Nahuatl Language | Uto-Aztecan Language - Encyclopedia Britannica

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External Websites

• University of California Berkeley Library - The Languages of Berkeley: An Online Exhibition - Nahuatl
• Joshua Project - Language: Nahuatl, Highland Puebla
• Omniglot - Nahuatl

Nahuatl language Uto-Aztecan language Ask Anything Homework Help Also known as: Aztec language, Nawatl language Written and fact-checked by Britannica Editors Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree.... Britannica Editors History Britannica AI Ask Anything Table of Contents Table of Contents Ask Anything

Nahuatl language, Indigenous American language of the Uto-Aztecan family, spoken in central and western Mexico. Nahuatl, the most important of the Uto-Aztecan languages, was the language of the Aztec and Toltec civilizations of Mexico. A large body of literature in Nahuatl, produced by the Aztecs, survives from the 16th century, recorded in an orthography that was introduced by Spanish priests and based on that of Spanish.

The phonology of Classical Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, was notable for its use of a tl sound produced as a single consonant and for the use of the glottal stop. The glottal stop has been lost in some modern dialects—replaced by h—and retained in others. The tl sound, however, serves to distinguish the three major modern dialects: central and northern Aztec dialects retain the tl sound, as can be seen in their name, Nahuatl. Eastern Aztec dialects, around Veracruz, Mexico, have replaced the tl by t and are called Nahuat. Western dialects, spoken primarily in the Mexican states of Michoacán and México, replace the tl with l and are called Nahual.

Spanish: náhuatl (Show more) Nahuatl also spelled: Nawatl (Show more) Also called: Aztec (Show more) Key People: Benjamin Lee Whorf (Show more) Related Topics: Nahuan languages Classical Nahuatl (Show more) See all related content

Classical (i.e., 16th-century) Nahuatl used a set of 15 consonants and four long and short vowels. Its grammar was basically agglutinative, making much use of prefixes and suffixes, reduplication (doubling) of syllables, and compound words.

Britannica Quiz Languages & Alphabets The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Teagan Wolter.