r/nahuatl

La nombre “nahua”

literalmente la palabra nahua se traduce como “audible”, “claro” o “inteligible”.

Hay gente “nahua” que todavía no se llaman ellos mismos Nahua, porque nahua es un nombre moderno, hecho por historiadores

No es tradicional ni histórico a nada. A decir eres mexicano es más antigua y más traditional que decir que eres “nahua” oiga.

por eso que cuando escucho a alguien decir que son “nahua” pierden 10 puntos sociales en mi mente.

Edit: Gringos who dont know meixco please don’t reply, Im not taking gringo English replies to my Mexican Spanish post.

The vocative is a grammatical case used to call or attract the attention of a person or party.

English no longer has a vocative case, but the particle O is sometimes employed to approximate its quality, such as in the phrase “O ye of little faith.” Nahuatl had (has?) a vocative particle that attaches to a noun, forming a stress group with it. Its earliest description can be found in Andrés de Olmos’s 1547 grammar:

> También se debe denotar que en el vocativo hay variación, porque siempre acaba en é. Y, para denotar o señalar este vocativo, usan en todos los nombres de una de estas tres partículas: tzé, né, é.

> Ex.: Pēdrohé, Pēdrohtzé, Pēdrohtzīné.

> Y si el nombre acabare en eh, tomará en el vocativo otra é. Ex.: Tlaōleh, dueño del maíz, vocativo tlaōlehé.

---

A few decades later, in 1571, Alonso de Molina published, along with his famous dictionary, a grammar textbook where he spoke more on the vocative case:

> Así mismo es de notar que no pusimos el vocativo en la declinación de los dos nombres arriba declinados por casos, por cuanto entre los dichos casos solo el vocativo tiene distinta y diferente terminación del nominativo, así en el número singular como en el plural, porque tiene su terminación en é con acento agudo.

> Ejemplo del singular:

> Oquichtli, varón, vocativo oquichtlé, ah varón!
> Piltōntli, muchacho, vocativo piltōntlé, ah muchacho!

> Ejemplo de plural:

> Tlapītzqueh, tañedores de flauta, vocativo tlapītzquehé, ah tañedores!

> Y cuando el nominativo tiene la terminación en eh, el vocativo toma otra é. Ejemplo:

> Tlaōleh, el dueño del maíz, vocativo tlaōlehé, ah dueño del maíz!
> Mīleh, señor o dueño de la heredad o de la tierra que se cultiva y siembra, vocativo mīlehé, ah dueño de la heredad!
> Tlahtohqueh, señores, vocativo tlahtohquehé, ah señores!

> Y débese también de notar que solamente los varones usan de vocativo (como arriba dijimos), y no las mujeres, las cuales no usan del dicho vocativo en singular ni en plural; de manera que cuando llaman a alguno dicen oquichtlí en lugar de oquichtlé, ah varón!

> Ítem, dicen tlahtoāní en lugar de tlahtoānié, ah señor! etc.

---

The stress of the noun shifts entirely onto the clitic particle é, marked in later texts with an acute accent. It was also noted that this form of speech was used only by men. Women instead shifted the stress onto the final syllable of the noun itself, adding no additional element—what Antonio del Rincón, in 1595, describes as women’s “affected pronunciation”:

> Así, en el número singular como en el plural, diferencian el vocativo añadiendo una é; v.g., Pedrohé, teōpixquehé. Aunque las mujeres, sin poner esta é, solo diferencian el vocativo con su pronunciación afectada.

In book five of his grammar, regarding vowel lengths and diacritics, he mentions the stress shift in the vocative and remarks on how unintuitive it is for native speakers to pronounce words without using a penultimate stress pattern.

> Nota que nunca se pone acento agudo en la última si no es en la é de los vocativos, v.g., totēucyōé, Diosé. Y es tan natural esta pronunciación a los mexicanos, que aunque se les diga un vocablo español de los que tienen aguda la última, no lo pronuncian de esa manera, sino que antes se van a pronunciarlo como en latín, v.g., si les decimos que digan oración, no lo pueden pronunciar así, antes dicen como en latín, ōrātiō.

---

In his 1645 grammar, Horacio Carochi repeats much of the above while emphasizing the genderlectical nature of this feature:

> Las mujeres no usan de esta é en el vocativo, pero levantan mucho la postrera sílaba del nombre con afectación mujeril.

In his edition of Carochi, James Lockhart emphasizes that the female version of the vocative is still a true grammatical case.

> This still constitutes a true vocative, involving omission of the second person subject prefix; unless given the special pronunciation, nopiltzīn, for example, would mean He or she is my child, not O my child. The distinct masculine and feminine vocatives are adhered to strictly in texts of all kinds.

---

For a long time, I assumed this feature hadn’t survived into modern Nahuatl, but it has, at least in the dialects found in Mecayapán and Tatahuicapan de Juárez. According to Carl Wolgemuth’s grammar from 1981 (second edition: 2002).

> The vocative forms are the ones used to mark out the person to whom the word is directed. There are three forms ... the second is used by males to call to someone of the same or lesser status ... éi is added to the name of a person:

Pēdroéi, Peter!
Pābloéi, Paul!
Juanīyohéi, Little John!
Jōliohéi, Julius!

Interestingly, the traditional female vocative is considered in these dialects to be a “conversational vocative” that anyone can use, regardless of gender:

> Conversational Vocative: The voice is raised and the last syllable of the name is accented. Also, h is added if the word does not have it.

Pēdróh, Peter!
Pāblóh, Paul!
Jōlióh, Julius!
Mariyáh, Mary!

Given that a lot of Nahuatl names seem rather long, and thus impractical for e.g. trying to quickly warn someone of something dangerous, I'm assuming there must be some common approach to this. But I'm also seeing a general agreement that nicknaming by shortening names isn't really a thing in Nahuatl? So is there a common approach to this, or is this just a thing Nahuatl lacks/am I misunderstanding something?

Good aftenoon,

I was wondering whether you kind ppl could offer some assistance. I wanted to know if I’m using the certain words correctly:

my little wolf (as a term of endearment to a child): nocuetlāchtzīn

and :

Nocuaxpiazoltepitzin- my soul/heart is entangled and

Ma yolic tlamati moyollo, nopiltzin- may your heart find its calm rhythm again, my son. In response.

thank You for your time in advance!

The video teaches essential Zapotec greetings and phrases, focusing on how to say "I am waiting" (*Ribëza*). It covers how to start a class or lesson, introducing the phrase "*Kielaru*." The lesson explains how to respond to "How are you?" with "*Ba zuu dxi'a?*." It clarifies the use of "*zwaa dxi'a*" and introduces "*Bi run*" and "*Tibi run*" in a conversational context. The video also revisits numbers and practices courtesy expressions like "*Diux*" and "*Padiux*," with students Silvana and Pamela participating.

This video is an educational session focused on teaching the Zapotec language through interactive practice.

### Key Learning Topics

* **Common Greetings and Expressions**: The instructor and students practice various courtesy expressions and greetings, such as "Diux" and "Padiux", [[02:57](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvvwGTc8blg&t=177)\]\].
* **Pronouns**: Students practice the pronunciation of Zapotec pronouns including "Neda" (I), "Lii (you)," "Lee (he)," "Lanu (she)," and others, [[04:29](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvvwGTc8blg&t=269)\]\].
* **Practical Dialogues**: The lesson includes a role-playing exercise where students (assigned names like Bëdu and Nisa) engage in a basic conversation to practice flow and vocabulary, [[05:24](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvvwGTc8blg&t=324)\]\].
* **Numbers and Age**: The session covers numerical terms, specifically practicing how to state one's age using Zapotec numbers, [[06:13](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvvwGTc8blg&t=373)\]\].

### Practical Usage

The instructor emphasizes that while full sentences are used for practice, responding with just a number is common and acceptable in natural conversation]. The video serves as a collaborative environment for learners to refine their pronunciation and understanding of everyday Zapotec speech].

I’m new to learning Nahuatl and sometimes it’s hard to know exactly how a word should be pronounced. Is there any way I can look up words and hear them being pronounced? Maybe like an audio dictionary?

Busco una manera de traducir "Yo no tengo enemigos" para un tatuaje.

Encontré algo parecido en la forma de "Ahmo niquimpia noyāõhuān" pero quisiera confirmar la traducción.

Hi everyone!! This is a bit of a lengthy post, but I have so many questions. I am Mexican and my family comes from Mexico and were are mostly mestizos, I know for sure that we have Spanish ancestry but I have no idea what indigenous group(s) we might be mixed with. This has caused a bit of a stump for, especially when it comes to worship. I grew up Catholic, but felt a deep love and connection to La Virgen de Guadalupe. To me, she was like God and l felt more comfortable with her than with Jesus or God. I found out some time ago that there is a big possibility that La Virgen is likely a synchronization of mestizaje, specifically with Coatlicue. All I know is that she is venerated as a "mother earth" type of deity and is a patron of childbirth, life and death. It got me thinking that maybe that connection I felt was with her and not really La Virgen. I left Catholicism years ago and have been in a stump ever since. I thought getting into my "indigenous roots" might help, but I feel so lost. Do I even have the right to worship her if I don't know my full heritage? I'm unfamiliar with most Aztec folklore and history, and my family is heavily Catholic and Christian (which makes this harder to do). If I can worship her, where do I even start? Sacrifice isn't much of a problem for me, its just reaching out, offerings, and speaking to her that is hard (and I don't speak Nahuatl either). All of this is so confusing, any help would be deeply appreciated.

Hay alguna version del codice florentino que sea una transcripcion de puro texto que yo pueda descargar? Estoy creando una carpeta de Google Drive de uso personal con fuentes para estudiar nahuatl clasico.

Solo puedo encontrar fotocopias de los libros originales en si, pero yo solo quiero una transcripcion de puro texto.

Is there any version of the florentine codex that is a transcription of pure text (preferably in spanish), that I could download? I am making a folder on Google Drive for personal use, with sources to study classical nahuatl.

I can only find photocopies of the original books themselves, but I only want an only text transcription.