... Can you clarify MU Nahuatl didnt diverge into different languages like Latin did. Classical Nahuatl simply turned into regional dialects utilizing different styles which on the whole are informal compared to Classical. It was stated above that there was variations even before contact?... There were always dialects of nahuatl before the conquest. Classical Nahuatl was just one of the central Mexican dialects.... It was the privileged dialect of the pipiltin, the teopixque, etc. It would considered to be the kings English, the Castilian of the Real Academia, or the Tuscan Dialect of Dante that became the standard Italian. The various modern dialects of Mexico are simply evolved versions of the pre-conquest Nahuatl that was spoken there (tl vs T; tlitl vs tletl; tiotl vs teotl; qumea vs quena, etc.) One must be careful not to impose imperialistic notions of language vs dialect onto any indigenous language. Some one said it well: having a British farmer read Shakespeare, would be difficult.... but asking him to speak that way because it is classic is offensive.... just as it is to expect the same of todays macehualli... BTW, in the huasteca, macehualli means indigenous person(s) Magnus Pharao Hansen ...It is not the case that the modern varieties descend from or evolved from classical Nahuatl. There was also many varieties in the 16th century, but the variety of Mexico City was the one that became the language of literature and was learned by all priests and everyone who learned how to write Nahuatl. That is why the colonial documents look so similar regardless of which region they are from. On message boards people most likely write classical Nahuatl with a modernized spelling using k for c/qu and w for hu etc. But that does not mean that the variety they are writing is necessarily any of the modern varieties spoken by the 1,5 million people in Mexico who are native speakers.... excellent response!!!!! Xinich Yanez: ... Im new to this. And have a fault of believing my elders. But Ive been told many times that the different Nahuatl varieties are post conquest?... One of the great tragedies of our search for facts is that many times people who really do not know pass themselves as experts.... and disseminate false ideas and truths next time someone says they know how to speak Nahuatl... ask them these questions that the macehualli of Tepecxictla asked us: 1. how do you say sun? 2. How do you say I am hungry, I was hungry, I would have been hungry, you all could have been hungry. 3. How do you say I speak, I talked, I will converse, I would have spoken. 4. How do you say my friend, your brother, our friends, you alls younger brother/sister. 5. I will go to sleep over there, You slept far over there, I would have slept inside the school.
Posted on: Tue, 04 Mar 2014 19:38:42 +0000
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