Tetelcingo Nahuatl Explained

Tetelcingo Nahuatl
Nativename:Mösiehuali̱
Pronunciation:pronounced as /mɔᵃsⁱeˈwalɪ/
States:Mexico
Region:Morelos
Date:1990 census
Ref:e25
Familycolor:Uto-Aztecan
Fam1:Uto-Aztecan
Fam2:Aztecan (Nahuan)
Fam3:Nahuatl
Fam4:Central Nahuatl
Fam5:Nuclear
Iso3:nhg
Glotto:tete1251
Glottorefname:Tetelcingo Nahuatl
Notice:IPA

Tetelcingo Nahuatl, called Mösiehuali̱ by its speakers, is a Nahuatl variety of central Mexico. It is one of the core varieties closely related to Classical Nahuatl. It is spoken in the town of Tetelcingo, Morelos, and the adjacent Colonia Cuauhtémoc and Colonia Lázaro Cárdenas. These three population centers lie to the north of Cuautla, Morelos and have been largely absorbed into its urban area; as a result the Tetelcingo language and culture are under intense pressure.

In 1935 William Cameron Townsend published a study of Mösiehuali̱, and a number of other studies have been published since then.

Phonology

Vowels

Tetelcingo Nahuatl has converted the distinction of vowel quantity found in more conservative varieties into one of vowel quality. The short vowels pronounced as //i e a o// are reflected as pronounced as /[ɪ e a o]/ (orthographically i̱ e a o) in Tetelcingo, while the long vowels pronounced as //iː eː aː oː// become pronounced as /[i ⁱe ɔᵃ u]/ (orthographically i, ie, ö, u).

“Short” Vowels!!Front!Central!Back
Closepronounced as /link/
Midpronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/
pronounced as /link/
“Long” Vowels!!Front!Central!Back
Closepronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/
Midpronounced as /ⁱe/
pronounced as /ɔᵃ/

Consonants

LabialApicalPalato-
alveolar
VelarGlottal
CentralLateralUnroundedRounded
Nasalpronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ ~ pronounced as /link/
Plosivepronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/
Affricatepronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/
Fricativepronounced as /link/ ~ pronounced as /link/ ~ pronounced as /link/ ~ pronounced as /link/ ~
pronounced as /link/ ~ pronounced as /link/
pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ ~ pronounced as /link/
Approximantpronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/ ~ pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /link/

Tetelcingo Nahuatl, like many dialects of Nahuatl, does not have voiced obstruent consonants (with one clear exception: the stem /maga/, meaning 'fight' is derived from /maka/ 'give, hit'). Voiced obstruents and other non-native consonants do occur in loanwords from Spanish, however, and there are many such words in the language.[1]

Honorifics

See also: Nahuatl honorifics. Another striking characteristic of Tetelcingo Nahuatl is the pervasiveness and complexity of its honorifics. Generally every 2nd or 3rd person verb, pronoun, postposition or possessed noun must be marked honorifically if its subject or object, designatum, object or possessor (respectively) is a living adult (the speaker's wife or adult children being exceptions). Extra-honorific forms of several kinds exist, especially for addressing or referring to godparental relations, high officials or God. Many third person honorifics use morphemes that in Classical Nahuatl were used to mark non-active (passive) verbs or unspecified or plural participants. Not infrequently a different (suppletive) stem is used for honorifics, or the honorific form is in some other way irregular.

A few examples are given below, using the orthography of Brewer and Brewer 1962. Where more than one form is listed, the second is more highly honorific.

Stem Meaning2nd person sg2nd person sg honorific3rd person sg3rd person sg honorific
pronountajatejuatziyajayejuatzi
one's housemocalmocaltziicaltiecal, tiecaltzi
beforemixpamixpantzincoixpatieixpa, tieixpantzinco
goti̱yatomobicayabi̱biloa, mobica
cometi̱bitzti̱mobicatz, ti̱hualmobicai̱bitzbiloatz, hualmobica
notice it, get it (a point)ti̱qui̱jti̱li̱atomojti̱li̱li̱aqui̱jti̱li̱aqui̱jti̱lilo
say itti̱qui̱jtoatomojtalfi̱aqui̱jtoaqui̱jtulo

References

  1. Web site: Spanish loans in Mösiehuali. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20040623095927/http://www.sil.org/mexico/nahuatl/tetelcingo/25i-Borrowings-NHG.htm. 2004-06-23.

External links

Literature