Aztec Language: Nahuatl

Pronunciation
Vocals
- a - ah, e - eh, i - ee, o - Oh, u - oo.
- Vocals are always pronounced.

Consonants
- ch as in chain
- j like the h in Hard
- x like the sh in she
- z like s
- qu before e or i sounds like K
- c sounds like S before e or i, like K everywhere else.
- h sounds like a soft h, more a pause than a sound.
- duplicated consonants are pronounced twice: calli is pronounced cah-l-lee.

All words have emphasis in the previous-to-last syllable.

Nouns
Nouns, in general, are identified by the sufixes -tl, -tli, -li, -in after the root word.
Note: The '-' is used here for clarity, it is not normally used.

- Animated nouns
tecuh-tli the lord (gentleman)
te-tecuh-tin the lords
cihua-tecuh-tli the lady
te-tecu-tine Gentlemen!
no-tecuh-tzin my respectable sir

- Inanimated nouns
cal-li the house
cal-pa from the house
cal-co at the house
cal-pan on the house (on top of)
cal-tica with the house
cal-tzintli the venerable house (reverential)
cal-zolli the petty house (despective)

There is no general rule as to which sufix to use on each word, that comes only with practice:
Tecuhtli: lord; nacatl: meat, flesh; Colli: grandfather; ocuilin: worm.

There are two kinds of nouns: the primitive nouns, like the ones above, that use the basic form of the root word; and the derivated nouns, which are formed in any of the following ways:
- Two or more primitive nouns: cuicacalli - from cuicatl, singing and calli, house; a place where people sing.
- From a verb: Temactiani - from the prefix te, to someone else; the verb machtia, to teach and the participle sufix ni; Teacher.
- From an adjective: Cuallotl - from cualli, good and the abstraction sufix -otl; Goodness.

Gender in the Nahuatl nouns.
In Nahuatl, nouns are mostly genderless. For example, a rabbit and a deer would be tochtli and mazatl, respectively. If you need to specify a gender for them, you would use the prefixes:

oquich- male
cihua- female
So you would say oquichtochtli for a male rabbit or cihuamazatl for a female deer.
There are a few exceptions to this rule. Some words are assumed to be male:
Pilli prince, knight, gentleman. You use Cihuapilli for princess.
Tecuhtli lord. You use Cihuatecuhtli for lady.
Some words, like in english, are specific for a gender:
colli grandfather
cihtli grandmother (reminder: pronounced see-h-tlee)
tlahtli uncle
ahuitl aunt

Plural in Nahuatl Nouns
The noun sufix presented above (-tli, -tl, -li, -in) aresingular form. To turn them into plural form is one of the complex aspects of the nahuatl language. There are two general rules:

- Nouns that end with -tli, -li and -in will change the suffix for -tin:
nantli, mother nantin, mothers
colli, grandfather coltin, grandfathers
ocuilin, worm ocuiltin, worms
- Nouns that end with -tl will change the sufix for -me: azcatl, ant azcame, ants

Now, for the fun part, here are the exceptions to the rules:
- The words for man and woman:
tlacatl, man tlacah, men
cihuatl, woman cihuah, women
- Words that reffer to nationality or regionality:
mecicatl, mexican mexicah, mexicans
- Names that refer to professions or craftsmen:
pochtecatl, merchant pochtecah, merchants
amantecatl, artisan amantecah, artisans
- The following nouns of the first rule, besides changing the sufix to -tin, duplicate the first sillable:
citlalin, star cicitlaltin, stars
cihtli, hare cicihtin, hares
pilli, prince pipiltin, princes
tecuhtli, lord tetecuhtin, lords
tochtli, rabbit totochtin, rabbits
- The words for young man and young woman duplicate the middle syllable:
telpochtli, young man telpopochtin, young men
ichpochtli, young woman ichpopochtin, young women
- The following words ended in -tl duplicate the first syllable and use h instead of the sufix -me:
teotl, god (!) teteoh, gods (!!!)
conetl, child coconeh, children
colotl, scorpion cocoloh, scorpions
coatl, snake cocoah, snakes
cueyatl, frog cuecueyah, frogs
mazatl, deer mamazah, deers
tecolotl, owl tetecoloh, owls
ticitl, medic titicih, medics
tlacatecolotl, devil tlatlacatecoloh, devils
- The above rules apply to animated things (yes, including stars). To pluralize the name of an inanimated thing (yes, including trees. Isn't it fun?) you use the following rule:
cuahuitl, tree cuacuahuitl, forest miec cuahuitl, many trees
calli, house cacallan, town miec calli, many houses
tetl, stone tetellan, rubble miec tetl, many stones
In general you can use 'miec whatever' to pluralize.... well, whatever.

Verbs
We'll use for this example the root word tlacua - eat.

ni-tlacua I eat
ti-tlacua-zque we will eat
xi-tlacua-can eat! (pronoun can vary and must be used: YOU eat!)
ti-tlacua-tica you are eating (singular form)
tlacua-tiuh is going to eat
tlacua-quiuh comes to eat
tlacua-lo is eaten

More detailed use of verbs will be updated soon, including transitive verbs and object prefixes.

Pronouns

- Ordinary form
nehuatl, nehua, ne I, me
tehuatl, tehua, te you (singular)
yehuatl, yehua, ye he, she, it
tehuantin, tehuan we
amehuantin, amehuan you (plural)
yehuantin, yehuan they

- Reverential form. The polite, educated way to address someone.
tehuatzin you (singular)
yehuatzin he, she
amehuantzitzin you (plural)
yehuantzitzin they

- Pronoun prefixes
ni- I, me
ti- you (singular)
ti- we (plural is indicated as a sufix, see below)
an- you (plural)

For example, from 'cochi', sleep:
nicochi I sleep
ticochi you sleep (singular)
cochi he/she/it sleeps
ticochih we sleep
ancochih you sleep (plural)
cochih they sleep

Note also that when using pronoun prefixes the verb 'to be' may be implicit. Ex:
- From 'cualli', good nicualli I am good
ticualli you are good (singular)
cualli he/she/it is good (reminder: pronounced coo-al-lee)
ticualtin we are good
ancualtin you are good (plural)
cualtin they are good

Possessive Pronouns
The possesive pronouns in Nahuatl are indicated by the following prefixes:

no- my
mo- your (singular, belongs to only one)
i- his/her/its
to- our
amo- your (plural, belongs to more than one of you)
in- their

te- someone's, somebody's (indefinite person)

Besides the above prefix, the noun affected will be modified by the following rules:
- Nouns that end with the sufixes -tli, -li or -in will simply lose their sufix. From nantli - mother:
nonan, my mother
monan, your mother (singular)
inan, his/her/its mother
tonan, our mother
amonan, your mother (plural)
innan, their mother (reminder: pronounced een-nahn)
tenan, someone's mother
- Nouns that end with -tl will change their suffix for -uh. From conetl - child:
noconeuh, my child
moconeuh, your child (singular: belongs to just one)
iconeuh, his/her child (reminder: pronounced ee-coh-neh-oo-h)
toconeuh, our child
amoconeuh, your child (plural: belongs to more than one of you)
inconeuh, their child
teconeuh, someone's child

Nahuatl Adjectives

Other Nahuatl Pronouns

THIS PAGE IS STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION....

Vocabulary

A Nahuatl-English dictionary is available here.
A Nahuatl-Spanish dictionary is here.

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