Classical Nahuatl grammar

YNQ:yes–no question ANT:antecessive particle; IN:particle 'in'; V:verb; S:subject; O:object; P:possessive; R:reflexive; H:human; L:linker; PLUP:pluperfect; DIR:directional; LOC:locative; CISL:cislocative ('towards'); TRSL:translocative ('away from'); The grammar of Classical Nahuatl is agglutinative, head-marking, and makes extensive use of compounding, noun incorporation and derivation.

A number of consonants regularly undergo change when resyllabified into the coda position of a syllable due to morphological operations that delete following vowels,[1]: 36–37  such as the preterite of class 2 verbs, and the possessive singular of some nouns.

This suffix takes the form -tl after vowels (ā-tl, "water") and -tli after consonants, which assimilates with a final /l/ on the root (tōch-tli, "rabbit", but cal-li, "house").

[1]: 382–384 [3]: 308–309 [4]: 69–70 Some other categories can be inflected on the noun such as: cihuāwoman-tzinHON-tliABScihuā -tzin -tliwoman HON ABS'woman (said with respect)'All verbs are marked with prefixes which agree with their subjects.

In the following examples, verb stems are cited with their underlying final vowel length, and only in inflected forms is phonetic shortening applied.

It is similar in meaning to the imperfect in the Romance languages, signifying a 'repeated or continuing process in the past',[2]: 83  e.g. nicochiya 'I was sleeping,' tlahtoāyah 'they used to speak,' nicchīhuaya 'I was making it.'

Rather than one specific event this form expresses the subject's tendency or propensity to repeatedly or habitually perform the same action over time, and is most commonly used to nominalize verbs, deriving a noun with the meaning 'one who customarily does …'.

Huāllauh is composed of the verb yauh with the directional prefix huāl-, the initial y- of the stem becoming l by regular progressive assimilation.

[1]: 56–57 [2]: 28–29  The constituent cross-referenced by a referential pronoun may, however, potentially be neither semantically specific nor definite in some instances,[6]: 14, 27–28  e.g. nicchīhuaz in tleh in ticnequiz 'I shall do whatever you want', ahmō itlah molcāhuaz 'nothing is forgotten'.

Classical Nahuatl verbs may change their valency through a number of morphological processes, decreasing it through impersonalization or passivization, or increasing it through the addition of causative or applicative objects.

The defective, preterite-as-present verb *o-c 'to be, lie in a place' is always used with the prefix -on- (except when head of a verbal compound), i.e. on-o-c 'it is there'.

Embedding may apply recursively, e.g. Ø-cac-t-ihca-c3SG.S-be.abandoned-L-stand-PRET:SGinINā-l-tēpe-tlwater-L-mountain-SGØ-cac-t-ihca-c in ā-l-tēpe-tl3SG.S-be.abandoned-L-stand-PRET:SG IN water-L-mountain-SG'The town lies deserted'Tlacōpam-paTlacōpan-DIRØ-itz-ti-yah-queh3PL.S-head.toward-L-go-PRET:PLTlacōpam-pa Ø-itz-ti-yah-quehTlacōpan-DIR 3PL.S-head.toward-L-go-PRET:PL'They left in the direction of Tlacōpan (Tacuba)'iuhqu=inbe.like=INāyahui-tlfog-SGtlāl-panearth-LOCØ-ahci-ti-mo-tēca-t-o-c3SG.S-arrive-L-REFL-lay.down-L-lie-PRET:SGinINmiqu-iz-tlidie-NMLZ-SGiuhqu=in āyahui-tl tlāl-pan Ø-ahci-ti-mo-tēca-t-o-c in miqu-iz-tlibe.like=IN fog-SG earth-LOC 3SG.S-arrive-L-REFL-lay.down-L-lie-PRET:SG IN die-NMLZ-SG'Death lay spread out like a fog over the earth'Two verbs, -nequi and *-quiya, select an embedded verb in the future singular.

Some verbs permit nominalizations with or without the ending -qui with a difference in meaning, forms with -qui generally referring to animate entities, e.g. tēchōctihqui 'he caused people to cry — he is a lamentable person'.

Some plural forms may require reduplication of the verb stem as with some nouns, e.g. mīmicqueh 'they are dead people' (compare micqueh 'they died').

[2]: 159–160 When possessed or subject to further compounding, incorporation, or derivation, the nominalized preterite takes a special form sometimes known as the general use-stem, attaching the suffix -cā to the base 2 perfective stem, e.g. totlahcuilohcā-uh 'our scribe', miccā-cuīcatl 'song for the dead'.

[1]: 361–362 This process derives fully nominal noun stems which take the absolutive suffix -tl(i) and refer to the patient of the source verb.

The syntax of Classical Nahuatl is basically predicate-initial while allowing fronting for focalization or topicalization, allows extensive null anaphora, some freedom in the internal ordering of the noun phrase, and features a series of particles preceding the verb in a relatively fixed order which encode distinctions such as tense–aspect–mood and clause type (e.g. declarative, interrogative).

Launey characterizes the basic, unmarked word order of Classical Nahuatl as Verb-Subject, or more generally Predicate-Subject, in the case of non-verbal predicates.

The object, if indefinite, immediately follows the verb, appearing without the particle IN, producing the order VOS,[2]: 30  reminiscent of the pattern of pseudo-noun-incorporation in other predicate-initial languages such as Niuean and Chʼol.

[11] caDECL Ø-tzahtzi-Ø3SG.S-shout-PRES:SGVin pil-liIN child-SGSca Ø-tzahtzi-Ø {in pil-li}DECL 3SG.S-shout-PRES:SG {IN child-SG}{} V S'The child shouts'caDECL Ø-mēxihca-tl3SG.S-Mexica-SGPREDin PedroIN PedroSca Ø-mēxihca-tl {in Pedro}DECL 3SG.S-Mexica-SG {IN Pedro}{} PRED S'Peter is a Mexica'Ø-qu-itta-Ø3SG.S-3SG.O-see-PRES:SGVin cihuā-tlIN woman-sgSin cal-liIN house-SGOØ-qu-itta-Ø {in cihuā-tl} {in cal-li}3SG.S-3SG.O-see-PRES:SG {IN woman-sg} {IN house-SG}V S O'The woman sees the house'Ø-qui-cua-Ø3SG.S-3SG.O-eat-PRES:SGVnaca-tlmeat-SGOin cihuā-tlIN woman-SGSØ-qui-cua-Ø naca-tl {in cihuā-tl}3SG.S-3SG.O-eat-PRES:SG meat-SG {IN woman-SG}V O S'The woman eats meat'Some examples of VOS order with definite objects are however noted by Steele,[10] e.g. Ø-qui-nōtza-Ø3SG.S-3SG.O-call-PRES:SGVin cozōl-liIN cradle-SGOin tīci-tlIN midwife-SGSØ-qui-nōtza-Ø {in cozōl-li} {in tīci-tl}3SG.S-3SG.O-call-PRES:SG {IN cradle-SG} {IN midwife-SG}V O S'The midwife addressed the cradle'Sasaki, citing Launey, provides examples of all three 'very rare' OV orders in transitive clauses, but likewise analyzes these as 'normally the result of some discourse-pragmatic operations such as topicalization.

[1]: 610  Regular nouns as well as personal pronouns may both appear as topics,[2]: 15, 90 [1]: 140–141, 145  e.g. in cihuā-tlIN woman-SG TopicØ-cochi-Ø3SG.S-sleep-PRES:SGComment{in cihuā-tl} Ø-cochi-Ø{IN woman-SG } 3SG.S-sleep-PRES:SGTopic Comment'As for the woman, she sleeps'in cal-liIN house-SG Topicni-qu-itta-Ø1SG.S-3SG.O-see-PRES:SGComment{in cal-li} ni-qu-itta-Ø{IN house-SG } 1SG.S-3SG.O-see-PRES:SGTopic Comment'As for the house, I see it'in cihuā-tlIN woman-SGTopic Sin cal-liIN house-SGTopic OØ-qu-itta-Ø3SG.S-3SG.O-see-PRES:SGComment V{in cihuā-tl} {in cal-li} Ø-qu-itta-Ø{IN woman-SG} {IN house-SG} 3SG.S-3SG.O-see-PRES:SG{Topic S} {Topic O} {Comment V}'As for the woman and the house, she sees it'in cihuā-tlIN woman-SGTopicni-qu-itta-Ø1SG.S-3SG.O-see-PRES:SGCommentin ī-cal-ØIN 3SG.P-house-SG {in cihuā-tl} ni-qu-itta-Ø {in ī-cal-Ø}{IN woman-SG} 1SG.S-3SG.O-see-PRES:SG {IN 3SG.P-house-SG}Topic Comment {}'As for the woman, I see her house'in ī-pah-yoIN 3SG.P-cure-INALTopicne-hzōtla-lō-zNREF.R-vomit-IMPRS-FUT:SGComment{in ī-pah-yo} ne-hzōtla-lō-z{IN 3SG.P-cure-INAL} NREF.R-vomit-IMPRS-FUT:SGTopic Comment'As for its cure, there is to be vomiting'Owing to Classical Nahuatl's flexibility in allowing expressions of many types to directly serve as predicates without a copula, or as arguments through the use of the particle IN, the semantic roles of predicate and argument may be reversed, focalizing an argument which is presented as new or contrastive information, against the background of the remainder of the sentence.

Used variously as a kind of definite article, complementizer, subordinator, relativizer, and frequently seen in expressions of time, place, manner, and comparison, its meaning and approximate translation are highly dependent on the context in which it is found, and only some of its uses are covered here.

Preceding verbs, IN can function as a kind of relativizer, creating a headless relative clause, as in in cuīca 'the one who sings', in mihtōtiah 'those who dance'.

The pronouns āc, tleh, cān, īc have corresponding existential forms acah 'someone', itlah 'something', canah 'somewhere', icah 'at some time'.

Negative quantification is expressed by attaching ah- to the indeterminate pronouns āc 'who(ever)', tleh 'what(ever)', īc 'when(ever)', quēn 'how(ever)', etc., producing respectively ayāc 'no one', ahtleh 'nothing', aīc 'never', ahquēn 'in no way'.

When agreement markers do not unambiguously identify the role of the relativized element, cases of ambiguity are possible, and context must determine which reading is intended, e.g.[2]: 329–334 inINtlāca-hperson-PLinINō=Ø-nēch-itta-quehANT=3PL.S-1SG.O-see-PRET:PLin tlāca-h in ō=Ø-nēch-itta-quehIN person-PL IN ANT=3PL.S-1SG.O-see-PRET:PL'The people who saw me' lit.

'The people that they saw me'inINtēuc-tlilord-SGinINō=Ø-qui-mic-tih-ØANT=3SG.S-3SG.O-die-CAUS-PRET:SGinINtlahtoāniking:SGin tēuc-tli in ō=Ø-qui-mic-tih-Ø in tlahtoāniIN lord-SG IN ANT=3SG.S-3SG.O-die-CAUS-PRET:SG IN king:SG'The lord who killed the king' or 'the lord whom the king killed'Short relative clauses may appear without the particle IN postnominally, or immediately prenominally, e.g. inINcihuā-tlwoman-SGō=ni-qu-itta-cANT=1SG.S-3SG.O-see-PRET:SGin cihuā-tl ō=ni-qu-itta-cIN woman-SG ANT=1SG.S-3SG.O-see-PRET:SG'The woman I saw'inINØ-tlācati-z3SG.S-be.born-FUT:SGpil-tōn-tlichild-DIM-SGin Ø-tlācati-z pil-tōn-tliIN 3SG.S-be.born-FUT:SG child-DIM-SG'The child who will be born'Typically, however, long and more complex relative clauses of the types presented below must be of the form noun IN relative clause.

'The plant that its name is "woman's medicine"'inINtlāca-hperson-PLinINīn-nāhua-c3PL.P-close.by-LOCni-nemi-Ø1SG.S-live-PRES:SGin tlāca-h in īn-nāhua-c ni-nemi-ØIN person-PL IN 3PL.P-close.by-LOC 1SG.S-live-PRES:SG'The people with whom I live' lit.

Sasaki argues omnipredicative and omniclausal models of Classical Nahuatl syntax incorrectly predict expressions such as ticuāuhtli tōcēlōtl should mean 'you are an eagle and you are a jaguar' and not 'you are a warrior'.

Furthermore, such agreement is optional in some cases, a phenomenon which is difficult to explain under an analysis in which it is the exponent of the subject of a predicate in a language in which subject-marking is otherwise obligatory.