Classical Nahuatl grammar
Encyclopedia
The grammar
of Classical Nahuatl
is agglutinative
, head-marking
, and makes extensive use of compounding, noun incorporation and derivation. That is, it can add many different prefixes and suffix
es to a root until very long words are formed. Very long verbal forms or nouns created through incorporation and accumulation of prefixes are common in literary works. This also means that new words can be created at will.
is indicated with an /h/. The grammarian Carochi
(1645) represented saltillo by marking diacritics on the preceding vowel: grave accent on a nonfinal vowel <à, ì, è, ò> and circumflex on final vowels <â, î, ê, ô>. In the history of this language, both in its actual use and in the studies by all other colonial era grammarians besides Carochi, long vowels and the saltillo were rarely indicated. To give an adequate description of the classical Nahuatl language, it is, however, essential to mark them.
s may be altered in particular contexts, depending on the shape of the adjacent morphemes or their position in the word.
, adopting features of the other consonant.
Almost all doubled consonants in Nahuatl are produced by the assimilation of two different consonants from different morphemes. Doubled consonants within a single morpheme are rare, a notable example being the verb -itta "see".
Nouns belong to one of two classes: animates or inanimates. Originally the grammatical distinction between these were that inanimate nouns had no plural forms, but in most modern dialects both animate and inanimate nouns are pluralizable.
Nominal morphology is mostly suffixing. Some irregular formations exist.
called the absolutive. This suffix takes the form -tl after vowels (ā-tl, "water") and -tli after consonants, which assimilates
to a final /l/ (tōch-tli, "rabbit", but cal-li, "house"). Some nouns have an irregular form in -in (mich-in, fish). These suffixes are dropped in most derived forms: tōch-calli, "rabbit-hole", mich-matlatl, "fishing net". Possessed nouns do not take the absolutive suffix (see Noun inflection below).
Only animate nouns can take a plural form. These include most animate living beings, but also words like tepētl ("mountain"), citlālin ("star") and some other phenomena. Plurals are formed in several ways:
The plural isn't totally stable and in many cases several different forms are attested.
Example: nocal, 'my house'
Some other categories can be inflected on the verb such as:
, not the sound of the 'h' in 'he'.
Caution: ti- means 'you (singular)' but ti-____-h means 'we'.
From these examples, it can be seen that the arrangement of a verb stem and its argument affixes is as follows:
SUBJECT PREFIX + OBJECT PREFIX + VERB STEM + 'h' (example: 'ti-quim-itta-h', we - them - see - we, i.e., 'we see them')
Introvert:
Imperfective: -qui "comes towards the speaker in order to X"
qui + itta "to see" + qui ="quittaqui "he/she/it will come here to see it"
Perfective: -co "has come towards the speaker in order to X"
qui + itta "to see" + co =quittaco "he/she/it has come here to see it"
Extrovert:
Imperfective: -tīuh "goes away from the speaker in order to X"
qui + itta "to see" + tīuh ="quittatīuh "he/she/it will go there to see it"
Perfective: -to " has gone away from the speaker in order to X"
qui + itta "to see" + to =quittato "he/she/it has gone there to see it"
tla "something" + ixca "roast" + l + tli = tlaxcalli "something roasted/ a tortilla"
tla + ihcuiloa "write/draw" + l - tli = tlahcuilolli "scripture/ a drawing"
miqui "to die" + liztli = miquiliztli "death"
tlahcuiloa "to write something" + liztli = tlahcuiloliztli "the concept of writing or being a scribe"
ichtequi "to steal" + qui = ichtecqui "a thief"
tlahuāna "to become drunk" + qui = tlahuānqui "a drunkard"
miqui "to die" +ni = miquīni "a mortal"
cuacua "to bite" + ni = cuacuāni "someone that is known to be capable of or to habitually bite"
is productive in Classical Nahuatl and different kinds of material can be incorporated.
and also as a subordinating particle and a deictic particle, in addition to having other functions.
Classical Nahuatl has a vigesimal
or base 20 number system. In the pre-Columbian
Nahuatl script
, the numbers 20, 400 (20²) and 8,000 (20³) were represented by a flag, a feather, and a bag, respectively.
It also makes use of numeral classifiers, similar to languages such as Chinese and Japanese
.
The numbers in between those above—11 to 14, 16 to 19, 21 to 39, and so forth—are formed by following the larger number with a smaller number which is to be added to the larger one. The smaller number is prefixed with om- or on-, or in the case of larger units, preceded by īpan "on it" or īhuān "with it". E.g. mahtlāctli oncē "11" (10+1), caxtōlonēyi "18" (15+3), cēmpōhualmahtlāctli omōme "32" (20+10+2); cēntzontli caxtōlpōhualpan nāuhpōhualomōme "782" (1×400+15×20+4×20+2).
or counter word. These include:
Which classifier a particular object takes is loose and somewhat arbitrary.
Grammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...
of Classical Nahuatl
Classical Nahuatl
Classical 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 16th-century Spanish conquest of Mexico...
is agglutinative
Agglutinative language
An agglutinative language is a language that uses agglutination extensively: most words are formed by joining morphemes together. This term was introduced by Wilhelm von Humboldt in 1836 to classify languages from a morphological point of view...
, head-marking
Head-marking language
A head-marking language is one where the grammatical marks showing relations between different constituents of a phrase tend to be placed on the heads of the phrase in question, rather than the modifiers or dependents. In a noun phrase, the head is the main noun and the dependents are the...
, and makes extensive use of compounding, noun incorporation and derivation. That is, it can add many different prefixes and suffix
Suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs...
es to a root until very long words are formed. Very long verbal forms or nouns created through incorporation and accumulation of prefixes are common in literary works. This also means that new words can be created at will.
Orthography used in this article
Vowel length was phonologically distinctive in this language. Long vowels are indicated with a macron above the vowel letter: <ā, ē, ī, ō>. SaltilloSaltillo (linguistics)
In Mexican linguistics, saltillo refers to a glottal stop consonant, . It was given that name by the early grammarians of Classical Nahuatl. In a number of other Nahuatl languages, the sound cognate to Classical Nahuatl’s glottal stop is , and the term saltillo is applied to either pronunciation...
is indicated with an /h/. The grammarian Carochi
Horacio Carochi
Horacio Carochi was an Italian Jesuit priest and grammarian who was born in Florence, Italy, and died in Mexico. He is known for his grammar of the Classical Nahuatl language.- Life:...
(1645) represented saltillo by marking diacritics on the preceding vowel: grave accent on a nonfinal vowel <à, ì, è, ò> and circumflex on final vowels <â, î, ê, ô>. In the history of this language, both in its actual use and in the studies by all other colonial era grammarians besides Carochi, long vowels and the saltillo were rarely indicated. To give an adequate description of the classical Nahuatl language, it is, however, essential to mark them.
Morphophonology
The phonological shapes of Nahuatl morphemeMorpheme
In linguistics, a morpheme is the smallest semantically meaningful unit in a language. The field of study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology. A morpheme is not identical to a word, and the principal difference between the two is that a morpheme may or may not stand alone, whereas a word,...
s may be altered in particular contexts, depending on the shape of the adjacent morphemes or their position in the word.
Assimilation
Where a morpheme ending in a consonant is followed by a morpheme beginning in a consonant, one of the two consonants often undergoes assimilationAssimilation (linguistics)
Assimilation is a common phonological process by which the sound of the ending of one word blends into the sound of the beginning of the following word. This occurs when the parts of the mouth and vocal cords start to form the beginning sounds of the next word before the last sound has been...
, adopting features of the other consonant.
| ch | + | y | → | chch | E.g. oquich-(tli) "man" + -yō-(tl) "-ness" → oquichchōtl "valor" |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| l | + | tl | → | ll | E.g. cal- "house" + -tli (absolutive) → calli "house" |
| l | + | y | → | ll | E.g. cual-(li) "good" + -yō-(tl) "-ness" → cuallōtl "goodness" |
| x | + | y | → | xx | E.g. mix-(tli) "cloud" + -yoh "covered in" → mixxoh "cloudy" |
| z | + | y | → | zz | E.g. māhuiz-(tli) "fear" + -yō-(tl) "-ness" → māhuizzōtl "respect" |
Almost all doubled consonants in Nahuatl are produced by the assimilation of two different consonants from different morphemes. Doubled consonants within a single morpheme are rare, a notable example being the verb -itta "see".
Morphology
The words of Nahuatl can be divided into three basic functional classes: verbs, nouns and particles. Adjectives exist, but they generally behave like nouns and there are very few adjectives that are not derived from either verbal or nominal roots. The few adverbs that can be said to exist fall into the class of particles.Nouns
The noun is inflected for two basic contrasting categories:- possessedness: non-possessed contrasts with possessed
- number: singular contrasts with plural
Nouns belong to one of two classes: animates or inanimates. Originally the grammatical distinction between these were that inanimate nouns had no plural forms, but in most modern dialects both animate and inanimate nouns are pluralizable.
Nominal morphology is mostly suffixing. Some irregular formations exist.
Possessedness
Non-possessed nouns take a suffixAffix
An affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word. Affixes may be derivational, like English -ness and pre-, or inflectional, like English plural -s and past tense -ed. They are bound morphemes by definition; prefixes and suffixes may be separable affixes...
called the absolutive. This suffix takes the form -tl after vowels (ā-tl, "water") and -tli after consonants, which assimilates
Assimilation (linguistics)
Assimilation is a common phonological process by which the sound of the ending of one word blends into the sound of the beginning of the following word. This occurs when the parts of the mouth and vocal cords start to form the beginning sounds of the next word before the last sound has been...
to a final /l/ (tōch-tli, "rabbit", but cal-li, "house"). Some nouns have an irregular form in -in (mich-in, fish). These suffixes are dropped in most derived forms: tōch-calli, "rabbit-hole", mich-matlatl, "fishing net". Possessed nouns do not take the absolutive suffix (see Noun inflection below).
Number
- The absolutive singular suffix has three basic forms: -tl/tli, -lin/-in, and some irregular nouns with no suffix.
- The absolutive plural suffix has three basic forms: -tin, -meh, or just a final glottal stop -h. Some plurals are formed also with reduplication of the noun's first syllable.
- The possessive singular suffix has two basic forms: -uh (on stems ending in a vowel) or -Ø (on stems ending in a consonant).
- The possessive plural suffix has the form -huān.
Only animate nouns can take a plural form. These include most animate living beings, but also words like tepētl ("mountain"), citlālin ("star") and some other phenomena. Plurals are formed in several ways:
- The absolutive suffix is replaced with -h (glottal stopGlottal stopThe glottal stop, or more fully, the voiceless glottal plosive, is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. In English, the feature is represented, for example, by the hyphen in uh-oh! and by the apostrophe or [[ʻokina]] in Hawaii among those using a preservative pronunciation of...
), -tin or -meh - Some nouns may have a reduplicationReduplicationReduplication in linguistics is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word is repeated exactly or with a slight change....
of their first consonant and vowel, with the reduplicated vowel longVowel lengthIn linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a vowel sound. Often the chroneme, or the "longness", acts like a consonant, and may etymologically be one, such as in Australian English. While not distinctive in most dialects of English, vowel length is an important phonemic factor in...
.
| -h | -tin | -meh | |
|---|---|---|---|
| With reduplication |
teōtl, tēteōh | tōchtli, tōtōchtin | Never occurs |
| Without reduplication |
cihuātl, cihuāh | oquichtli, oquichtin | michin, michmeh |
The plural isn't totally stable and in many cases several different forms are attested.
Noun inflection
| Absolutive singular | cihuātl "woman" | oquichtli "man" | totōlin "turkey" | tlācatl "person (sg.)" |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Absolutive Plural | cihuāh "women" | oquichtin "men" | totōlmeh "turkeys" | tlatlācah "persons" |
| Possessed Singular | nocihuāuh "my woman" | noquich "my man" | nototōl "my turkey" | notlācauh "my person" |
| Possessed Plural | nocihuāhuān "my women" | noquichhuān "my men" | nototōlhuān "my turkeys" | notlācahuān "my persons" |
Possessor prefixes
| 1st person singular | no-, 'my' |
|---|---|
| 2nd person singular | mo-, 'your' |
| 3rd person singular | ī-, 'his, hers, its |
| 1st person plural | to-, 'our' |
| 2nd person plural | anmo-, 'your' |
| 3rd person plural | īn-, 'their' |
| Unknown possessor | tē-, 'their' (somebody's) |
Example: nocal, 'my house'
Some other categories can be inflected on the verb such as:
- Honorific formed with the suffix -tzin.
- cihuā-tl "woman" + tzin+ tli absolutive = cihuātzintli "woman (said with respect)"
Inalienable possession
The suffix -yo — the same suffix as the abstract/collective -yō(tl) — may be added to a possessed noun to indicate that it is a part of its possessor, rather than just being owned by it. For example, both nonac and nonacayo (possessed forms of nacatl) mean "my meat", but nonac may refer to meat that one has to eat, while nonacayo refers to the flesh that makes up one's body. This is known as inalienable, integral or organic possession.Derivational morphology
- -tia derives from noun X a verb with an approximate meaning of "to provide with X " or "to become X".
- -huia derives from noun X a verb with an approximate meaning of "to use X " or "to provide with X".
- -yōtl derives from a noun X a noun with an abstract meaning of x-hood or x-ness.
- -yoh derives from a noun X a noun with a meaning of "thing full of X" or "thing with a lot of X"
The structure of verb forms
The verb is marked with prefixes in order to agree with the person and number of the subject and the object of the sentence; additionally, verbs inflect for tense and aspect. Here are three sentence types, each containing a single word: a nominal predicate, an intransitive sentence, and a transitive sentence. Reminder: in classical Nahuatl, the spelling 'h' at the end of a syllable indicates the glottal stopGlottal stop
The glottal stop, or more fully, the voiceless glottal plosive, is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. In English, the feature is represented, for example, by the hyphen in uh-oh! and by the apostrophe or [[ʻokina]] in Hawaii among those using a preservative pronunciation of...
, not the sound of the 'h' in 'he'.
- ticihuātl, 'you (singular) are a woman' (sentence with a noun predicate cihuātl, 'woman')
- ticochi, 'you (singular) sleep' (sentence with an intransitive verb, -cochi, 'sleep')
- ticochih, 'we sleep' (sentence with an intransitive verb, -cochi, 'sleep')
- tiquimittah 'we see them' (sentence with a transitive verb, -itta-, 'see')
Caution: ti- means 'you (singular)' but ti-____-h means 'we'.
From these examples, it can be seen that the arrangement of a verb stem and its argument affixes is as follows:
SUBJECT PREFIX + OBJECT PREFIX + VERB STEM + 'h' (example: 'ti-quim-itta-h', we - them - see - we, i.e., 'we see them')
Affixes for the arguments of the verb (subject and object)
In the table below, Ø indicates there is no marker in the given position.| Subject | Object | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st person singular | ni-, 'I' | |
| 2nd person singular | ti-, 'you' | |
| 3rd person singular | Ø-, 'he, she, it' | |
| 1st person plural | ti (+ verb +) -h, 'we' | tēch, 'us' |
| 2nd person plural | an (+ verb +) -h, 'you' | |
| 3rd person plural | Ø- (+ verb +) -h, 'they' | |
| Unknown | ||
Temporal and aspectual suffixes
- Present: has no suffix.
- Quotidian: -:ni niquittāni "I used to see it" nipēhuāni "I used to start".
- PerfectPerfectPerfection is a philosophical concept.Perfect may also refer to:- Music :* Perfect interval, a type of interval used in music* Perfect * Perfect , a band from Poland* "Perfect" , 1988 single...
: Optional long "o" (ō) -c/h/?/Ø (ō)niquittac "I saw him/her/it (preterit aspect)", ōnipēuh "I started" - Future: -z niquittaz "I will see him/her/it ", nipēhuaz "I will start"
- Imperfect: -ya niquittāya "I saw him/her/it (imperfect aspect) " nipēhuāya "I started"
- Irrealis: -zquiya niquittāzquiya "I would have seen him/her/it" nipēhuazquiya "I would have started"
- Pluperfect: ca niquittaca "I had seen him" nipēuca "I had started
- Optative: cān niquittacān "would that I could see him" nipēucān "would that I could start"
- Admonitive: -(h)tin niquittatin "don't let me see him" nipēucatin "don't let me start"
Applicative
The applicative construction adds an argument to the verb. The role of the added argument can be benefactive, malefactive, indirect object or similar. It is formed by the suffix -lia.- niquittilia "I see it for him"
Causative
The causative construction also adds an argument to the verb. This argument is an agent causing the object to undertake the action of the verb. It is formed by the suffix -tia.- niquittatia "I make him see it/I show it to him"
Unspecified Subject/Passive
The construction called "passive" by some grammarians and "unspecified subject construction" by others removes the subject from the valency of the verb, substituting it with a null reference, and promoting the argument marked by object prefixes to subject. The passive or unspecified subject construction uses one of two suffixes: -lo or -hua.- quitta "he sees it"+ -lo= quittalo "it is seen (by someone)"
- miqui "he dies" + hua = micohua "there is dying/people are dying"
Directional affixes
Deixis:- -on- "away from the speaker"
- on+ tlahtoa "to speak" = ontlahtoa "he/she/it speaks towards there"
- -huāl- " towards the speaker"
- huāl+ tlahtoa "to speak" = huāllahtoa "he/she/it speaks towards here"
Introvert:
Imperfective: -qui "comes towards the speaker in order to X"
qui + itta "to see" + qui ="quittaqui "he/she/it will come here to see it"
Perfective: -co "has come towards the speaker in order to X"
qui + itta "to see" + co =quittaco "he/she/it has come here to see it"
Extrovert:
Imperfective: -tīuh "goes away from the speaker in order to X"
qui + itta "to see" + tīuh ="quittatīuh "he/she/it will go there to see it"
Perfective: -to " has gone away from the speaker in order to X"
qui + itta "to see" + to =quittato "he/she/it has gone there to see it"
Derivational
A number of different suffixes exist to derive nouns from verbs:- -lli used to derive passivized nouns from verbs.
tla "something" + ixca "roast" + l + tli = tlaxcalli "something roasted/ a tortilla"
tla + ihcuiloa "write/draw" + l - tli = tlahcuilolli "scripture/ a drawing"
- -liztli used to derive abstract nouns from verbs.
miqui "to die" + liztli = miquiliztli "death"
tlahcuiloa "to write something" + liztli = tlahcuiloliztli "the concept of writing or being a scribe"
- -qui used to derive agentive nouns from verbs.
ichtequi "to steal" + qui = ichtecqui "a thief"
tlahuāna "to become drunk" + qui = tlahuānqui "a drunkard"
- -ni used to derive habitual nouns from verbs.
miqui "to die" +ni = miquīni "a mortal"
cuacua "to bite" + ni = cuacuāni "someone that is known to be capable of or to habitually bite"
Relational Nouns and Locatives
Spatial and other relations are expressed with relational nouns. Some locative suffixes also exist.Noun Incorporation
Noun incorporationIncorporation (linguistics)
Incorporation is a phenomenon by which a word, usually a verb, forms a kind of compound with, for instance, its direct object or adverbial modifier, while retaining its original syntactic function....
is productive in Classical Nahuatl and different kinds of material can be incorporated.
- Bodyparts
- Instruments.
- Objects.
Syntax
The particle in is important in Nahuatl syntax and is used as a kind of definite articleDefinite Article
Definite Article is the title of British comedian Eddie Izzard's 1996 performance released on VHS. It was recorded on different nights at the Shaftesbury Theatre...
and also as a subordinating particle and a deictic particle, in addition to having other functions.
Non-configurationality
Classical Nahuatl can be classified as a non-configurational language, allowing many different kinds of word orders, even splitting noun phrases.VSO basic wordorder
The basic word order of Classical Nahuatl is verb initial and often considered to be VSO, although some scholars have argued for it being VOS. However, being non-configurational, all word orders are allowed and are used to express different kinds of pragmatic relations, such as thematization and focus.Number system
Vigesimal
The vigesimal or base 20 numeral system is based on twenty .- Places :...
or base 20 number system. In the pre-Columbian
Pre-Columbian
The pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic period to European colonization during...
Nahuatl script
Aztec writing
Aztec or Nahuatl writing is a pictographic and ideographic pre-Columbian writing system used in central Mexico by the Nahua peoples. The majority of the Aztec codices were burned either by Aztec tlatoani , or by Spanish clergy following the conquest of Mesoamerica...
, the numbers 20, 400 (20²) and 8,000 (20³) were represented by a flag, a feather, and a bag, respectively.
It also makes use of numeral classifiers, similar to languages such as Chinese and Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
.
Basic numbers
| 1 | cē | Becomes cem- when prefixed to another element. |
| 2 | ōme | Becomes ōm- when prefixed to another element. |
| 3 | ēyi/yēi/ēi/yēyi | Becomes (y)ē- or (y)ēx- when prefixed to another element. |
| 4 | nāhui | Becomes nāhu-/nāuh- (i.e. /naːw/) when prefixed to another element. |
| 5 | mācuīlli | Derived from māitl "hand". |
| 6 | chicuacē | chicua- "5" + cē "1" |
| 7 | chicōme | chic- "5" + ōme "2" |
| 8 | chicuēyi | chicu- "5" + ēi "3" |
| 9 | chiucnāhui | chiuc- "5" + nāhui "4" |
| 10 | mahtlāctli | From māitl "hand" + tlāctli "torso". |
| 15 | caxtōlli | |
| 20 | cēmpōhualli | From cēm- "1" + pōhualli "a count" (from pōhua "to count"). |
| 400 | cēntzontli | From cēn- "1" + tzontli "hair". |
| 8000 | cēnxiquipilli | From cēn- "1" + xiquipilli "bag". |
Compound numbers
Multiples of 20, 400 or 8,000 are formed by replacing cēm- or cēn- with another number. E.g. ōmpōhualli "40" (2×20), mahtlāctzontli "4,000" (10×400), nāuhxiquipilli "32,000" (4×8,000).The numbers in between those above—11 to 14, 16 to 19, 21 to 39, and so forth—are formed by following the larger number with a smaller number which is to be added to the larger one. The smaller number is prefixed with om- or on-, or in the case of larger units, preceded by īpan "on it" or īhuān "with it". E.g. mahtlāctli oncē "11" (10+1), caxtōlonēyi "18" (15+3), cēmpōhualmahtlāctli omōme "32" (20+10+2); cēntzontli caxtōlpōhualpan nāuhpōhualomōme "782" (1×400+15×20+4×20+2).
Classifiers
Depending on the objects being counted, Nahuatl may use a classifierMeasure word
In linguistics, measure words are words that are used in combination with a numeral to indicate an amount of some noun. They denote a unit or measurement and are used with nouns that are not countable. For instance, in English, is a mass noun and thus one cannot say *"three muds", but one can say...
or counter word. These include:
- -tetl for small, round objects (literally "rock")
- -pāntli for counting rows
- -tlamantli for foldable or stackable things
- -ōlōtl for roundish or oblong-shaped things (literally "maize cob")
Which classifier a particular object takes is loose and somewhat arbitrary.