Hey, I'm new and excited to learn about the Nahuatl languages and Mexica culture. I've been going through Aztec resources like podcasts and books and thought I may try dabbling in some of the codices.

I found the Florentine Codex online but it doesn't seem to use any of the standard orthography that I'm aware of. I couldn't find any help on Google so I'm looking for help on how to read it here. Here is an example with a English translation from Book 3, Chapter 1:

Nahuatl Transcription (Anderson & Dibble 1953-1982)

"In quenjn tzintique in teteuh in canpa tzintique, amo vel macho, ca ie iehoatl in panj ca in vncan teutioacan, qujtoa in canjn yn iqujn, in oc iovaian vncan mocentlalique, in ixqujchtin teteu, yoan, mononotzque, in aqujn tlatlquiz, in aqujn tlamamaz, in aqujn, tonatiuh iez, (Ynjn ca ie omjto cececnj.) auh in iquac, in omomanaco tonatiuh, niman muchintin vncan mjcque, inca muzcalti in tonatiuh: aiac mocauh in macamo mjc (in oiuh mjto). auh in juh qujmatia vevetque."

Nahuatl-to-English Translation (Anderson & Dibble 1953-1982)

"How the gods had their beginning, where they had their beginning, cannot be known. This is plain: that there in Teotihuacan, they say, is the place; the time was when there still was darkness. There all the gods assembled and consulted among themselves who would bear upon his back the burden of rule, who would be the sun. (This hath already been told in various places.) But when the sun came to appear, then all [the gods] died there. Through them the sun was made to revive. None remined who did not die (as hath been told). And thus the ancient ones through it."

Como se dice de en nahuatl por ejemplo el rey de mexico

Hola. Estoy a punto de buscar a buenos libros sobre náhuatl clásico como me gustaría aprenderlo. Les agradezcaría si me recomienden unos cuantos de ellos.

Are there any groups that learn together?

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was in Teotihuacán last week. Our guide was a relative of a friend who we were with for the duration of our stay in Tenochtitlan. According to our friend, our guide Gerardo was Mexica and spoke Nahuatl fluently. We did hear him speaking to someone in Nahuatl. He taught us the “proper” way to use Tiahui. According to him it should be Tiahui Mexica. As apposed to Mexica Tiahui.

He also said there was a relation to the natives of Teotihuacán and “Native Americans” up north.

He states the phrase “hokakei” (maybe spelt wrong) means “Today is a good day to die”. I’ve searched online and found native Americans use the same phrase to mean the same thing.

Anyone here know if the phrase and info from the guide to be accurate?

TIA

Hello,

I recently visited Teotihuacan (last week). After purchasing some things from some of the older natives, 2 of them said a phrase as a sort of well wishing.

They said it in Nahuatl then repeated it in Spanish.

It was along the lines of “May the Ancestors dance with you” or “May you dance with the Ancestors”. I’m Spanish speaking so I know they said Baila Con Los Abuelos and they said either Mitotli or Mitote when saying it in Nahuatl.

I was with family and with a guide so it was all very quick.

Does anyone know the full phrase in Nahuatl, as the natives say it?

TIA

does anyone know of a word similar to wound separation?

In English, resources have largely been made available in two variants. Those are Classical and Huasteca Nahuatl. Both are important for different reasons, and both can also be problematic on there own for different reasons. Huasteca is viewed with a level of skepticism by some in the Nahuatl learning community. This appears to be primarily because it has spent so much time in geographic isolation that it has become hard for many speakers of variants to understand even by Nahuatl standards, leading some to classify it as a separate language entirely although I have my doubts on that one. Regardless, the majority of English resources not for classical now exist in Huasteca. Some have questioned making a variant of such divergence the standard for teaching, while others don't think it's really that much of an issue. What are thoughts around here?

How does one say "Bald eagle"?

I finally found an app that replicates Duolingo, which imo is the best language learning software, well: Memrise (yes, I'm aware the future of Memrise community courses is uncertain but I have not found a software that matches this level of quality). Every day, I'll be adding all of my class notes from my Huasteca Nahuatl courses I've been taking with native speakers into the app in hopes of transferring it all into my long term memory.

If you are learning Huasteca Nahuatl and want extra practice, please join me at the link below (a little friendly competition is always helpful). I've been careful to include the most common phrases and words I encounter regularly in everyday, natural speech. I have not included any words that I already have stored in my long term memory such as simple nouns, verbs, colors, numbers etc. so this course could be considered to be intermediate. I utilize INALI spelling and audio files (my teachers tell me my pronunciation is very good in case you were wondering) for every word and phrase to maximize speaking, listening, writing, and reading practice. Also, I do not mix variants here so this course is composed of 100% Huasteca Nahuatl words and phrases only. Because there is a slight change in some sounds and also meanings of some words between Huasteca variants, I do provide the alternate pronunciations (e.g. some Huasteca variants pronounce the 'k' in Nokkiya as a j sound while others pronounce it as a k sound) and sometimes multiple words for the same thing (e.g. atemitl and atlahtli for river are used) whenever possible. Anyone who feels compelled to send me a donation for making my work available, please feel free to Venmo me at @ CalmecacAnahuac or consider becoming a patron.

Huasteca Nahuatl Memrise Course

I'm very happy that the Bible is translated (and readily available) in Huasteca, and I do know there's a trilingual edition of The Little Prince that's in English, Spanish, and Nahuatl, by one Patrick Johansson, but I have been unable to get a hold of it thus far. (In Tlazotepiltzin. I also found some poetry in Like A New Sun, edited by Víctor Téran.)

What I'm looking for is if anyone would know of any more modern books written in Huasteca or Nahuatl, foregoing ancient or very formal or ceremonial styles of writing. I have studied Nahuatl sort of surface-level thus far, but I would like to benefit from actually taking the time to learn the language, as well as get an idea of how indigenous speakers actually use their language on a day to day basis.

I would like to go further, but I think I'll need something to read to properly wrap my mind around the language. Anything would be useful, but I'm mostly looking for writing where the language is used as it would be in everyday life, and the absolute best would be something like a regular novel written in Spanish or Huasteca by a native speaker of the language.

I found a source saying it is Micazoyolin Is this correct?

Edit: sorry I should have specified but I am looking for the word in Huesteca Nahuatl

I found myself wondering today how many people are learning Nahuatl through Spanish and how many are learning it through English?

I’m Irish, but I learnt Mexican Spanish and the deep etimologías of so many Mexican words and names, cities and such (and my obsession with ancient Mexican culture) sparked the flame of Nahuatl in my soul, especially being from a country who’s indigenous language has gone through the same fate as Nahuatl (my great x2 grandparents had Irish as their first and only language, my great grandparents were forced to speak English & then my grandparents shamed by society that it was the language of barbarians and the poor/ unintelligent)

However, I’m learning Nahuatl through Spanish, it makes much more sense in terms of explanations for me, maybe because written Nahuatl came to be via the accounts of Spanish speakers? But all the Nahuatl content I search for is always via Spanish.

Does anyone here learn it through English? How has the journey been via that route? Is the content out there sufficient?

I’m trying to make a character for a fantasy story and I know mazatl is the Nahuatl word for deer and I read that the word “tlatla” mean something like “ to be burned” or to “burn” so I was thinking the name could be something like, “tlatlamazatl” but I didn’t want to get it wrong cause it sounds kind of wrong already lol. Can anyone help?

I’ve been referencing a tonalamatl or calendar to learn more about the cycle of the days. Who knows how far off this calendar is? And who knows how the extra days of the year were treated (all at once? Scattered throughout the year?)

But according to this version, Nemontemi or the “days in vain” are almost here. These 5 days are not assigned deities for the Sun nor Night; and is the time assigned to “reset” the otherwise perfect year of 18 months, each with 20 days.

Who knows how to treat these days? Were they like New Years, a time for reflection?

I’ve been told we cannot know the answers to these questions. Regardless, on some accounts, Nemontemi is approaching!

#NÁHUATL

Nikpia se Yaquesita

Non uel oniknek pan Sonora

Ijkuak mijtotia cumbia

Uan non kitta yej teneki

Nikpia se Yaquesita

Non uel oniknek pan Sonora

Ijkuak mijtotia cumbia

Uan non kitta yej teneki

Noyaquesitaé

Noyaquesitaé

Monakayo senka kualtsin

Non moitta ken achane

Noyaquesitaé

Noyaquesitaé

Monakayo senka kualtsin

Non moitta ken achane

Uan nochij Yaquis kijtoaj

Tlejka tikpia yori tlakatl?

Uan yej kiniluia nochi

"ninonamiktia iuan yori"

Uan nochij Yaquis kijtoaj

Tlejka tikpia yori tlakatl?

Uan yej kiniluia nochi

"ninonamiktia iuan yori"

Noyaquesitaé

Noyaquesitaé

Monakayo senka kualtsin

Non moitta ken achane

Noyaquesitaé

Noyaquesitaé

Monakayo senka kualtsin

Non moitta ken achane

#ESPAÑOL

Yo tengo una yaquesita

Que quise mucho en Sonora

Que cuando ella baila cumbia

Y el que la ve se enamora

Yo tengo una yaquesita

Que quise mucho en Sonora

Que cuando ella baila cumbia

Y el que la ve se enamora

Ay, mi yaquesita

Ay, mi yaquesita

Tú tienes un cuerpo hermoso

Que parece sirenita

Ay, mi yaquesita

Ay, mi yaquesita

Tú tienes un cuerpo hermoso

Que parece sirenita

Y todos los yaquis dicen

"¿Pos qué te traes hombre yori?"

Y yo le contesto a todos

"Que yo me caso con yori"

Y todos los yaquis dicen

"¿Pos qué te traes hombre yori?"

Y yo le contesto a todos

"Que yo me caso con yori"

Ay, mi yaquesita

Ay, mi yaquesita

Tú tienes un cuerpo hermoso

Que parece sirenita

Ay, mi yaquesita

Ay, mi yaquesita

Tú tienes un cuerpo hermoso

Que parece sirenita

Puro tepostli banda.

Hello, my mom is from El Salvador and her grandmother had an indigenous mother and remembers she used to say a word that sounded like “ishtu” a lot. The way she says it makes it sound like scolding/hushing? Maybe an exclamation? She doesn’t know what it means but remembers the word very clearly. Could it be a Nahuatl word? I don’t know how it’s spelled, just how it sounds. Any help you can provide would be awesome, thank you!

I've been learning both Huasteca and Classical Nahuatl and I have compiled the differences I have found so far between Huasteca Nahuatl and Classical Nahuatl (in an attempt to help answer the question "how similar is Huasteca Nahuatl to Classical Nahuatl?) that imo are minor and can be very easily reconciled:
the pronouns,

the past tense of verbs,

the reflexive,

the use of some prepositions such as in and ca,

some particles,

the -ni agent noun/adjective,

and the pluralization of nouns (this one is not as significant imo since the pluralization of nouns was already highly varied in classical nahuatl).

Lastly, most of the nouns and verbs I learn in Huasteca Nahuatl have the same meaning in Classical Nahuatl (or I can easily trace the root of the words by examining their grammatical structure). Sometimes I do encounter words that I can't find in Classical Nahuatl dictionaries and and vice versa but that does not happen very often.

Obviously I've been simultaneously learning Classical and Huasteca Nahuatl so I have some proficiency in both and thus it is possible that if one learns Huasteca Nahuatl they wont then automatically be able to read Classical Nahuatl. Maybe others will look at this list and not agree at all that these are small changes and that's ok. The point is the more I learn Huasteca Nahuatl, the better able I am to read Classical Nahuatl so there are functional skills that transfer well between the two. I hope this helps!

In the process of researching Mesoamerican folklore and I’m curious about a bit of terminology.

Because term “witch” is a byproduct of colonialism I am wondering what terms may have been applicable to those indigenous shamans and medicine-people.

Any ideas?

After 2 years of intensive Huasteca Nahuatl learning, I wanted to share three words and phrases that I have found to be indispensable:

1. Sampa - say this when you need your teacher to repeat what they said. In this context it means, "may you please repeat what you said?"
2. Tlen Kihtosneki? - say this when you dont understand the meaning of a word or phrase. In this context it means, "what does that mean?"
3. Axnikmati (amo nikmati in Central varieties) - say this when you don't know the answer to a question your teacher is asking you. In this context it means "I don't know it"

Using these words and phrases signals to your teacher that you are dedicated to learning the language by avoiding defaulting to another language and it helps you stay within the framework of Nahuatl even when you dont know something.

One of the biggest issues of expanding the language to new speakers is when people find out the amount of variations that exist in modern Nahuatl, nevermind the addition of classical, the lack of media / dubs / books / YouTube videos to enjoy in the language, and the prospect of finally learning the language but possibly never running into another nahuatl speaker of your dialect, would a standardized Nahuatl ever be possible one day?

There is an interesting thing about language evolution that originally it would of been the one dialect, evolving into many others due to distance and lack of communication back in times, but would devolution back to a single dialect ever happen? Or would one slowly take over and become the dominant Nahuatl?

I dream of the day there will be whole YouTube channels with modern content in Nahuatl, movie dubs, book translations and just media in general that isn’t about studying itself but more about enjoyment and use.

Hello friends, for about a year now I have been really interested in getting back to my roots and have recently decided that learning Nahuatl would be a solid start. I have not been successful finding an online source for learning the language. I have one book that I go to but I am not getting very far. Do you guys have any suggestions for apps, teachers, courses ?