The ''Arte de la lengua mexicana y castellana'' is a

grammar In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structure, structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clause (linguistics), clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraint ...

of the

Nahuatl language Nahuatl (; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan languages, Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahuas, Nahua peoples, most of whom live mainly in ...

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

Alonso de Molina Alonso de Molina (1513. or 1514.. – 1579 or 1585) was a Franciscan priest and grammarian, who wrote a well-known dictionary of the Nahuatl language published in 1571 and still used by scholars working on Nahuatl texts in the tradition of th ...

. It was published in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

in 1571, the same year as his monumental dictionary, ''

Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana ''Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana'' is a bilingual dictionary of Spanish and Nahuatl by Alonso de Molina, first published in 1555 originally entitled ''Aquí comiença un vocabulario en la lengua castellana y mexicana'', edited by Juan ...

''. The grammar is rudimentary, but does contain some insights on certain points, especially on pronunciation and

orthography An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation. Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and mos ...

. The ''Arte'' was republished in a

facsimile A facsimile (from Latin ''fac simile'', "to make alike") is a copy or reproduction of an old book, manuscript, map, Old master print, art print, or other item of historical value that is as true to the original source as possible. It differs from ...

edition in 1945.

References

External links

Digital reproduction of ''Arte de la lengua mexicana y castellana''
1571 books Nahuatl dictionaries and grammars {{IndigenousAmerican-lang-stub