \| low	tense
lax	a: →	a → a

Grammar

Nahuatl is an agglutinative, polysynthetic language. In Nahuatl there is no fixed difference between phrases or words, no infinitives, and no proper pronouns. Nahuatl has been described as a language that is pure etymology. A Nahuatl word always consists of a prefix, followed by several root concepts, followed by a suffix. One can put together as many one-syllable root concepts as necessary, so some Nahuatl words are very long. This also means that new words can be created on the fly. The typology of Nahuatl has, by a minority of linguists, been regarded as oligosynthetic. This was first proposed in the early 20th Century by Benjamin Whorf, but was largely dismissed by the linguistic community by the mid-1950s. In 2004, linguist and computer scientist Ernst Herrera Legorreta put forward new evidence in support of Whorf's original claim. It has yet to be seen whether this will change the academic consensus.

Vocabulary

See the list of Nahuatl words and list of words of Nahuatl origin at Wiktionary, the free dictionary and Wikipedia's sibling project.

Words loaned to other languages

Main article: words of Nahuatl origin

Nahuatl has provided the English language with some words for indigenous animals, fruits, vegetables, and tools. Nahuatl has been an exceedingly rich source of words for the Spanish language, as the following samples show. Some of them are restricted to Mesoamerica but others are common to all the Spanish dialects:

acocil, aguacate, ajolote, amate, atole, ayate, cacahuate, camote, capuln, chamagoso, chapopote, chayote, chicle, chile, chipotle, chocolate, cuate, comal, copal, coyote, ejote, elote, epazote, escuincle, guacamole, guachinango, guajolote, huipil, hule, jacal, jcara, jitomate, malacate, mecate, mezcal, milpa, mitote, mole, nopal, ocelote, ocote, olote, paliacate, papalote, pepenar, petaca, petate, peyote, pinole, piocha, popote, pulque, quetzal, tamal, tianguis, tiza, tomate, tule, zacate, zapote, zopilote.

Many well-known toponyms also come from Nahuatl, including Mexico (mxihco), Guatemala (cuauhtmallan), and Nicaragua (nicnhuac).

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