An Introduction to Classical Nahuatl

599 Pages·2011·7.79 MB·English

by  Michel Launey

An Introduction to Classical Nahuatl
Now available to an English-speaking audience, this book is a comprehensive
grammar of classical Nahuatl, the literary language of the Aztecs. It offers
students of Nahuatl a complete and clear treatment of the language's structure,
grammar and vocabulary. It is divided into thirty-six lessons, beginning with
basic syntax and progressing gradually to more complex structures. Each
grammatical concept is illustrated clearly with examples, exercises and passages
for translation. A key is provided to allow students to check their answers. By far
the most approachable textbook of Nahuatl available, this book will be an
excellent teaching tool both for classroom use and for readers pursuing
independent study of the language. It will be an invaluable resource to
anthropologists, ethnographers, historians, archaeologists and linguists alike.

Michel Launey, now retired, was a professor at the Université Denis Diderot,
Paris, and the Institut de Recherches pour le Développement, Cayenne. He was a
visiting professor at the Universidad de Guadalajara, Universidad Nacional
Autónoma de México and Yale University, among others. His other books
include Introduction à la langue et à la littérature aztèques (the French edition
of this book, published in 1979), Une grammaire omniprédicative (1994) and
Awna Parikwaki: Introduction à la langue palikur de Guyane et de l’Amapa
(2003).
An Introduction to Classical Nahuatl

Michel Launey
Université Denis Diderot, Paris

Translated and Adapted by
Christopher Mackay
University of Alberta
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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Cambridge University Press
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www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521732291
© Michel Launey and Christopher Mackay 2011
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the
provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any
part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University
Press.
First published as Introduction à la langue et à la littérature aztèques by
L’Hartmattan, 1979
First published as Introductión a la lenguay a la literatura Náhuatl by UNAM,
México, 1992
First 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 à la langue et à la littérature aztèques. 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 978-0-52173229-1 (pbk)
1. Nahuatl language. 2. Nahuatl literature. I. Mackay, Christopher S., 1962– II.
Title.
PM4061.L3813 2010
497′.45282421–dc22 2010015176
ISBN 978-0-521-51840-6 Hardback
ISBN 978-0-52173229-1 Paperback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy
of URLs for external or third-party Internet Web sites referred to in this
publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Web sites is, or will
remain, accurate or appropriate.
Contents
Preface
How to Use This Book
Part one
Preliminary Lesson: Phonetics and Writing
Lesson One: Intransitive Verbs, Word Order, Absolutive Suffix
1.1 Present Tense of Intransitive Verbs
1.2 Form of the Prefixes in Front of a Vowel
1.3 Assimilation of Nasals
1.4 Word Order
1.5 Number in Nouns and the Absolutive Suffix
Lesson Two: Nouns and Nominal Predicates, the Plural of Nouns, Questions and
Negation
2.1 Nominal Predicates
2.2 Forms of the Absolutive Suffix
2.3 Nouns without the Absolutive Suffix
2.4 Plural of Nouns
2.5 Details about the Plural
2.6 Pluralizable Inanimate Objects
2.7 The Particle Ca
2.8 Word Order and Focalization
2.9 Questions and Negation
Lesson Three: Transitive Verbs
3.1 Object Prefixes
3.2 Writing of k
3.3 The Helping Vowel i with the Third Person Object
3.4 Third Person Plural Object
3.5 Combination with a Noun Object
3.6 Indefinite Prefixes
3.7 Variation in the Stem after -tla-
3.8 Word Order in Transitive Constructions
3.9 Focalization of the Object
Lesson Four: Emphatic, Interrogative, Demonstrative and Negative Pronouns
4.1 Emphatic Pronouns
4.2 Predication and Focalization with the Emphatic Pronouns
4.3 Topicalized Pronouns
4.4 ‘Who?’
4.5 Demonstratives
4.6 Demonstratives Combined with in
4.7 In and On after a Noun
4.8 ‘What?’
4.9 ‘No One’, ‘Nothing’
4.10 Interrogatives Preceded by in
Lesson Five: Irregular Verbs, Introduction to Locatives
5.1 Câ ‘To Be’
5.2 Yauh ‘To Go’
5.3 Hu tz ‘To Come’
5.4 Locatives
5.5 Syntax of Locatives
5.6 No Indication of Direction with Locatives
5.7 Nic n and mpa with Another Locative
5.8 The Suffix -pa
Lesson Six: Directional and Reflexive Prefixes
6.1 Directional Prefixes
6.2 Metaphorical Uses of the Directional Prefixes
6.3 The Helping Vowel in Front of -c-on-
6.4 Order of Prefixes
6.5 Reflexive Prefixes
6.6 Meaning of the Reflexive
6.7 Morphology of the Reflexive in Front of a Vowel
Lesson Seven: Quantifiers, Zan, Ye, Oc
7.1 Number Nouns
7.2 Place for Numbers
7.3 Plural of Numbers
7.4 Plural of c
7.5 Numbers as Predicates
7.6 Other Quantifiers
7.6.1 Miyac
7.6.2 Moch
7.7 Counting Nouns
7.8 Zan, Ye, Oc
7.9 Ayamo and Aoc
Lesson Eight: Preterite Tense
8.1 Introduction to the Tenses
8.2 Principles for Forming the Preterite
8.3 Formation of Base 2 by Dropping the Final Vowel
8.4 Modification of the Final Consonant
8.5 Base 2 Formed by Dropping the Final Vowel and Adding a Glottal
Stop
8.6 Base 2 Formed with the Glottal Stop without Dropping the Final
Vowel
8.7 Base 2 without Modification
8.8 The Augment
8.9 The Tense with Ayamo
8.10 Preterite of Irregular Verbs
Lesson Nine: Imperative/Optative, Vocative, Future, Imperfect
9.1 Imperative/Optative
9.2 Variants of x-
9.3 Lengthening of the Stem Vowel
9.4 Imperative/Optative in Irregular Verbs
9.5 The Optative in Other Persons
9.6 Negation of the Optative
9.7 Vocative of Nouns
9.8 Morphology of the Future
9.9 Meaning of the Future
9.10 The Imperfect
Lesson Ten: Possessed Forms of the Noun
10.1 Morphology of the Possessed Form
10.2 Forms of the Possessive Suffix
10.3 Possessive Prefixes
10.4 Plural of the Possessed Forms
10.5 Syntax of Possessed Nouns
10.6 Constructions Indicating Possession
10.7 Dropping of Short Vowels in the Possessed Form
10.8 Retention of Short Vowels in Nouns Ending in -atl, -itl
10.9 Possessed Form of Monosyllables
10.10 Vocative of Possessed Forms
Lesson Eleven: Inherent Possession, the Suffix -y , ‘To Have’, Possessive Nouns
11.1 Nouns for Family Relationships
11.2 Nouns for Parts of the Body
11.3 The Suffix -y
11.4 -y in the Possessed Form
11.5 -y of Inalienable Possession
11.6 ‘To Have’: Piya and Possessed Forms
11.7 Possessive Nouns
11.8 -huâ or -ê?
11.9 Possessive Nouns in -yô
11.10 The Possessed and Derivative Forms of Possessive Nouns
Lesson Twelve: Nominal Suffixes, “Adjectives”
12.1 Honorific, Deprecatory, Diminutive and Augmentative Suffixes
12.1.1 -tzin
12.1.2 -t n
12.1.3 -p l
12.1.4 -pil
12.1.5 -zol
12.2 The Problem of Adjectives
12.3 ‘Large’ and ‘Small’
12.4 “Adjectives” in -qui
12.5 “Adjectives” in -huac and Verbs in -hua
12.6 “Adjectives” in -tic
12.7 “Adjectives” in -c
12.8 Derivation of Adjectives
12.9 ‘Very’
Lesson Thirteen: The Principal Locative Suffixes
13.1 The Suffix -c(o)
13.2 Placement of Locatives
13.3 Possessed Locatives
13.4 Locative nouns: -pan
13.5 -cpac
13.6 -tlan
13.7 -tech
13.8 Ch n(-tli)
13.9 Honorific Locatives
13.10 Locatives and “Adjectives”
Lesson Fourteen: Coordination, Phrases of Time and Manner
14.1 ‘And’
14.1.1 hu n
14.1.2 Auh
14.1.3 Juxtaposition
14.2 N , Àzo, Ànozo
14.3 -(ti)ca
14.4 Ic
14.5 Iuh(qui)
14.6 Qu n
14.7 ‘When?’: c
14.8 ‘When?’: Qu mman
14.9 Subordinate Temporal Clauses
14.10 Quin
Lesson Fifteen: Impersonal and Passive Verb Forms
15.1 Impersonal Forms of Intransitive Verbs with Animate Subjects
15.2 Morphology of the Impersonal Voice
15.3 Inanimate Impersonal in tla-
15.4 Passive Voice
15.5 Morphology of the Passive
15.5.1 Regular Formation
15.5.2 Other Formations
15.6 Impersonal Forms of Intransitive Verbs Based on the Passive Stem
15.7 Impersonal Form of Transitive Verbs
15.8 Reflexive Impersonal
15.9 Reflexive and Passive
15.10 Inherently Impersonal Verbs
15.11 The Third Person Plural Substituting for the Impersonal
15.12 Alternation between Impersonal and Personal Forms
Review Exercises for Part One
Part two
Lesson Sixteen: Agent Nouns, the -ni Form
16.1 The Preterite as Agent Noun
16.2 Inanimate “Agent Nouns”
16.3 The -ni Form
16.4 Plural of the -ni Form
16.5 -ni Form and Preterite
16.6 -ni Form of the Passive
16.7 -ni Form of the Impersonal: Instrument Nouns
16.8 Possessed Form of the Instrument Noun
16.9 Use of the -ni Form in Wishes
Lesson Seventeen: Compound Nouns, Verbal Incorporation
17.1 Compound Nouns
17.2 Meaning of Compounds
17.3 Verb Incorporation
17.3.1 Object Incorporation