Classical Nahuatl

Classical Nahuatl is the variant of the Nahuatl language that was spoken in the Valley of Mexico and used as a lingua franca in many parts of Mesoamerica from the 7th century until the 16th century, during the time of the Aztec Empire. It is also the variant of Nahuatl documented by Spanish colonizers and studied by modern scholars.

History

Classical Nahuatl was first spoken by the Nahua peoples in central Mexico. It became the language of the powerful Aztec Empire, which dominated a large part of Mesoamerica from the 14th to the 16th centuries. After the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, the Spanish colonizers documented the language and used it for evangelization purposes.

Grammar

Classical Nahuatl is an agglutinative language, meaning that it uses a lot of affixes to indicate grammatical relationships between words. It has a complex system of verb conjugation and uses noun incorporation to form complex sentences.

Literature

Classical Nahuatl has a rich literary tradition, with genres ranging from poetry to historical narratives. Many of these works were transcribed by Spanish friars and are preserved in European libraries.

Modern use

While Classical Nahuatl is no longer spoken, its descendant languages, known as Modern Nahuatl, are still spoken by about 1.5 million people in Mexico. There is also a growing interest in reviving the classical language among scholars and indigenous communities.

See also

• Aztec codices
• Nahuatl literature
• Nahuatl phonology

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