▷▷ Words in Nahuatl

Nahuatl is the most spoken indigenous language in Mexico. It is even a source of controversy, since many consider that this should be the official language and Spanish a secondary language.

The truth is that the words in Nahuatl contain knowledge and a resignified vision of the world. They have a great diversity of words, which for example name sounds. This accounts for a more contemplative and sensitive society.

It is a language that has influenced Spanish, leaving us with a large number of terms that originated in this ancestral language. Learn about its characteristics and some words in Nahuatl below.

The Nahuatl

Nahuatl is practically the second language of Mexico. Almost 1.5 million Mexicans speak it daily. And the Nahua people, distributed from Durango to Tabasco, preserve this speech, along with the customs of their culture.

In 2015 there were 7,382,785 people belonging to various linguistic groups in the country. Of these, 32,994 reside in Tlaxcala. Here, the predominant language is Nahuatl with at least 27,518 speakers.

The Nahua communities settle along the western foothills of the Mariche Region, from Santa Ana Chiautempan, to the municipal seat of San Pablo del Monte.. In this area is San Bernardino Contla, a town that, despite being marked by the urbanization trend, retains its strong roots in traditional identity.

Today’s experts recognize that Nahuatl is a culture and a way of understanding the world. Those who speak this language currently fight to preserve it and transmit it to new generations.

Today it is a deeply rooted part of the culture of Tlaxcala, where they have developed a historical resistance in combating the dominance of Spanish. And they also do this through the words in Nahuatl.

This language that has survived history and currently continues to evolve. In the year 1550, a Franciscan friar proposed to Charles V that Nahuatl be established as the general language of New Spain, due to the reach it had in the territory.

During viceregal Mexico, the most spoken language was Nahuatl, due to its political importance in pre-Columbian times.

Characteristics of words in Nahuatl

As in any language, Nahuatl has its own grammar, vocabulary, verbs and its own resources. Let’s look at some of its peculiarities.

Binder

Nahuatl is an agglutinative language. That is, it brings together two or more roots with or without affixes. In this way a new word is born. They develop a nominal construction in their words. For example:

nocal: no (pos prefix) + cal (nominal root): my house.
amoxcalli: amox (nominal root) + calli (nominal root): House of the book.
ayotochtli: ayo (nominal root) + tochtli (nominal root): armadillo.

Diffractions

It is the use of a pair of words that express an idea. Let’s see:

in mitl (arrow), in chimali (shield): war.
in atl (water), in tepetl (hill): city ​​or manor.
in atl (water), in tlachinoli (burned thing): war, time

Paired sentences

In this case we are referring to a union of words that produce a rhythmic effect as happens in poetry or prose. Examples:

ma chimaticon: please let it be known.
ma quicaquican: please listen.

Reverential and honorific forms

It is the use of the ending tzin to express deep respect and admiration for a person.

tonatzin: our venerable mother.
totlazotatzin: our revered father.

Noun formation

Words in Nahuatl, particularly nouns, result from combining a nominal root and an absolutive suffix. These suffixes are the following:

-tli: octli (pulque), telpchtli (young), cihtli (Hare).
-tl: tlactl (person), petlatl (duffel bag), mazatl (deer).
-li: calli (home), xalli (sand), colli (grandfather)
-in: totolin (bird), pool (bird), michin (fish)

It should be noted that there are cases in which these structures do not necessarily indicate that the word is in the singular. The suffix –in is usually replaced by –tli. And when the suffix is ​​dropped, a vowel is also dropped. Such is the case of cuaitl, nocua, axcaitl, born and committee.

They also differentiate between animate and inanimate objects or matters. They consider that the wind, the sky, god, a hill, the enemy, the town and the animals are animated. On the other hand, water, a pot, a bean, a green bean or a metate are inanimate.

There are exceptions without an absolutive suffix that are Hello what is the parrot and tzapa that he is a dwarf.

The plural forms

The plural in Nahuatl is formed through a nominal root together with a suffix or indicative of the plural. These suffixes are the following:
-tin for nouns ending in –tli

-me for nouns ending in –tl

Omission of the ending and replacement with ‘

Reduplication of the first consonant and the first vowel + -tin

Reduplication of the first consonant and the first vowel plus saltillo (ending in –tl)

The possessive

In Nahuatl the possessive forms are formed by a prefix, a nominal root and an absolutive suffix.

The possessive prefixes are: No (my), mo (you), Yo (his or hers), to (ours or ours), love his (from you), in his (of them or of them.

Between possessive suffixes come into play uh related to mo and huan related to love his.

Nouns ending in -tli, -li, -in

They lose their ending and the possessive prefix is ​​added to the root.

Exceptions

Some nouns ending in –tli use the suffix hui. This is what happens with nohui (my way) which is formed by no (possessive prefix) + o (nominal root) + hui (possessive suffix).

Nouns ending in –tl

If its roots end in a vowel, it is added uh in the end.

Nouns ending in –atl, -itl

In some cases they lose the final vowel along with the absolutive.

Other considerations

If after losing the absolutive and the final vowel, and the final stem ends in m moves to n. This is what happens with:

comitl- no com- no can / my comal.
tenamitl- totenam- totenam/ my fence.

Nouns ending in huitl, they lose the absolutive, the final vowel and change their huh to uh.

xihuitl- xihui- xihu- xiuh– year.

Some nouns that end in –tlthey lose this suffix and are only added to the possessive prefix.

ahuitl- nahui- n (pref. pos.)- nahui (nominal root): my aunt.

The plural possessive

In this case it should be noted that only animated objects form the plural. It is formed by putting the possessive prefix before the nominal stem followed by the suffix huan.

mocihuahuan: mo (pref. pos.)- cihua (nom. root)- huan (suff. pos.)- my wife

tonahuan: to (pref. pos.)- na (nom. root)- huan (huf. pos.)- our mothers

When it comes to body parts, a possessive suffix is ​​not added

Ixtli-tix: our eyes.

abstract noun

An abstract suffix expresses a quality, attitude or attribute independent of the subject the own of. They generally take the following form:

When the nominal root ends in l either zthis consonant is doubled and added otl

In the cases of terms without an abstract suffix, only yotl or the ligature AC.

Abstract noun possessed or possession

It is the designation of the one who owns something, or the one who has control over what the primitive noun means. In Spanish this is what is expressed as owner of either the one who has something.

It can be seen that when the nominal roots end in a consonant, they are added and. To the roots ending in a vowel we add hua.

In the case where the root ends in z is changed to c.

If the root ends in c, with sound k is changed to what

These were some of the grammatical aspects about the formation of words in Máhuatl. Below we detail words in this dialect, and how they have also influenced Spanish.

Words in Nahuatl

When the conquistadors arrived in what is now Mexico, there were many things they could not express in their language. For this reason, they took them from Nahuatl. As a result, today there are more than 4,000 words in Spanish that come from this indigenous language. Learn about some below.

Achiotl:

Means seed and it is better known as annatto. It is a reddish seed that is used to season food. It has valuable nutritional properties.

Ahuacamoli:

It’s what Mexicans call guacamole. It is a sauce made with avocados, onion, tomato and chili, which accompanies various traditional foods.

Atoli:

It is the Nahuatl name for atole, in this case a traditional drink.

Awakatl:

It is what we know as an avocado, a fruit with a dark skin, green flesh and a round, hard stone inside.

Axacalia:

It translates as wood finish. Designates a wooden house or cabin. From this English derives shack with which this type of construction is named.

Axolotl:

In this case we are talking about an axolotl, which is an amphibious animal of great importance in the culture of the region.

Ca, nican nican:

Means here I am , is what the children said when playing with some balls and indicating where theirs had arrived. Over time this moved to glass spheres with many colors known as marbleswhose use is decreasing among new generations.

Chapoli:

It is what in Mexico is known as chapulín, cricket or lobster.

Chapopotli or chapopote: It is a black substance with which the asphalt on a street is built. Comes from tzacutli which is paste and popochtli which is perfume. It could be said that it defines what is known as paste.

Chia or chian:

It means waiting. But it is the name that has been given to the seed…