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| Aztec/Indigenous-Mexican/Native American garb on the Day of the Dead, Hollywood |
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Spanish is the language of the Empire of Spain, the original colonial invaders, Conquistadors, genocidal murderers, ethnic cleansers, slave traffickers, bringers of disease and Christianity. No place-names in California were originally Spanish but were all named by Native American tribes whose territories and ranges ran from Canada up into Alaska down into Mexico and South America, all now known as "America."
Nahuatl: the Language of the Aztec/Mexica
Náhuatl (pronounced NAH-wah-tuhl) was the language spoken by the
Aztec/Mexica, and it is still spoken today by thousands of people, mainly in Central Mexico.
Nahuatl's origins
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| Mayan Calendar designated by pyramid measurements and cosmological constants. |
Náhuatl
is part of the Uto-Aztecan family, one of the largest
Native American
linguistic families. The Uto-Aztecan, or Uto-Nahuan, family includes
many North American languages such as Comanche, Shoshone, Paiute [Native Americans of Yosemite], as
well as Tarahumara, Cora, and Huichol in Mexico.
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| When Los Angeles was Mexico as was Maya-land down into Central America (wiki). |
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| We invented chocolate (Theobroma cacao) |
The Nahuatl language probably originated in what is now Southwestern US. Náhuatl is considered one of the southernmost members of the family and its speakers are believed to have entered
Mesoamerica [and is probably the language spoken by the people of what we today call California and Mexico
when the Buddhist missionaries from China and Afghanistan arrived centuries ago] and reached Central Mexico sometimes around AD 400/500, during the
Classic period.
According
to historical and archaeological sources, the Mexica were among the
last of the Náhuatl speakers to migrate from the north and reach
Central Mexico.
Náhuatl distribution under the Aztec/Mexica Empire
With the
founding of their capital, Mexico-Tenochtitlan, and the growth of the Aztec/Mexica empire in the 15th and 16th centuries, Náhuatl spread all over Mesoamerica. This language became a
lingua franca spoken all over the empire by
merchants, soldiers, and diplomats, over an area including what is today northern Mexico to Costa Rica, and
Lower Central America.
.
Náhuatl in Colonial times
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| Day of the Dead's Native American/Aztec dancers (Young-Wolff). |
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After
the conquest, many Spanish friars learned Náhuatl as a way to both [exploit and]
access the indigenous sources, and therefore know better their
traditional beliefs and histories
in order to eradicate them, as well as
to translate Catholic religious texts and therefore [in]fuse Catholicism
in the indigenous language.
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| Pyramid of the Sun, Mexico, like they built in Egypt (greatdreams.com). |
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The most extensive source on Náhuatl language is the book written in the mid-16th century by friar Bernardino de Sahagún called the
Historia General de la Nueva España ["
General History of the New Spain"],
included in the Florentine Codex. In its 12 books Sahagun and his
assistants collected a sort of encyclopedia about the language and
culture of the Aztec/Mexica. This text contains parts written both in
Spanish and Náhuatl transliterated in Latin characters, since Náhuatl
used a pictographic writing system.
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Aztecs picked up where the Mayans of Mesoamerica left off, Tikal ruins (wiki).
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Náhuatl legacy
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| Corn (maiz), amaranth, quinoa... |
Náhuatl
was a language spoken by thousands of people in Mesoamerica and this
culture left the majority of the pre-Hispanic and colonial documents
until now survived. Furthermore, many contemporary place names in Mexico
and Central America are the result of a Spanish transliteration of
their Náhuatl name (i.e., Mexico, Guatemala). Finally, many Nahuatl words
have passed into the English dictionary through Spanish, such as
coyote, chocolate, tomato, chili, cacao, avocado, and many others.
SOURCES
- This glossary entry is a part of the About.com guide to Mesoamerica, and the Dictionary of Archaeology.
- Dakin, Karen, 2001, Nahuatl, in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures, Vol. 1, edited by David Carrasco, Oxford University Press., pp. 363-365.
- AA.VV. 2011, Los Nahua. Cultura Viva, Arqueología Mexicana, Vol. 19, Num. 109 (May-June)
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Expert recommended reading
History of Humans on Planet EarthWorld History in a Nutshell
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