Nahuatl transcription
Encyclopedia
Nahuatl orthography describes the methodologies and conventions used to express the Nahuatl
languages and dialects in some given writing system
, and the inventory of glyph
s, graphemes and diacritic
s employed for that purpose.
Historically Nahuatl has been written with greatly differing orthographies
because no institution has governed its spelling. This is still true for the classical dialect (Classical Nahuatl
) which is a dead language documented in many historical sources and literature, but spelling of the modern dialects of Nahuatl
is governed by the Mexican Secretaría de Educación Publica (federal education ministry), although they do have some difficulties in implementing their orthographic standards in the Nahuatl communities.
This article describes and compares some of the different transcription systems of the Nahuatl phonological system that have been used.
conquest
, Aztec
writing used mostly pictographs supplemented by a few ideograms. When needed, it also used syllabic equivalences; Father Diego Durán
recorded how the tlàcuilòquê (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 Latin alphabet, 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. (See Aztec codices
.) Important lexical works (e.g. Alonso de Molina's
classic Vocabulario of 1571) and grammatical descriptions (of which Horacio Carochi's
1645 Arte is generally acknowledged the best) were produced using variations of this orthography
.
The Classical Nahuatl 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 Nahuatl 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. Major issues include:
There are a number of other issues as well, such as
practices as a basis for the Nahuatl script. While the voiceless postalveolar affricate
/t͡ʃ/ (English ⟨ch⟩), the voiceless postalveolar fricative
/ʃ/ (English ⟨sh⟩ sound), and the voiceless stops (/p t k/ sounded the same in both Spanish and Nahuatl, Spanish lacked the voiceless alveolar affricate
/t͡s/, the lateral alveolar affricate /t͡ɬ/, and the glottal stop /ʔ/ (the break between the vowels in English Uh-oh).
Thus, Nahuatl written in the Latin alphabet is very similar to that of Spanish with a few exceptions:
In post-colonial times Nahuatl had no standardized orthography, and colonial documents employ widely different orthographies:
in 1645 wrote a grammar on the Classical Nahuatl language. For this purpose he developed an orthography for Classical Nahuatl, which was exceptional in that it was the first description of Nahuatl that consistently marked both vowel length and glottal stop (saltillo). His orthography was subsequently used in works and documents by some Jesuits but did not gain wide usage due to decrees by Charles II
banning the use of indigenous languages in his empire and the later expulsion of the Jesuits from New Spain
in 1767. His orthography was further refined by Michel Launey in his grammar of Classical Nahuatl. This transcription shows vowel length by adding a macron above the long vowel : <ā, ē, ī, ō>. And it shows saltillo by marking the preceding vowel with a grave accent <à, ì, è, ò> if it is medial or a circumflex if it is final <â, î, ê, ô,>. Some other transcriptions mark saltillo as an because in Classical Nahuatl this phoneme was pronounced as a glottal stop and was not consistently transcribed but any other grammarian than Carochi. Many modern dialects of Nahuatl, however, have /h/ as a phoneme instead of saltillo. Historical sources, as well as transcriptions by many modern scholars, do not use any standardized transcriptions and usually do not mark vowel length or saltillo at all, and the reader will have to guess or know vowel length and the presence of saltillo. To give an adequate description of the Classical Nahuatl language marking both vowel length and saltillo is, however, essential.
(Ministry of Public Education) has adopted an alphabet for its bilingual education programs in rural communities in Mexico
and this decision has had some influence. Even though it is not suited for all dialects of Nahuatl, because of the wide phonological differences between them. The recently established Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas
(National Indigenous Languages Institute, INALI) will also be involved in these issues. This orthography does generally not mark vowel length nor saltillo (but it uses ⟨j⟩ to represent the sound /h/ in the dialects that have this sound.) The letter ⟨k⟩ is used for /k/ and /w/ is written ⟨u⟩.
Nahuatl
Nahuatl is thought to mean "a good, clear sound" This language name has several spellings, among them náhuatl , Naoatl, Nauatl, Nahuatl, Nawatl. In a back formation from the name of the language, the ethnic group of Nahuatl speakers are called Nahua...
languages and dialects in some given writing system
Writing system
A writing system is a symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in language.-General properties:Writing systems are distinguished from other possible symbolic communication systems in that the reader must usually understand something of the associated spoken language to...
, and the inventory of glyph
Glyph
A glyph is an element of writing: an individual mark on a written medium that contributes to the meaning of what is written. A glyph is made up of one or more graphemes....
s, graphemes and diacritic
Diacritic
A diacritic is a glyph added to a letter, or basic glyph. The term derives from the Greek διακριτικός . Diacritic is both an adjective and a noun, whereas diacritical is only an adjective. Some diacritical marks, such as the acute and grave are often called accents...
s employed for that purpose.
Historically Nahuatl has been written with greatly differing orthographies
Orthography
The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography...
because no institution has governed its spelling. This is still true for the classical dialect (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...
) which is a dead language documented in many historical sources and literature, but spelling of the modern dialects of Nahuatl
Nahuatl dialects
The many dialects of the Nahuatl language belong to the Nahuan branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family, and form a group of linguistic varieties spoken in central Mexico...
is governed by the Mexican Secretaría de Educación Publica (federal education ministry), although they do have some difficulties in implementing their orthographic standards in the Nahuatl communities.
This article describes and compares some of the different transcription systems of the Nahuatl phonological system that have been used.
Consonants
| Labial Labial consonant Labial consonants are consonants in which one or both lips are the active articulator. This precludes linguolabials, in which the tip of the tongue reaches for the posterior side of the upper lip and which are considered coronals... |
Alveolar Alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth... |
Palatal | Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... |
Glottal Glottal consonant Glottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider... |
|
| Stops Stop consonant In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or an oral stop, is a stop consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be done with the tongue , lips , and &... |
p | t | k / kʷ | ʔ | |
| Fricatives | s | ʃ | |||
| Affricates | t͡ɬ / t͡s | t͡ʃ | |||
| Approximants | w | l | j | ||
| Nasals Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
m | n |
Vowels
| Front Front vowel A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also... |
Central Central vowel A central vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a central vowel is that the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel... |
Back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark... |
||||
| long | short | long | short | long | short | |
| High Close vowel A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the... |
iː | i | ||||
| Mid Mid vowel A mid vowel is a vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned mid-way between an open vowel and a close vowel... |
eː | e | oː | o | ||
| Low Open vowel An open vowel is defined as a vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels in reference to the low position of the tongue... |
aː | a | ||||
Orthographical history
At the time of the SpanishSpain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
conquest
Spanish conquest of Mexico
The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire was one of the most important campaigns in the Spanish colonization of the Americas. The invasion began in February 1519 and was acclaimed victorious on August 13, 1521, by a coalition army of Spanish conquistadors and Tlaxcalan warriors led by Hernán Cortés...
, Aztec
Aztec
The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...
writing used mostly pictographs supplemented by a few ideograms. When needed, it also used syllabic equivalences; Father Diego Durán
Diego Durán
Diego Durán was a Dominican friar best known for his authorship of one of the earliest Western books on the history and culture of the Aztecs, The History of the Indies of New Spain, a book that was much criticized in his lifetime for helping the "heathen" maintain their culture.Also known as the...
recorded how the tlàcuilòquê (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
Maya civilization
The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Pre-Classic period The Maya is a Mesoamerican...
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 Latin alphabet, 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. (See Aztec codices
Aztec codices
Aztec codices are books written by pre-Columbian and colonial-era Aztecs. These codices provide some of the best primary sources for Aztec culture....
.) Important lexical works (e.g. Alonso de Molina's
Alonso de Molina
Alonso de Molina was a Franciscan priest and grammarian, who wrote a well-known dictionary of the Nahuatl language published in 1571....
classic Vocabulario of 1571) and grammatical descriptions (of which Horacio Carochi's
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 Arte is generally acknowledged the best) were produced using variations of this orthography
Orthography
The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography...
.
The Classical Nahuatl 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 Nahuatl 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. Major issues include:
- Whether to follow Spanish in writing /k/ sometimes as
and sometimes as or just to use - How to write /kʷ/
- What to do about /w/, the realization of which varies considerably from place to place and even within a single dialect
- How to write the 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...
, phonetically a 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...
([ʔ]) or an [h], which has been spelled with j, h, and a straight apostrophe ('), but which traditionally was often omitted in writing. - Whether and how to represent vowel length
There are a number of other issues as well, such as
- Whether and how to represent allophones (sound variants), which approximate different Spanish phonemes, especially variants of o which come close to u
- To what extent writing in one variant should be adapted towards what is used in other variants.
Historical transcription methodologies
When the Spanish friars began transcribing Nahuatl into the Latin alphabet they, naturally, made use of Spanish languageSpanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
practices as a basis for the Nahuatl script. While the voiceless postalveolar affricate
Voiceless postalveolar affricate
The voiceless palato-alveolar affricate or domed postalveolar affricate is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The sound is transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet with ⟨⟩ or ⟨⟩...
/t͡ʃ/ (English ⟨ch⟩), the voiceless postalveolar fricative
Voiceless postalveolar fricative
The voiceless palato-alveolar fricative or voiceless domed postalveolar fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in many spoken languages, including English...
/ʃ/ (English ⟨sh⟩ sound), and the voiceless stops (/p t k/ sounded the same in both Spanish and Nahuatl, Spanish lacked the voiceless alveolar affricate
Voiceless alveolar affricate
The voiceless alveolar affricate is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The sound is transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet with ⟨⟩ or ⟨⟩ . The voiceless alveolar affricate occurs in such languages as German, Cantonese, Italian, Russian, Japanese and Mandarin...
/t͡s/, the lateral alveolar affricate /t͡ɬ/, and the glottal stop /ʔ/ (the break between the vowels in English Uh-oh).
Thus, Nahuatl written in the Latin alphabet is very similar to that of Spanish with a few exceptions:
- Words are stressed on the second-to-the-last vowel (excluding
-
does not occur as an independent vowel. represents /ʃ/ (as it did in Spanish; the Spanish phoneme transcribed with later shifted to a voiceless velar fricative Voiceless velar fricativeThe voiceless velar fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The sound was part of the consonant inventory of Old English and can still be found in some dialects of English, most notably in Scottish English....
, now writtenin most cases, while the Náhuatl phoneme transcribed with remained unchanged). represents a geminated . is /t͡ɬ/, a voiceless alveolar lateral affricate Voiceless alveolar lateral affricateThe voiceless alveolar lateral affricate is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet is , and in Americanist phonetic notation it is .-Features:...
. This is a type of sound not found in any European languages but commonly found in indigenous North and Central American languages.and both represent /kʷ/. and both represent /w/. without an adjacent represents a glottal stop. represents /s/ (as in Latin American Spanish).
In post-colonial times Nahuatl had no standardized orthography, and colonial documents employ widely different orthographies:
and both represent /o/. alone may replace or to represent /w/. - glottal stop may or may not be written.
- Vowel length may or may not be marked.
and may both represent the vowel /i/. or may both represent the consonant /j/. - The letter <ç> may replace
to represent /s/.
Carochi's transcription
In the 17th century the Jesuit grammarian Horacio CarochiHoracio 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:...
in 1645 wrote a grammar on the Classical Nahuatl language. For this purpose he developed an orthography for Classical Nahuatl, which was exceptional in that it was the first description of Nahuatl that consistently marked both vowel length and glottal stop (saltillo). His orthography was subsequently used in works and documents by some Jesuits but did not gain wide usage due to decrees by Charles II
Charles II of Spain
Charles II was the last Habsburg King of Spain and the ruler of large parts of Italy, the Spanish territories in the Southern Low Countries, and Spain's overseas Empire, stretching from the Americas to the Spanish East Indies...
banning the use of indigenous languages in his empire and the later expulsion of the Jesuits from New Spain
New Spain
New Spain, formally called the Viceroyalty of New Spain , was a viceroyalty of the Spanish colonial empire, comprising primarily territories in what was known then as 'América Septentrional' or North America. Its capital was Mexico City, formerly Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire...
in 1767. His orthography was further refined by Michel Launey in his grammar of Classical Nahuatl. This transcription shows vowel length by adding a macron above the long vowel : <ā, ē, ī, ō>. And it shows saltillo by marking the preceding vowel with a grave accent <à, ì, è, ò> if it is medial or a circumflex if it is final <â, î, ê, ô,>. Some other transcriptions mark saltillo as an
Contemporary orthography
The Secretaría de Educación PúblicaSecretaría de Educación Pública
The Secretaría de Educación Pública is a Mexican federal government authority with Cabinet representation and responsibility for overseeing the development and implementation of national educational policy and school standards in Mexico.Additionally, it has the following responsibilities:*Creation...
(Ministry of Public Education) has adopted an alphabet for its bilingual education programs in rural communities in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
and this decision has had some influence. Even though it is not suited for all dialects of Nahuatl, because of the wide phonological differences between them. The recently established Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas
Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas
The Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas is a Mexican federal public agency, created 13 March 2003 by the enactment of the Ley General de Derechos Lingüísticos de los Pueblos Indígenas by the administration of President Vicente Fox...
(National Indigenous Languages Institute, INALI) will also be involved in these issues. This orthography does generally not mark vowel length nor saltillo (but it uses ⟨j⟩ to represent the sound /h/ in the dialects that have this sound.) The letter ⟨k⟩ is used for /k/ and /w/ is written ⟨u⟩.