Download pdf - 6 x 10.5 Long Titleassets.cambridge.org/97805215/18406/frontmatter/9780521518406... · ANINTRODUCTIONTOCLASSICALNAHUATL Now available to an English-speaking audience, this book is

AN INTRODUCTION TO CLASSICAL NAHUATL

Now available to an English-speaking audience, this book is a comprehensivegrammar of classical Nahuatl, the literary language of the Aztecs. It offers studentsof Nahuatl a complete and clear treatment of the language’s structure, grammarand vocabulary. It is divided into thirty-six lessons, beginning with basic syntaxand progressing gradually to more complex structures. Each grammatical conceptis illustrated clearly with examples, exercises and passages for translation. A key isprovided to allow students to check their answers. By far the most approachabletextbook of Nahuatl available, this book will be an excellent teaching tool both forclassroom use and for readers pursuing independent study of the language. It willbe an invaluable resource to anthropologists, ethnographers, historians, archaeol-ogists and linguists alike.

Michel Launey, now retired, was a professor at the Universite Denis Diderot, Paris,and the Institut de Recherches pour le Developpement, Cayenne. He was a visitingprofessor at the Universidad de Guadalajara, Universidad Nacional Autonoma deMexico and Yale University, among others. His other books include Introduction ala langue et a la litterature azteques (the French edition of this book, published in1979),Une grammaire omnipredicative (1994) andAwna Parikwaki: Introduction ala langue palikur de Guyane et de l’Amapa (2003).

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AN INTRODUCTION TOCLASSICAL NAHUATL

MICHEL LAUNEYUniversite Denis Diderot, Paris

Translated and Adapted by

CHRISTOPHER MACKAYUniversity of Alberta






CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESSCambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore,Sao Paulo, Delhi, Dubai, Tokyo, Mexico City

Cambridge University Press32 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10013-2473, USA

www.cambridge.orgInformation on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521732291

C© Michel Launey and Christopher Mackay 2011

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exceptionand to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,no reproduction of any part may take place without the writtenpermission of Cambridge University Press.

First published as Introduction a la langue et a la litterature azteques by L’Hartmattan, 1979First published as Introduction a la lenguay a la literatura Nahuatl by UNAM, Mexico, 1992First published in English 2011

Printed in the United States of America

A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication data

Launey, Michel.[Introduction a la langue et a la litterature azteques. English]An introduction to classical Nahuatl / Michel Launey; translated and adapted by Christopher Mackay.

p. cm.Translation from French to English.Includes bibliographical references and index.ISBN 978-0-521-51840-6 (hardback) – ISBN 978-0-521-73229-1 (pbk)1. Nahuatl language. 2. Nahuatl literature. I. Mackay, Christopher S., 1962– II. Title.PM4061.L3813 2010497′.45282421–dc22 2010015176

ISBN 978-0-521-51840-6 HardbackISBN 978-0-521-73229-1 Paperback

Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for externalor third-party Internet Web sites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that anycontent on such Web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.






CONTENTS

Preface page xvii

How to Use This Book xix

PART ONE

Preliminary Lesson: Phonetics andWriting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Lesson One: Intransitive Verbs, Word Order, Absolutive Suffix . . . . . . . . . . . 121.1 Present Tense of Intransitive Verbs 121.2 Form of the Prefixes in Front of a Vowel 131.3 Assimilation of Nasals 141.4 Word Order 151.5 Number in Nouns and the Absolutive Suffix 15

Lesson Two: Nouns and Nominal Predicates, the Plural of Nouns,Questions and Negation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182.1 Nominal Predicates 182.2 Forms of the Absolutive Suffix 192.3 Nouns without the Absolutive Suffix 192.4 Plural of Nouns 192.5 Details about the Plural 202.6 Pluralizable Inanimate Objects 212.7 The Particle Ca 222.8 Word Order and Focalization 222.9 Questions and Negation 23

LessonThree: Transitive Verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263.1 Object Prefixes 263.2 Writing of /k/ 273.3 The Helping Vowel /i/ with the Third Person Object 273.4 Third Person Plural Object 273.5 Combination with a Noun Object 28

v






vi Contents

3.6 Indefinite Prefixes 283.7 Variation in the Stem after -tla- 293.8 Word Order in Transitive Constructions 293.9 Focalization of the Object 31

Lesson Four: Emphatic, Interrogative, Demonstrative andNegative Pronouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354.1 Emphatic Pronouns 354.2 Predication and Focalization with the Emphatic Pronouns 354.3 Topicalized Pronouns 364.4 ‘Who?’ 374.5 Demonstratives 384.6 Demonstratives Combined with in 384.7 In and On after a Noun 384.8 ‘What?’ 394.9 ‘No One’, ‘Nothing’ 394.10 Interrogatives Preceded by In 40

Lesson Five: Irregular Verbs, Introduction to Locatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435.1 Ca ‘To Be’ 435.2 Yauh ‘To Go’ 445.3 Huıtz ‘To Come’ 445.4 Locatives 455.5 Syntax of Locatives 465.6 No Indication of Direction with Locatives 475.7 Nican and Ompa with Another Locative 475.8 The Suffix -pa 48

Lesson Six: Directional and Reflexive Prefixes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 516.1 Directional Prefixes 516.2 Metaphorical Uses of the Directional Prefixes 526.3 The Helping Vowel in Front of -c-on- 536.4 Order of Prefixes 546.5 Reflexive Prefixes 546.6 Meaning of the Reflexive 556.7 Morphology of the Reflexive in Front of a Vowel 56

Lesson Seven: Quantifiers, Zan, Ye, Oc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 597.1 Number Nouns 597.2 Place for Numbers 607.3 Plural of Numbers 607.4 Plural of ce 617.5 Numbers as Predicates 627.6 Other Quantifiers 62

7.6.1 Miyac 627.6.2 Moch 62






Contents vii

7.7 Counting Nouns 637.8 Zan, Ye, Oc 647.9 Ayamo and Aoc 66

Lesson Eight: Preterite Tense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 698.1 Introduction to the Tenses 698.2 Principles for Forming the Preterite 698.3 Formation of Base 2 by Dropping the Final Vowel 708.4 Modification of the Final Consonant 718.5 Base 2 Formed by Dropping the Final Vowel and Adding a

Glottal Stop 728.6 Base 2 Formed with the Glottal Stop without Dropping

the Final Vowel 728.7 Base 2 without Modification 728.8 The Augment 738.9 The Tense with Ayamo 748.10 Preterite of Irregular Verbs 74

Lesson Nine: Imperative/Optative, Vocative, Future, Imperfect . . . . . . . . . . . 789.1 Imperative/Optative 789.2 Variants of x- 799.3 Lengthening of the Stem Vowel 799.4 Imperative/Optative in Irregular Verbs 809.5 The Optative in Other Persons 809.6 Negation of the Optative 819.7 Vocative of Nouns 819.8 Morphology of the Future 829.9 Meaning of the Future 829.10 The Imperfect 83

Lesson Ten: Possessed Forms of the Noun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8710.1 Morphology of the Possessed Form 8710.2 Forms of the Possessive Suffix 8710.3 Possessive Prefixes 8710.4 Plural of the Possessed Forms 8910.5 Syntax of Possessed Nouns 8910.6 Constructions Indicating Possession 8910.7 Dropping of Short Vowels in the Possessed Form 9110.8 Retention of Short Vowels in Nouns Ending in -atl, -itl 9210.9 Possessed Form of Monosyllables 9310.10 Vocative of Possessed Forms 94

Lesson Eleven: Inherent Possession, the Suffix -yo, ‘To Have’,Possessive Nouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9611.1 Nouns for Family Relationships 9611.2 Nouns for Parts of the Body 96






viii Contents

11.3 The Suffix -yo 9711.4 -yo in the Possessed Form 9811.5 -yo of Inalienable Possession 9811.6 ‘To Have’: Piya and Possessed Forms 10011.7 Possessive Nouns 10011.8 -hua or -e? 10111.9 Possessive Nouns in -yo 10211.10 The Possessed and Derivative Forms of Possessive Nouns 103

Lesson Twelve: Nominal Suffixes, “Adjectives” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10612.1 Honorific, Deprecatory, Diminutive and Augmentative Suffixes 106

12.1.1 -tzin 10612.1.2 -ton 10712.1.3 -pol 10812.1.4 -pil 10812.1.5 -zol 108

12.2 The Problem of Adjectives 10912.3 ‘Large’ and ‘Small’ 10912.4 “Adjectives” in -qui 11012.5 “Adjectives” in -huac and Verbs in -hua 11012.6 “Adjectives” in -tic 11112.7 “Adjectives” in -c 11212.8 Derivation of Adjectives 11212.9 ‘Very’ 113

LessonThirteen: The Principal Locative Suffixes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11613.1 The Suffix -c(o) 11613.2 Placement of Locatives 11713.3 Possessed Locatives 11813.4 Locative nouns: -pan 11813.5 -cpac 12113.6 -tlan 12213.7 -tech 12213.8 Chan(-tli) 12313.9 Honorific Locatives 12313.10 Locatives and “Adjectives” 124

Lesson Fourteen: Coordination, Phrases of Time and Manner . . . . . . . . . . . . 12714.1 ‘And’ 127

14.1.1 Ihuan 12714.1.2 Auh 12714.1.3 Juxtaposition 128

14.2 No, Azo, Anozo 12914.3 -(ti)ca 13014.4 Ic 131






Contents ix

14.5 Iuh(qui) 13214.6 Quen 13214.7 ‘When?’: Ic 13314.8 ‘When?’: Quemman 13314.9 Subordinate Temporal Clauses 13414.10 Quin 135

Lesson Fifteen: Impersonal and Passive Verb Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13915.1 Impersonal Forms of Intransitive Verbs with

Animate Subjects 13915.2 Morphology of the Impersonal Voice 14015.3 Inanimate Impersonal in tla- 14015.4 Passive Voice 14115.5 Morphology of the Passive 142

15.5.1 Regular Formation 14215.5.2 Other Formations 143

15.6 Impersonal Forms of Intransitive Verbs Based on the PassiveStem 144

15.7 Impersonal Form of Transitive Verbs 14415.8 Reflexive Impersonal 14515.9 Reflexive and Passive 14615.10 Inherently Impersonal Verbs 14715.11 The Third Person Plural Substituting for the Impersonal 14815.12 Alternation between Impersonal and Personal Forms 148

Review Exercises for Part One . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

PART TWO

Lesson Sixteen: Agent Nouns, the -ni Form. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15916.1 The Preterite as Agent Noun 15916.2 Inanimate “Agent Nouns” 16116.3 The -ni Form 16116.4 Plural of the -ni Form 16216.5 -ni Form and Preterite 16316.6 -ni Form of the Passive 16416.7 -ni Form of the Impersonal: Instrument Nouns 16516.8 Possessed Form of the Instrument Noun 16516.9 Use of the -ni Form in Wishes 166

Lesson Seventeen: Compound Nouns, Verbal Incorporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16817.1 Compound Nouns 16817.2 Meaning of Compounds 17017.3 Verb Incorporation 170

17.3.1 Object Incorporation 17017.3.2 Modifying Incorporation 172






x Contents

17.4 Impersonal and Passive Forms of Compounds 17417.4.1 Modifying Incorporation 17417.4.2 Object Incorporation 174

17.5 Placement of tla- 174

Lesson Eighteen: Bitransitive Verbs, Ambitransitive Verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17818.1 Introduction to Bitransitive Verbs 17818.2 Reduction of Definite Object Prefixes 17918.3 Retention of the Third Person Plural -im- 18018.4 The Reflexive with Bitransitive Verbs 18118.5 Passive/Impersonal Forms of Bitransitive Verbs 18118.6 Incorporation with Bitransitive Verbs 18418.7 Ambitransitive Verbs 18418.8 Aci andMati 18518.9 Ayi 185

Lesson Nineteen: Causative Verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18919.1 Introduction to Causative Verbs 18919.2 Morphology of Causative Verbs 19019.3 Notes on the Meaning of the Causative 19219.4 Causatives of Itta 19219.5 Causatives ofMati 19319.6 Causative of the Reflexive 19419.7 Passive and Impersonal of the Causative 19619.8 Semi-Causatives 19619.9 Semi-Causatives of Verbs in -o 19819.10 Restrictions on the Formation of Causatives 199

Lesson Twenty: Applicative Verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20220.1 Introduction to Applicative Verbs 20220.2 The Suffix -lia 20320.3 Applicatives in -ia, -(l)huia 20420.4 Applicative in the Form of a Causative 20520.5 Notes on the Meaning of the Applicative 20520.6 Applicative of the Reflexive 20720.7 Passive of the Applicative 20820.8 Applicative of the Causative 20820.9 Semi-Applicative Verbs 20920.10 Applicative and Incorporation 210

Lesson Twenty-One: Honorific and Deprecatory Verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21321.1 Introduction to Honorific Verbs 21321.2 General Principle for Forming the Honorific 21421.3 Honorific of Intransitives 21421.4 Honorific of Transitives 215






Contents xi

21.5 Honorific of the Object 21621.6 Honorific of Bitransitives 21721.7 Honorific of Reflexives 21821.8 Double Reflexive 21821.9 Restrictions on the Honorific 21921.10 Deprecatory Verbs 219

Lesson Twenty-Two: Pluperfect, Counterfactual, Vetitive,Directional Conjugations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22222.1 The Pluperfect 22222.2 The Counterfactual 22322.3 The Vetitive 22422.4 The Directional of Motion Toward 22722.5 The Directional of Motion Away 229

Lesson Twenty-Three: Morphological Peculiarities of CertainNouns and Verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23223.1 Suffixless Nouns 23223.2 Nouns Borrowed from Spanish 23423.3 Telpochtli and Ichpochtli 23523.4 Huehue and Ilama 23523.5 Achcauh and Iccauh 23523.6 Peculiarities of Certain Preterites 23623.7 Verbs of State 23623.8 Suffix -tz 237

Lesson Twenty-Four: More on Locatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24024.1 Review of Locatives 24024.2 Other Locative Noun Suffixes 241

24.2.1 -tloc and -nahuac 24124.2.2 -tzalan and -nepantla 24124.2.3 -huıc 24224.2.4 -ıcampa 242

24.3 Locative Suffixes with Non-Spatial Meaning 24224.3.1 -huan 24224.3.2 -pal 24324.3.3 -pampa 24324.3.4 -teuh 243

24.4 -tla 24424.5 Compound Locatives 24424.6 Tla- as Possessive Prefix of Locative 24524.7 Cecni 24624.8 -can 24624.9 -yan 24724.10 ‘Himself ’ etc. 248






xii Contents

24.11 Words for Position 24924.12 Demonstrative Locatives 249

Lesson Twenty-Five: More on Quantifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25325.1 Quexquich 25325.2 Izqui and Ixquich 25425.3 Cequi 25525.4 ‘Very Big’ and ‘Very Small’ 25625.5 Aquı- 25625.6 Numbers from 20 to 399 25625.7 Counting above 400 25725.8 -pa Added to Quantifiers 25825.9 -ca Added to Quantifiers 25825.10 -(i)xtin 25925.11 Cel and El 259

25.11.1 Cel ‘Alone’ 26025.11.2 El ‘By Himself ’ 260

25.12 Counting Nouns (cont’d) 260

Lesson Twenty-Six: Details about Number and Person, IndefinitePronouns and Adverbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26426.1 Coordination of Noun and Pronoun 26426.2 Nouns in the First and Second Person 26426.3 Number Agreement with Juxtaposed Nouns 26526.4 Titehuan 26526.5 -po 26626.6 ‘A Man’, ‘a Woman’ 26726.7 ‘Together’, ‘Each Other’ 26726.8 Indefinite Pronouns and Adverbs 26826.9 Quemmanyan 27026.10 Iyo 27026.11 Amı 27126.12 Tıque, Amıque 27126.13 Catlehuatl, Catlia, Catlı 271

Lesson Twenty-Seven: Compound Verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27427.1 Auxiliary Verbs 274

27.1.1 Ca 27427.1.2 Icac 27527.1.3 Oc 27527.1.4 Mani 27627.1.5 Nemi 27627.1.6 Yauh 27627.1.7 Huıtz 27827.1.8 Calaqui 278






Contents xiii

27.1.9 Huetzi 27827.1.10 Ehua 27827.1.11 Quıza 27827.1.12 Aci 278

27.2 Transitive Reflexive Auxiliaries 27927.3 Non-Reflexive Transitive Auxiliaries 27927.4 Auxiliaries Added to Auxiliaries 28027.5 Auxiliaries Added to Possessive Nouns 28027.6 Stems Appearing Only with Auxiliaries 28027.7 Verbal Compounds with -ca- 282

Lesson Twenty-Eight: Reduplication outsideof the Plural, More on Verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28528.1 Verbal Reduplication in /CV:/ 28528.2 /CV:/ Reduplication with Numbers 28528.3 /CV:/ Reduplication with Locatives 28628.4 /CV′/ Reduplication 28628.5 Morphology of the /CV′/ Reduplication 28828.6 /CV′/ outside of Verbs 28828.7 /CV/ Reduplication 28928.8 Verbs in -ni 29028.9 Nequi as Auxiliary 29028.10 Mati, Toca, (Ne)nequi 29128.11 -tlani 292

Lesson Twenty-Nine: Derivative Verbs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29729.1 Verbs from Non-Verbal “Adjectives” in -c 297

29.1.1 Intransitive Derived Verbs in -ya 29729.1.2 Transitive Derived Verbs in -lia 297

29.2 -ti 29829.3 -tic, -tiya, -tilia 29829.4 Verbs with Possessive Prefixes 29929.5 -tia 30129.6 Verbs Based on Nouns in -yo 30229.7 -oa 30229.8 -huia 30329.9 -tla 303

LessonThirty: Derivative Nouns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30630.1 Action Nouns 30630.2 Object Nouns: Regular Formation 30730.3 Other Ways to Form Object Nouns 30930.4 Nouns of State 31130.5 Thematic Nouns 31230.6 Delocative Nouns (Names for Inhabitants) 313






xiv Contents

LessonThirty-One: Noun Clauses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31731.1 Clauses as Subject or Object: Indirect Questions 31731.2 Object Noun Clauses 31831.3 Noun Clauses with the Future 31931.4 Noun Clauses with the -ni Form and Optative 32131.5 Noun Clauses Introduced by in ic 32231.6 Noun Clauses as Subject 32231.7 Noun Clause Not Represented with a Prefix 324

LessonThirty-Two: Attributives, Relative Clauses, Copula Verbs,Semi-Auxiliaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32832.1 Attributives 32832.2 Relative Clauses 32932.3 Relatives for Relationships Other Than Subject/Object 33232.4 Copula Verbs 33432.5 Semi-Auxiliaries 336

LessonThirty-Three: Comparisons, Clauses of Result,Purpose and Cause . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34033.1 Comparative 34033.2 Equation 34133.3 Superlative 34333.4 Result 34433.5 Purpose 34533.6 Cause 34733.7 Ye and -e 349

LessonThirty-Four: Conditions, More Particles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35234.1 Conditional Clauses 35234.2 Semi-Hypothetical Conditions 355

34.1.1 Past Contrafactual 35234.1.2 Present Contrafactual 35334.1.3 Hypothetical 35334.1.4 Simple Future 354

34.3 Concessive Clauses 35734.4 Tel 35934.5 Nel 36034.6 Cuel 36034.7 Ma 361

LessonThirty-Five: Temporal Clauses, Particles,Interjections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36535.1 More on Temporal Clauses 36535.2 Expressions for Various Temporal Relationships 36735.3 Particles for Statement Modulation 37135.4 Ach 372






Contents xv

35.5 Mach 37335.6 Connectives 37435.7 Interjections and Exclamations 374

Appendix One: Traditional Orthography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379

Appendix Two:The Aztec Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385

AppendixThree: Inflexional Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388

Appendix Four: Key to the Exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404

Nahuatl-to-English Vocabulary 429

English-to-Nahuatl Vocabulary 439

Index 445






PREFACE

T he people generally known as the Aztecs called themselves “Mexica”(mexıca). “Aztec” means ‘from Aztlan’, the mythical starting point of

the Mexica’s migration to the south. Their language was called nahuatl ornahuatlatolli ‘clear speech’ or evenmexıcatlatolli ‘Mexica speech’.

The century that followed the Spanish conquest saw the death of a greatpart of the native population, the dismantling of their social system and theirrevocable alteration of their culture. This historic catastrophe – one of thegreatest in human history – was partially attenuated thanks to the efforts ofsome enlightened friars and certain native notabilities, who gathered or com-posed all sorts of texts in Nahuatl: legends, discourses, historical chronicles,compilations of traditional knowledge.

This textbook is an introduction to this language. It aims to satisfy theinterest in Nahuatl that has arisen in recent years. In various universities andinstitutions, historians, ethnographers and linguists have offered students andinvestigators of very diverse origins courses and seminars relating to the Aztecsphere. I hope that this work will be of some utility to them and that it willreceive a favorable welcome.

I imagine that it will be of equal interest to linguists, who may not partic-ularly deepen the study of indigenous Mexican history and culture, but whoseek to expand the field of available linguistic data and so are looking for reli-able descriptions of as many languages as possible.

Let us specify again that the language described here is Classical Nahu-atl, the literary language of the century following the Conquest. Nearly fivecenturies on, there is clearly no region in which this variety of Nahuatl is stillspoken. It is thus a dead language, or rather, a dead variant of the language, inthe same way as the English of, say, Christopher Marlowe is a dead form of theEnglish language. No one nowadays speaks exactly like that, but many hun-dreds of thousands of people speak present-day variants of Nahuatl, some ofthem fairly close to the classical one, so that travelers to Mexico today may be

xvii






xviii Preface

pleasantly surprised when recognizing words and expressions, thereby gainingmore inside knowledge of the country and its people.

The original version of this book was published in 1979 in French, anda Spanish translation by Cristina Kraft appeared in 1992. Several English-speaking friends and colleagues suggested that an English version be madeavailable to scholars and students. So when Christopher Mackay volunteeredto take on the task of translation, I readily and thankfully accepted. It quicklyappeared that the original version needed some modifications, both in view ofa few grammatical pointswhich did not seem totally clear tome thirty years agoand of the specific referential background of English-speaking potential read-ers. After many e-mail exchanges and a personal encounter at the Universityof Alberta, which gave rise to intensive discussions and fruitful adjustments,the final result is indeed impressive. Christopher Mackay did a painstaking,marvellous job of it, and I am deeply indebted to him.

My gratitude also extends to all the colleagues and friends, nahuatlatosand/or linguists, who helpedme enlargemy field of knowledge and deepenmyinterest in this wonderful language and culture. A special mention is due to theorganizers of Nahuatl or Uto-Aztecan sessions: Fernando Leal and Jose-LuisIturrioz in Guadalajara, Jonathan Amith at Yale and most of all to Una Cangerand Karen Dakin, who kindly took a last decisive look at the final version.

Michel Launey






HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

T he thirty-six lessons are divided into two parts. The sixteen that com-prise the first part cover the most basic elements of the language, and

at the end of this section, there is an extensive set of review exercises to helpmake sure that you are in full command of the fundamental elements of thelanguage before proceeding to the finer points dealt with in the second part.Each lesson also has a large number of exercises. These are very thorough in theearlier lessons, with a particular emphasis on acquiring an active knowledgeof the forms. Experience shows that students have an aversion to translatingfrom English into the language being learned. Naturally, it is more difficultto produce the forms rather than simply converting the Nahuatl sentences intoEnglish, but it is the very act of manipulating the language through active com-position that allows you to understand the forms and their uses. A key to theexercises is provided in Appendix Four, but you are strongly advised to avoidusing it until you have finished all the exercises and have done your best to findthe solution to something you are having trouble with in the lesson (many finepoints in the exercises can be figured out this way). Each lesson comes with alist of vocabulary items at the end, and these should bememorized. Those whohave learned all these words should have a very good basic vocabulary at theirfingertips when they go on to reading texts. The English-Nahuatl vocabularyat the end of the book is a full listing of all the words in the vocabularies ofthe individual lessons, but the Nahuatl-English is limited to words useful forcompleting the English-Nahuatl exercises.

Those who have fully internalized the material of the thirty-six lessonsshould be in a good position to make the transition to attempting to readNahuatl texts as they are spelled in the traditional orthography. AppendixOne is intended to help you with this by explaining the aspects of the tradi-tional (Spanish-based)method of spellingNahuatl, which is both an inherentlyunsatisfactory method of representing the phonology of the language and has

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the additional disadvantage of being irregularly applied. An additional aid inAppendix Three lays out in a summary fashion the methods of producing anumber of derivational forms. Finally, Appendix Two contains a synopsis ofthe two Aztec calendars because a number of texts provide information aboutthese somewhat complicated systems of telling time.




