Nahuatl Language

Nahuatl language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Nahuatl (Nahuatlahtolli)
Spoken in: Mexico
Region: Mexico (state), Puebla, Veracruz, Hidalgo, and Guerrero
Total speakers: >1.5 million
Ranking: Not in top 100
Genetic
classification: Uto-Aztecan
Southern Uto-Aztecan
Aztecan


   Nahuatl

Official status
Official language of: Mexico
Language codes
ISO 639-2: nah
Nahuatl is a native language of central Mexico. It was the lingua franca of Mesoamerica for the millennium spanning from the 7th century through the late 16th century of the current era.

Also known as Mexican language, it was the language spoken by the people now known as Aztecs and 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: to mean the Classical Nahuatl language described above (and which is no longer spoken on an everyday basis anywhere), and to mean 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).




Contents [showhide]
1 Linguistic Summary

1.1 English loans
1.2 Spanish loans
1.3 Writing
1.4 Literature
1.5 Brief description


2 Overview

3 Genealogy

4 Detailed description

5 Dialects and local variants

6 Bibliography

7 See also

8 External links

[edit]
Linguistic Summary
Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. See IPA in Unicode if you have display problems.
[edit]
English loans
Nahuatl has provided English with some words for indigenous animals, fruits, vegetables, and tools:

"atlatl", "avocado", "axolotl", "chocolate", "cocoa", "cacao", "coyote", "ocelot", "peyote", "tomato", "tequila", "chil(l)i", "chiclet".
see also: List of English words of Native American origin

[edit]
Spanish loans
Nahuatl has been an exceedingly rich source of words for Spanish, 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, capul�n, chamagoso, chapopote, chayote, chicle, chile, chipotle, chocolate, cuate, comal, copal, coyote, ejote, elote, epazote, escuincle, guacamole, guachinango, guajolote, huipil, hule, jacal, j�cara, 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 (m�xihco), Guatemala (cuauht�mallan), and Nicaragua (nic�n�huac).

[edit]
Writing
Before 1521: pictographic with rebus-style phonetics. After 1521: several alphabetic transcription schemes using different subsets of the Latin alphabet.

[edit]
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.

[edit]
Brief description
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.

[edit]
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 Hern�n Cort�s.

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.

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.

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 Dur�n 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.

[edit]
Genealogy
Uto-Aztecan 5000 BP*
Soshonean (Northern Uto-Aztecan)
Sonoran**
Aztecan 2000 BP
Nahuan
Nahuatl (Central & Northern Nahuan) --M�xico(State), Puebla, Hidalgo
Nahual (Western Nahuan) --Michoac�n
Nahuat (Eastern Nahuan) --Veracruz
Nawat (Southern Nahuan, also known as "Pipil") --Pacific coast of Chiapas, Guatemala, El Salvador
Pochutec --Coast of Oaxaca

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*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.
[edit]
Detailed description
I. 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
stop unaspirated p → p t → t      k → k kw → q aʔ... → �...
aspirated        &nb sp;    
ejective        &nbs p;    
affricate voiced             
voiceless    ts → z tɬ → tl/ł tʃ → c       
ejective        &nbs p;   
fricative voiced            
voiceless    s → s/� ɬ → l ʃ → x    h → h
liquid voiced              
preglottalized       &nbs p;      
nasal voiced m → m n → n           ; 
preglottalized       &nbs p;     
semivowels w → v    j → y    


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

front central back
long short long short long short
high tense i: → �      
lax   i → i     
mid tense e: → �     o: → �
lax   e → e     o → o
low tense       
lax    a: → � a → a   
[edit]
Dialects and local variants
List I. Nahuan subgroup members, sorted by number of speakers:

(name [ethnologue 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 Sierra[AZZ] --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
Michoac�n [NCL] --Michoac�n ~ 3,000
Santa Mar�a de la Alta [NHZ] --Northwest Puebla ~ 3,000
Tenango [NHI] --Northern Puebla ~ 2,000
Tlamacazapa [NUZ] --Morelos ~ 1,500
Coatepec [NAZ] --Southwestern M�xico(State), Northwestern Guerrero ~ 1,500
Durango [NLN] --Southern Durango ~ 1,000
Ometepec [NHT] --Southern Guerrero, Western Oaxaca ~ 500
Temascaltepec [AZZ] --Southwestern M�xico(State) ~ 300
Tlalitzlipa [NHJ] --Puebla ~ 100
Pipil [PPL] --El Salvador ~ 20
Tabasco [NHC] --Tabasco ~ EXTINCT?
Classical [NCI] --Valley of M�xico ~ ACADEMIC & LITERARY


few words in nahuatl

eagle: cuauhtli
squirrel: techalotl
Horse: cahuayo
Hummingbird: huitzitzilin.
rabbit: tochtli.
coyote: coyotl.
grasshopper: chapollin.
cook: cuanacatl.
cat: miztontli.
turkey bird: huexolotl. /uesholotl/
worm: ocuilin.
ant: azcatl.
butterfly: papalotl.
monkey: ozomatli.
fly: zayollin. /sayolin/
mosquito: moyotl.
ocelote: ocelotl.
sheep: ichcatl.
bird: tototl.
dove: huilotl. /uilotl/
dog: chichi.
chicken: piotl.
cow: cuacue. /kuakue/
fish: michin. /michin/
pig: pitzotl.
frog: cueyatl.
mouse: quimichin.
snake: coatl.
vulture: tzopilotl.
zorrillo: epatl.

FOOD

atole: atolli
Peanut: cacahuatl
sugar cane: acatl
chilli: chilli
maize: centli
tamal: tamalli
tejocote: texocotl
tortilla: tlaxcalli
meat: nacatl
mushrooms: nanacatl
pozole: pozolatl
pinole: pinolli. /pinoli/

PLACES

House: calli.
Hill: tepetl.
Cave: oztoc.
Hood: cuauhtla.
School: temachtilcalli.

RELATIVES

Grand mother: cihtli
Grand Father: colli
Friend: icniuhtli
Son: pilli
Mother: nantli
Girl: ichpochtli
Boy: telpochtli
Kid: conetl
Father: tahtli
Aunt: ahuitl
Uncle: tlahtli
Wise man: tlamatini
Teacher: temachtiani
Student: tlamachtilli

MISCELLANEOUS

Water: atl
Tree: cuahuitl /kuauitl/
Smell: popochtli
carbon: tecolli /tekoli/
sky: ilhuicatl /iluicatl/
Star: citlalin
Flower: xochitl /shochitl/
Fire: tletl
Smoke: poctli
Moon: meztli
Book: amoxtli /amoshtli/
Wood: cuahuitl /kuauitl/
Movement: ollin /olin/
Stone: tetl.
Time: cahuitl. /kauitl/
Wind: ehecatl

along with spanish. Excellent stuff Jalisco, it is a joy to see so many speakers of Nahuatl, i didnt realize there is still so many.
It is one of the many languages my mother speaks.

Wow.  That's really cool!...Is it taught in schools?

Is there a specific dialect of Nahuatl that is official language? Because during 500 years the various dialects differ so much, that they may also be called separate languages. Just like the Romance languages (French, Spanish, Italian, Romanian, etc.) that evolved from Latin.

Of course the Nahuatl was influenced by the Spanish.
There were many things ( animals, plants, items, machines, etc) brought to America. The Nahuatl had not words to call them, so it "mexicanized" them.
As an example: Caballo ( Horse ) was called Cahuayo.

The Nahualt had many variants.

The Nahuatl speakers are spread in Mexico ( Mexico City and of the states of Durango, M�xico, Guerrero, Michoac�n, Morelos, Oaxaca, Puebla, San Luis Potos�, Tabasco, Tlaxcala, and Veracruz. ) Plus, the southernmost language in the family is Pipil, which is spoken in El Salvador.


Types of Nahuatl:

Classical Nahuatl
M�siehuali (Tetelcingo Nahuatl)
Guerrero Nahuatl
Nahuatl of Mecayapan and Tatahuicapan, Veracruz (Isthmus Nahuatl)
Orizaba Nawatl (Zongolica Nahuatl)
Central American Nahuatl ( Pipil )




http://www.sil.org/mexico/nahuatl/10i-NahuatlQuestions.htm

Which is the correct form: Nahua, Nahuatl, Nahuat, or Nahual?
Each of these terms has its correct usage. The best-known and most widely-spoken variants of Nahuatl have a phoneme /tl/ (phonetically [tl]), which is the modern reflex of proto-Uto-Aztecan */t/ where it was followed by */a/. In those variants the word would be "Nahuatl", and it is natural that that name is also applied to the family as a whole, naming it for its most best-known members.

Other Nahuatl languages retained the original */t/ sound (or re-simplified the */tl/ to /t/); others simplified the */tl/ to /l/. Because of this, some analysts have made a three-way classification, speaking of "Nahuatl", "Nahuat", and "Nahual" languages, and sometimes "Nahua" is used to specify the language family as a whole. The fact that "Nahua" is easier to pronounce than "Nahuatl" may also have something to do with its attractiveness as a name. (All these names are only two syllables, with the accent on the first, and the "hua" pronounced [wa].)

[Index of common questions] [Nahuatl main page]


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Why does Nahuatl have such long words?
Nahuatl is an agglutinative language; that is, it can add many different kinds of affixes (prefixes and/or suffixes) to a root until very long words are formed. For example, there is an 18-syllable word in M�siehuali (Tetelcingo Nahuatl) which means means "you honorable people might have come along banging your noses so as to make them bleed, but in fact you didn't".

[Index of common questions] [Nahuatl main page]


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What languages are related to Nahuatl?
Nahuatl is, of course, not a linguistic relative of Spanish (although the two languages have influenced each other considerably). The Nahuatl family is a member of the Uto-Aztecan (Uto-Nahuatl) stock, so it is related, if distantly, to all the languages of that wide group. Within Uto-Aztecan, the family linguistically (and geographically) closest to Nahuatl is the Corachol family, which includes the Cora and Huichol languages. There is, however, a much greater difference between any Nahuatl language and Cora or Huichol than between any two Nahuatl languages.

[Index of common questions] [Nahuatl main page]


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Why do you hear so many Spanish words when modern Nahuatl is spoken?
This is a very natural part of what happens when languages are in contact with each other. Spanish has been the politically and socially dominant language of Mexico for nearly 500 years. It is very natural, in such a situation, for speakers of other languages to learn the dominant language and to begin to use words from that language, mixing them in with their mother tongue. Especially when one culture has artifacts or concepts which do not exist in the other, it is very common to borrow the neighboring language's words instead of inventing new words.

In this case the dominant language will often also borrow words from the non-dominant one, and Spanish, especially Mexican Spanish, has many "Aztecanisms" or "Mexicanisms", loan-words borrowed from Nahuatl (Mexicano). Some of them have achieved world-wide currency and are used in many languages: e.g. in English the words tomato, chocolate, and coyote, come from Nahuatl's (xi)tomatl, xocolātl, and coyōtl. The only language that doesn't borrow from its neighbors is a dead language.

The M�siehuali language (Nahuatl of Tetelcingo) has a particularly interesting set of rules for treating borrowed words.

[Index of common questions] [Nahuatl main page]


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Why do so many place-names and language names in Mexico and Central America come from Nahuatl even when Nahuatl is not spoken in the area?
When the Spanish first came to Mexico, they fought the Nahuatl-speaking Mexica (Aztecs) of Tenochtitlan (Mexico City), who spoke Classical Nahuatl; many of their allies in that war were also Nahuatl speakers (e.g. the Tlaxcaltecos). So it was natural that they dealt primarily with Nahuatl speakers, and often with speakers of other Indian languages only through Nahuatl interpreters or intermediaries. The extent of the Aztec influence and Nahuatl's status as a lingua franca facilitated this trend. It is for that reason that so many place-names (toponyms) in Mexico and Central America, even though far from the Nahuatl homelands, come from Nahuatl. And for the same reason, the Spanish names of the different indigenous peoples and cultures (ethnonyms) are often the names, adapted for Spanish pronunciation, that the Nahuatl-speakers gave them.

[Index of common questions] [Nahuatl main page]


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Why do so many place-names in Mexico end with -tla, -pan, -ca, -cingo, etc.?
The names come from Nahuatl, because the Spanish adopted mostly Nahuatl names. Where English uses prepositions (words like of, in, on, behind, around, etc.), Nahuatl has a series of postpositions. Among them are -tla(n), -pa(n), -ca(n), and -c(o), all of which mean something like 'in', or 'at the place of'. "Nahuatlahtohqueh" (Nahuatl speakers) used these forms suffixed to simple or complex noun stems to name places, and many of those names, often in a form adapted somewhat to Spanish pronunciation, are still used today.
For example, Cuautla comes from cuauh-tlan /kwaw-tlan/ 'tree-place', or 'woods', Tlalpan comes from tlal-pan /tlāl-pan/ 'earth-on' 'on land (at the edge of the lake)', Tehuac�n comes from teo-a-can /teo-ā-kan/ 'god-water-place', 'place of sacred waters', and so forth. The ending -cingo is a combination of -tzin 'honorific, diminutive' with -co. Thus Ocosingo is from oco-tzin-co 'ocote-honorific-locative' 'place of the sacred (honorable) pine trees (ocotes)' (or perhaps, 'place of the little ocotes'). The ending -tenango is from te-nan-co /-tē-nān-ko/ 'unspecified.possessor-mother-locative', and probably has reference either to a goddess or to an apparition of the Virgin Mary or a female saint.

No, the Classical Nahuatl was the one spoken before the spanish arrival.
The one spoken in Guerrero has the largest number of speakers, but it's another dialect. However, by declaring the Nahuatl as an official Language in Mexico, it was trying to accomodate all the Nahuatl dialect as an official language.


Approximate number of native language speakers in Mexico:


      Family
300 Algonquian
28,000 Amuzgoan
68,300 Chinantecan
35,000 Corachol
18,400 Huavean
1,695,000 Mayan
170,000 Mixe-Zoquean
362,000 Mixtecan
1,697,000 Nahuatl
596,000 Otopamean
24,000 Tepiman
205,000 Popolocan
700 Serian
126,000 Taracahitic
120,000 Tarascan
4,550 Tequistlatecan
75,000 Tlapanecan
272,500 Totonacan
820 Yuman
531,000 Zapotecan