Classical Nahuatl (also known as Aztec, and simply Nahuatl) is a term used to describe the variants of the Nahuatl language that were spoken in the Valley of Mexico -- and central Mexico as a lingua franca -- at the time of the Spanish conquest of Mexico. During the subsequent centuries it was largely replaced by Spanish and evolved into the Nahuatl dialects in use today. Although classified as an extinct language,Ethnologue summary for Classical Nahuatl Classical Nahuatal has survived through a multitude of written sources written by Nahuas and Spaniards in the Latin alphabet.

Classification

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Nahuatl is an Uto-Aztecan language, related to Hopi, O'odham, and Yaqui, among others.

Sounds

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Vowels

	Front	back
Close
Mid
Open

Consonants

	Labial	Dental	Postalveolar	Velar	Glottal
Plosive
Fricative
Affricate
Lateral affricate
Nasal
Approximant

Prosody

Stress generally falls on the penultimate syllable. The one exception is the vocative suffix -e, used only by males, where stress falls on the final syllable, e.g. Cuāuhtlequetzqui (a name, meaning "eagle-warrior"), but Cuāuhtlequetzqué "Hey, Cuauhtlequetzqui!".

Phonotactics

Unlike English, which allows up to three consonants to occur at the start or end of words (e.g. sprints), Nahuatl allows only a single consonant at the start or end of a word, and up two consonants within a word. Also, there are restrictions on which consonants can occur where.

Grammar

Writing system

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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 Durán 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. The writing system introduced by the Spanish, as well as a comprehensive study of Nahuatl grammar, has now become inefficient, as the language has evolved into different dialects, to a certain degree, distinct from the Nahuatl spoken in the fifteenth century. Today, in the bilingual education programms in rural communities in Mexico a new writing system is being used, created by the Secretaría de Educación Pública (Ministry of Public Education), which allows for differences among dialects.

History

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Literature

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

References

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• de Arenas, Pedro: Vocabulario manual de las lenguas castellana y mexicana. ^* Reprint: México 1982
• Carochi, Horacio: Arte de la lengua mexicana: con la declaración de los adverbios della. ^* Reprint: Porrúa México 1983
• Garibay, Angel Maria : Llave de Náhuatl. México 19??
• Garibay, Angel María, Historia de la literatura náhuatl. México 1953
• Garibay, Angel María, Poesía náhuatl. vol 1-3 México 1964
• von Humboldt, Wilhelm (1767-1835): Mexicanische Grammatik. Paderborn/München 1994
• Karttunen, Frances, An analytical dictionary of Nahuatl. Norman 1992
• Karttunen, Frances, Nahuatl in the Middle Years: Language Contact Phenomena in Texts of the Colonial Period. Los Angeles 1976
• Launey, Michel : Introduction à la langue et à la littérature aztèques. Paris 1980
• Launey, Michel : Introducción a la lengua y a la literatura Náhuatl. UNAM, México 1992
• de León-Portilla, Ascensión H. : Tepuztlahcuilolli, Impresos en Nahuatl: Historia y Bibliografia. Vol. 1-2. México 1988
• León-Portilla, Miguel : Literaturas Indígenas de México. 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 . ^* Reprint: Porrúa México 1992
• de Olmos, Fray Andrés: Arte de la lengua mexicana concluído en el convento de San Andrés de Ueytlalpan, en la provincia de Totonacapan que es en la Nueva España. ^* Reprint: México 1993
• del Rincón, Antonio : Arte mexicana compuesta por el padre Antonio del Rincón. ^* Reprint: México 1885
• de Sahagún, Fray Bernardino(1499-1590): Florentine Codex. General History of the Things of New Spain (Historia General de las Cosas de la Nueva España). Eds Charles Dibble/Arthr Anderson, vol I-XII Santa Fe 1950-71
• Siméon, Rémi: Dictionnaire de la Langue Nahuatl ou Mexicaine. 1885 Reprint: Graz 1963
• Siméon, Rémi: Diccionario dße la Lengua Nahuatl o Mexicana. 1885 Reprint: México 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 México (UNAM), Ed.: Miguel Leon Portilla

Uto-Aztecan languagesNahuatl

Footnotes

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See also

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• Aztec codices