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Nahuatl language, Aztec language
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Náhuatl or Náwatl, pronounced in two syllables, NA-watl is a term
applied to some members of the Aztecan or Nahuan sub-branch of the
Uto-Aztecan language family, indigenous to central Mexico. Under the
"Law of Linguistic Rights" it is recognized as a "national language"
along with 62 other indigenous languages and Spanish which have the
same "validity" in Mexico. Often the term Náhuatl is used specifically with reference to the language called Classical Náhuatl, which was the administrative language of the Aztec empire but it was preceded by other Náhuatl-speaking cultures, like the Tepanceca, Acolcuah, Tlaxcalteca, Xochimilc, etc. and possibly was one of the languages spoken in Teotihuacan. As the Náhua groups became predominant, It was used as a lingua franca in much of Mesoamerica from the 12th century AD until the late 16th century, at which time its prominence and influence were interrupted by the Spanish conquest of Mexico. |
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However, it also serves to identify a number of modern Náhuatl
varieties (some mutually unintelligible) of the Náhuatl dialect
complex 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. No
modern dialects are identical with that of Classical Náhuatl, but
those spoken in and around the Valley of Mexico are generally
more-closely related to it than are peripheral ones. Náhuatl is the most widely-spoken group of Native American languages in Mexico or in North America as a whole. As is the case with most other Mexican indigenous languages, many of the speakers of Náhuatl are bilingual, having a working knowledge of the Spanish language. In the past, a significant number of the Náhuatl speakers outside the Valley of Mexico were bilingual in languages other than Spanish, speaking both Náhuatl and, as their mother tongue, some other indigenous language. A famous example of bilingualism was Malintzin ("La Malinche"), the native woman who translated between Náhuatl and a Mayan language (and who later learned Spanish as well) for Hernán Cortés. Sometimes a distinction is made among Nahuan languages between Náhuatl (variants with the characteristic tl phoneme), Náhuat (variants which have t in its place), and Náhual (variants which have l instead). Although the classification implied by emphasizing these differences is currently not given as much weight as in the past, the terms are still used. Sometimes Nahuan is used for the family as a whole; others use the term Aztecan for the family, or Nahua for the family and in any context where one does not want to specify the tl/t/l differences. Most commonly, however, Náhuatl is used as a generic name for the family or any variant of it. Náhuatl is related to the languages spoken by the Hopi, Comanche, Paiute or Ute, Pima, Shoshone, Tarahumara, Yaqui, Tepehuán, Huichol and other peoples of western North America, as they all belong to the Uto-Aztecan linguistic stock or language family consisting of 61 individual languages. This is a grouping on the same order as Indo-European, including a number of language families such as the Aztecan or Náhuatl family. A range of Náhuatl dialects are currently spoken in an area stretching from the northern Mexican state of Durango to Tabasco in the south. Pipil, a Náhuatl dialect which happens to have its own name, is spoken as far south as El Salvador. The Nahuan subgroup of Uto-Aztecan is classified partly by a number of shared phonological changes from reconstructed proto Uto-Aztecan to the attested Nahuan languages. The changes shared between the Nahuan languages are the basis for the reconstruction of the intermediate stage of proto Nahuan. Some of these changes shared by all Nahuan languages are: Proto Uto-aztecan **t becomes Proto Nahuan lateral affricate *tl before proto Uto-aztecan **a Proto Uto-aztecan initial **p is lost in Proto Nahuan. Proto Uto-aztecan **u merges with **i into Proto Nahuan *i Proto Uto-aztecan sibilants **ts and **s splits into *ts, *ch and *s, *~ respectively. Proto Uto-aztecan fifth vowel reconstructed as **t or **ə merged with **e into proto Nahuan *e a large number of metatheses in which Proto Uto-aztecan roots of the shape **CVCV have become *VCCV. The table below presents some of the changes that are reconstructed from Proto Uto-aztecan to Proto Nahuan. From the changes common to all Nahuan languages the subgroup has diversified somewhat and giving a complete overview of the phonologies of Nahuan languages is not suitable here. However, the table below shows a standardised phonemic inventory based on the inventory of Classical Náhuatl. Many modern dialects have undergone changes from proto Nahuan that have resulted in different phonemic inventories. The Náhuatl languages are agglutinative, polysynthetic languages that make extensive use of compounding, incorporation and derivation. That is, it can add many different prefixes and suffixes to a root until very long words are formed. Very long verbal forms or nouns created through incorporation and accumulation of prefixes are not uncommon in literary works. This also means that new words can be created at a moment's notice. The typology of Náhuatl 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. Náhuatl has been an exceedingly rich source of words for the Spanish language, as the following examples show. Some of them are restricted to Mexico or Mesoamerica, but others are common to all the Spanish-speaking regions in the world and a number of them have made their way into many other languages via Spanish. achiote, acocil, aguacate, ajolote, amate, atole, axolotl, ayate, cacahuate, camote, capulín, chamagoso, chapopote, chayote, chicle, chile, chipotle, chocolate, cuate, comal, copal, coyote, ejote, elote, epazote, escuincle, guacamole, guachinango, guajolote, huipil, huitlacoche, hule, jacal, jícama, jícara, jitomate, malacate, mecate, metate, metlapil, mezcal, mezquite, milpa, mitote, molcajete, mole, nopal, ocelote, ocote, olote, paliacate, papalote, pepenar, petaca, petate, peyote, pinole, piocha, popote, pozole, pulque, quetzal, tamal, tianguis, tiza, tomate, tule, zacate, zapote, zopilote. (The persistent -te or -le endings on these words are Spanish reflexes of the Náhuatl 'absolutive' ending -tl, -tli, or -li, which appears on (most) nouns when they have no other affixes.) Náhuatl has provided the English language with some words for indigenous animals, fruits, vegetables, and tools. Most of these borrowings are second-hand, coming first through Spanish. The two most prominent are undoubtedly chocolate (from xoco(l)atl, 'chocolate drink', perhaps literally 'bitter-water') and tomato (from (xi)tomatl), but there are others, such as coyote (coyotl), avocado (ahuacatl) and chile or chili (chilli). The brand name Chiclets is also derived from Náhuatl (tziktli 'sticky stuff, chicle'). Other English words from Náhuatl are: Aztec, (aztecatl); cacao (cacahuatl 'shell, rind'); mesquite (mizquitl); ocelot (ocelotl). As a result of extensive Mexican-Philippine contacts, there are an estimated 250 words of Náhuatl origin in the Tagalog language. Some of them are: kamote 'sweet potato', sayote 'chayote', tiyangge 'seasonal market', tatay (from tata, familiar vocative of tahtli 'father'), nanay (from nana, familiar vocative of nantli 'mother'), guava 'guava, guayaba', tsokolate 'chocolate', tsanggo 'monkey', and the village of Zapote in Las Pińas City, Philippines. Many well-known toponyms also come from Náhuatl, including Mexico (mēxihco) and Guatemala (cuauhtēmallan). At the time of the Spanish conquest, Aztec writing used mostly pictographs supplemented by a few ideograms. When needed, it also used syllabic equivalences; Father Durán recorded how the tlacuilos (codex painters) 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 Aztec writing was not meant to be read, but to be told; the elaborate codices were essentially pictographic aids for teaching, and long texts were memorized. The Spanish introduced the Roman script, which was then utilized to record a large body of Aztec prose and poetry, a fact which somewhat mitigated the devastating loss of the thousands of Aztec manuscripts which were burned by the Spanish. Important lexical works (e.g. Molina's classic Vocabulario of 1571) and grammatical descriptions (of which Carochi's 1645 Arte is generally acknowledged the best) were produced using variations of this orthography. The classical orthography was not perfect, and in fact there were many variations in how it was applied, due in part to dialectal differences and in part to differing traditions and preferences that developed. (The writing of Spanish itself was far from totally standardized at the time.) Today, although almost all written Náhuatl uses some form of Latin-based orthography, there continue to be strong dialectal differences, and considerable debate and differing practices regarding how to write sounds even when they are the same. |
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