Introducción a nawatl

Nahuatl remains one of many Indigenous languages still spoken in Mexico and Central America today. (A total of 11 Indigenous language families, with 68 Indigenous language variants, are still spoken throughout these regions.) The Nahuatl language is part of the Uto-Aztecan language family and consists of many regional variants; it is related to the Hopi, O’odham (Pima-Papago), and Tongva, as well as many other Indigenous languages.

A note on pronunciation and grammar: Most Nahuatl variants have stress on the penultimate syllable of a word. The Nahuatl languages are agglutinative, polysynthetic languages that make extensive use of compounding, incorporation and derivation. That is, they can add many different prefixes and suffixesto a root until very long words are formed, and a single word can constitute an entire sentence.

The following verb shows how the verb is marked for subject, patient, object, and indirect object:

/ni-mits-teː-tla-makiː-ltiː-s/

I-you-someone-something-give-CAUSATIVE-FUTURE

“I shall make somebody give something to you” (Classical Nahuatl)

Here is an example of a very long word:

Onikonwalopochnakastekahkapanitikis = De venida pasé a golpearlo rápidamente en el cachete izquierdo (roughly translated: When I came–on passing–I quickly hit him on the left cheek)

Nouns:

The Nahuatl noun has a relatively complex structure. The only obligatory inflections are for number (singular and plural) and possession (whether the noun is possessed, as is indicated by a prefix meaning ‘my’, ‘your’, etc.). Nahuatl has neither case nor gender, but Classical Nahuatl (defined as the variant spoken during the 16th century and written down by Spanish Friars) and some modern dialects distinguish between animate and inanimate nouns.

In most varieties of Nahuatl, nouns in the unpossessed singular form generally take an “absolutive” suffix. The most common forms of the absolutive are -tl after vowels, -tli after consonants other than l, and -li after l. Nouns that take the plural usually form the plural by adding one of the plural absolutive suffixes –tin or –meh or -wan, but some plural forms are irregular or formed by reduplication. Some nouns have competing plural forms.

Singular noun:

/koyo-tl/ “coyote”

coyote-ABSOLUTIVE

Plural animate noun:

/koyo-meh/ “coyotes”

coyote-PLURAL

Nahuatl distinguishes between possessed and unpossessed forms of nouns. The absolutive suffix is not used on possessed nouns. In all variants, possessed nouns take a prefix agreeing with number and person of its possessor. Possessed plural nouns take the ending –/waːn/.