Morphophonology
The phonological shapes of NahuatlAssimilation
Where a morpheme ending in a consonant is followed by a morpheme beginning in a consonant, one of the two consonants often undergoes assimilation, adopting features of the other consonant. Almost all doubled consonants in Nahuatl are produced by the assimilation of two different consonants from different morphemes. Doubled consonants within a single morpheme are rare, a notable example being the verb "see", and possibly indicates a fossilized double morpheme.Alternations in syllable-coda position
A number of consonants regularly undergo change when resyllabified into the coda position of a syllable due to morphological operations that delete following vowels, such as the preterite of class 2 verbs, and the possessive singular of some nouns. Examples of each alternation are given below, with each form broken into its syllables and the alternating consonants in bold: * becomes which is further devoiced ** "flag" — "our flag" ** "he shaves" — "he shaved" * devoices to , or to when preceded by /s/ (i.e. or , ) in the same word ** "I do — "I did" ** "plants are in bud, spring is arriving" — "plants were in bud" * debuccalizes to . This alternation does not affect all instances of syllable-final and is sensitive to stem choice and position in the word. ** "I was" — "I am". Here the alternation is mandatory in ''word''-final position, but absent in non-word-final ''syllable''-final position. ** "I find out" — ''or'' "I found out" (the former being more common), but "we found out". Here likewise the alternation is absent in non-word-final -final position, but is optional in -final position. ** "I am born" — "I was born". Here the alternation is always absent. Additionally, syllable final /kʷ/, spelled maybe sometimes delabialize to with no conditioning factors, as in the word , from "our lord".Subject marking
Every predicate takes an obligatory prefix marking the person and number of its subject, except for the third person that has no prefix, only the plural marker (e.g. ''tlācatl'' both means "person" and "she/he is a person"). Both verbal predicates (e.g. 'I ') and nominal predicates (e.g. 'I ') mark their subjects ('I' in the two preceding examples) identically, and nouns bearing subject prefixes can serve as predicates (i.e. 'to be an X') without a copula. Both nominal and verbal predicates distinguish two numbers: singular and plural, and the number of a subject prefix must match that of its predicate.Nouns
The noun is inflected for two basic contrasting categories: *possessedness: non-possessed contrasts with possessed *number: singular contrasts with plural Nouns belong to one of two classes: animate or inanimate. Originally the grammatical distinction between these were that inanimate nouns had no plural forms, but in most modern dialects both animate and inanimate nouns are pluralizable. Nominal morphology is mostly suffixing. Some irregular formations exist.Absolutive suffix
Nouns in their citation form take aNumber
*The absolutive singular suffix has three basic forms: ''-tl/tli, -in'', and some irregular nouns with no suffix. *The absolutive plural suffix has three basic forms: , , or a final glottal stop . Some plurals are formed also withAlienable possession
Possessed nouns receive a prefix indexing the person and number of the possessor, and a possessive suffix indicating the number of the possessed noun, which may be phonologically null. The of the first and second person singular and plural suffixes , , , is eclipsed by the following vowel of any vowel initial noun, except for short , which may instead be eclipsed by . Whether this stem initial short is considered a "real" vowel which resists eclipsis varies with each noun stem, and some nouns are attested with both possibilities. Nouns may also be divided into several classes based on the shape of the singular possessive suffix they take, and any modifications to the noun stem itself when possessed. The plural possessive is comparatively regular, always taking the suffix , and observes the same restriction as the absolutive in that it is only available for animate nouns. Possessed nouns may also take subject prefixes, preceding the possessor prefix. Plural subjects require the use of the plural possessive suffix.Inalienable possession
The suffix — the same suffix as the abstract/collective — may be added to a possessed noun to indicate that it is a part of its possessor, rather than just being owned by it. For example, both and (possessed forms of ) mean "my meat", but may refer to meat that one has to eat, while refers to the flesh that makes up one's body. This is known as inalienable, integral or organic possession.Affective nouns
Some other categories can be inflected on the noun such as: : Honorific formed with the suffix .Verbs
All verbs are marked with prefixes which agree with their subjects. Classical Nahuatl displays nominative–accusative alignment, and transitive verbs thus take distinct a set of prefixes which mark their objects. Verbs inflect for a number ofTense-aspect-mood inflection
Verbs inflect for tense-aspect-mood by adding various suffixes to the appropriate verbal base. Base 1 is the normal orStem classes
Verbs can be divided into four classes depending on how the stem is modified in the various inflections; most verbs will fall within classes 2 and 3 described below. Important to understanding the behavior of vowel length in the various inflections is the generalization that long vowels are shortened when word-final (i.e. not followed by further suffixes) or before a glottal stop. These vowels' underlying length resurfaces when suffixes are attached. In the following examples, verb stems are cited with their underlying final vowel length, and only in inflected forms is phonetic shortening applied. Stems ending in or , which are the only verbs which end in two consecutive vowels, are always of class 3. Class 4 comprises only a few commonly used verbs. Stems which end in a long vowel with the exception of those in class 4, or in two consonants followed by a vowel, are always of class 1. Stems ending in a single, short vowel, possibly preceded by a single consonant, may belong to either class 1 or 2. Verbs of class 3 and 4 end in a long vowel, and thus exhibit shortening in some forms, while the final vowel of class 2 verbs is never long, and thus is invariant in length. Here class 1 is divided into two subclasses based on the length of the final vowel, 1-S(hort) and 1-L(ong).Present
The present is formed on base 1, with no suffix in the singular, and in the plural, e.g. 'I am sleeping,' 'they are speaking,' 'I am making it.' A number of common irregular verbs lack a morphological present, instead using the preterite with a present tense meaning.Imperfect
The imperfect is formed on base 1, with the suffix in the singular and in the plural, preserving underlying vowel length. It is similar in meaning to the imperfect in theQuotidian
The habitual present, customary present, or quotidian is formed on base 1 with the suffix is in the singular, and in the plural, preserving underlying vowel length. Rather than one specific event this form expresses the subject's tendency or propensity to repeatedly or habitually perform the same action over time, and is most commonly used to nominalize verbs, deriving a noun with the meaning 'one who customarily does ...'. When used nominally, the plural of this form is variable.Preterite
The preterite or perfect is formed on base 2 with no suffix in the singular for classes 2, 3, and 4, and the suffix for class 1; the plural is formed on base 2 with the suffix for all classes, without the suffix in class 1. It is similar in meaning to the English simple past or present perfect. The preterite is often accompanied by the particle , whose distribution and semantics are elaborated on below. E.g. 'I slept', 'they spoke', 'I made it'. In irregular verbs which lack a morphological present, the preterite is used with a present tense meaning, without the particle . In these verbs, the morphological pluperfect is used to convey both the preterite and pluperfect.Pluperfect
The pluperfect is formed on base 2, as in the preterite, with the suffix in the singular and in the plural. It roughly corresponds with the English past perfect, although more precisely it indicates that a particular action or state was in effect in the past but that it has been undone or reversed at the time of speaking. It is frequently accompanied by the particle , e.g. 'I had slept,' 'they had spoken,' 'I had made it.Admonitive
The vetitive or admonitive is formed on base 2, identically to the preterite, except for class 1, which attaches and not to base 2. The plural is formed by attaching or to the singular. It issues a warning that something may come to pass which the speaker does not desire, and steps should be taken to avoid this (cf. the English conjunction ''lest''). The negative of this mood warns that a non-occurrence of the action is undesirable and is used as a strong imperative. The admonitive is used in conjunction with the particles or . E.g. 'be careful, lest I sleep', 'watch out, they may speak' 'don't let me make it'.Future
The future is formed on base 3, with the suffix in the singular and in the plural. In addition to its use as a simple future tense, it can function as a weak imperative in the second person, and may sometimes be translated as 'want to' or 'have to'. It is often used in constructions where the English infinitive would be used. E.g. 'I will sleep,' 'they will speak', .Optative-Imperative
The optative-imperative is formed on base 3 with no suffix in the singular, shortening the final vowel, and the suffix in the plural, preserving vowel length. This form uses the special subject prefixes in the second person, where it may be called the imperative, and the regular subject prefixes in all other persons, where it may be called the optative. The imperative is used for commands, the optative for wishes or desires, both often in conjunction with the particles and . E.g. 'may I make it!',Past Optative
The past optative is formed identically to the quotidian, but uses the optative second person subject prefix . It is used to express a counterfactual situation that the speaker wishes were true but is not, usually in the antecedent of a hypothetical conditional sentence, where the consequent is inflected in the conditional form described below. Example: ''In tlā tinocnīuh xiyeni, tinēchpalēhuīzquiya'' 'if only you were my friend, you would help me (but you are not)'.Conditional
The conditional, irrealis, or counterfactual is formed on the inflected ''future singular'' with the suffix in the singular and in the plural. The basic meaning is that a state or action that was intended or desired did not come to pass. It can be translated as 'would have,' 'almost,' etc. Examples: 'I would have slept,' 'they would have spoken,' 'I would have made it.'Summary of tense-aspect-mood inflection
The fully inflected forms for verbs of all stem classes are summarized below, presented in the third person singular and plural in all forms except for the optative moods, which are presented with the second person prefixes. Forms with phonologically conditioned shortening of underlying long base vowels are marked in bold.Irregular verbs
A number of irregular verbs exist, many of which are very common in the language. Irregular verbs may be either defective, lacking certain inflections, orDefective verbs
The most common class of defective verbs are those in which the inflected present is missing, and its meaning is thus expressed by the preterite. The pluperfect in turn replaces the preterite and continues to be used as a pluperfect. In this preterite-as-present use, the particle is not used. Common verbs in this class include "to be", "to lie spread out, to be in a place, to remain", "to stand, to remain", "to be hanging", and any verbs derived from this class, which display the same defective behavior. These verbs are otherwise regular. "to go" can be analyzed as , being composed of the verb attached directly to the verb , whose simplex form is unattested. It is used here to illustrate the irregular inflection of the small family of verbs including , and the two verbs and (both meaning "to go along carrying"), which all display the same irregularity. These forms likewise lack a present and use the preterite-as-present, but additionally also lack several common other common forms, which are likewise replaced with the preterite.Suppletive verbs
The verbs "to be" and "to go" draw their forms from two distinct stems. is used only in the preterite(-as-present) and pluperfect, with used in all other forms. and related forms supply most of the forms of the singular, and the plural. is composed of the verb with the directional prefix , the initial of the stem becoming by regular progressive assimilation.Summary of irregular verbs
The inflected forms of the common irregular verbs , , , and are provided below.Transitivity
Verbs are either intransitive, taking only a subject, or transitive, taking both a subject and an object. A small class of ergative verbs are ''ambitransitive'', functioning either transitively or intransitively, as in "he grinds (something)", "he grinds it". Another small class of unaccusative ambitransitive verbs ending in exhibit a regular covariance of class and transitivity, being of class 1 when used intransitively, and class 2 transitively, i.e. "I became clean", "I cleaned it".Transitive object marking
Transitive and bitransitive verbs take a distinct set of prefixes, after subject marking, but before the stem, to mark their objects. Verbs may mark multiple objects simultaneously, subject to some restrictions. ''1, 2, 3, S, P'' refer to the first, second, and third person in the singular and plural. Third person objects may be either animate (e.g. 'him') or inanimate (e.g. 'it'). ''R'' marks a ''reflexive'' object, the subject acting upon itself; or a ''reciprocal'' object, multiple entities acting on each other. Reflexive and reciprocal objects can only be used with subject marking of the same person and number, e.g. , These are the ''referential'' objects, which have also been termed ''specific'' or ''definite''. The constituent cross-referenced by a referential pronoun may, however, potentially be neither semanticallyDistribution and order of object prefixes
Transitive verbs must always take an object prefix, whether referential or non-referential, if the object is unknown or unspecified. A number of inherently bitransitive verbs such as , and verbs with additional causative and applicative objects can have more than one object, but verbs may only index one non-reflexive referential object though the object prefixes, i.e. , , but not . The only exception to this prohibition against multiple non-reflexive referential object prefixes is the case where a non-third person object and a third person plural object are both indexed, with the third person plural prefix taking the shape . There is no restriction against the co-occurrence of a referential and non-referential prefix, or multiple non-referential prefixes, as in some derived causatives or applicatives. The prefixes occur in the following fixed order: # referential object # reduced third person plural object # referential reflexive # non-referential human # non-referential non-human The prefix only appears in reflexive verbs in the ''impersonal'', ''causative'', and ''applicative'', to be described below, and some nominalizations. Its placement is more complex and less fixed.Reflexive verbs
Any transitive verb may be made reflexive through the use of the reflexive object prefixes; some morphologically transitive verbs, however, are almost always only used reflexively, e.g. in , or in . Other commonly used transitive verbs may be used transitively, but gain new or unexpected meanings when used reflexively, e.g. * — * — * — . Another common use of the reflexive is with a connotation like that of the passive, wherein an event is presented as happening spontaneously through a participant's acting on itself, backgrounding the trueValency-changing operations
The number of arguments a verb takes is referred to as its valency. Verbs can be ''impersonal'', with 0 arguments, e.g. ; ''intransitive'', with 1 argument, a subject, e.g. ; ''monotransitive'', with 2 arguments, a subject and on object, e.g. ; or ''bitransitive'', with 3 arguments, a subject and 2 objects, e.g. . Classical Nahuatl verbs may change their valency through a number of morphological processes, decreasing it through impersonalization orImpersonal
Some ''intransitive'' verbs with inanimate subjects may take the prefix deriving an ''impersonal'' verb referring to a generalized, often natural phenomonenon, e.g. * — * — * — In a limited number of cases, an already impersonal verb may be redundantly impersonalized, or the source intransitive verb may have an animate subject, e.g. * — * —Base 4 nonactive stem
More common and productive than the impersonal is a process by which verbs are impersonalized or passivized through stem change. The shape a verb takes in these forms is known as the ''nonactive'' stem or ''base 4''. Its form is somewhat unpredictable, with some verbs having multiple attested forms, but it is generally derived by adding to the (base 1) imperfective stem one of the simple endings , or , or one of the combinations , or , e.g. * — * — * — The rules governing the suffix added to a verb stem involve both its phonological shape and transitivity. The variants in are most common for intransitive verbs, and for transitive ones, whereas is suffixed only to a small number of irregular verbs. The stem final vowel may be lengthened, as with — , and stem final may be palatalized to respectively, e.g. * — * — * — In the case of the irregular compound verbs , and and both meaning is suffixed to the embedded verb, i.e. before . * — * — * — The nonactive stem of is .Impersonal
Both intransitive and transitive verbs may be impersonalized through the use of the nonactive stem, deriving a verb with the meaning 'one does', 'people do' or sometimes 'everyone does'. Impersonal verbs take no subject agreement prefixes, and always use the singular endings. Intransitive verbs are directly impersonalized by the use of the nonactive stem, while transitive verbs must first fill their object prefix positions with the appropriate nonreferential prefixes before the use of the nonactive stem, and reflexive verbs take the nonreferential reflexive prefix , e.g. * — * — * — * — * —Passive
Only transitive verbs can be passivized. The subject of the transitive verb is discarded, and its object becomes the subject of the passivized verb, which agrees with it in number. The rules governing argument marking are complex in passives of verbs with more than one object, such as inherently bitransitive verbs like and verbs with additional causative or applicative objects, but it is generally only the animate ''beneficiary'' or ''recipient'' object which may become the subject of the passivized verb, and additional objects prefixes are only present on the passivized verb if they were also present on active verb (i.e. they are nonreferential, or the 3p-object ), e.g. * — * — * — * —Applicative
The applicative construction adds an argument to the verb. The role of the added argument can be benefactive, malefactive, indirect object or similar. It is formed by the suffix . * "I see it for him"Causative
The causative construction adds an additional object to the verb. The subject of the source becomes an object of the causativized verb, the ''causee''; a new subject is introduced, the ''causer''; and the original object of a transitive source remains an object of the causativized verb, though often only one object is marked because of the prohibition against multiple referential object prefixes. The formation of the causative is highly variable, and may involve replacement of the stem final vowel with short or long or , palatalization of the final consonant of the stem (whereby ''c/z, t, tz'' become ''x, ch, ch'', respectively), the loss of a stem final vowel, the addition of the suffix , a number of minor strategies, or a combination of these strategies, prior to the addition of the causative suffix'','' which is most commonly , but may also be or in a smaller number of verbs. Many verbs are attested with multiple causatives formed on the different strategies described, and the causative(s) of each verb must be learned individually. Some common verbs and their causatives are: * "it appears" — "I cause it to appear" (palatalization, loss of final , ) * "he cries" — "I cause him to cry" (replacement of vowel with , addition of , ) * "it is born" — "I cause it to be born" ()Directional prefixes
Two prefixes indicate direction of motion relative to a reference point, usually the speaker but sometimes another point. * * The directional prefixes immediately follow the referential object prefixes and immediately precede the referential reflexive prefixes. When preceding the third person singular object prefix and the directional prefix , the combinations , , become , , respectively. The prefixes are common on verbs of motion, e.g. * — * — * — They may also be used on non-motion verbs with the meaning "go/come and" or "go/come in order to", or to indicate the direction towards which an action is directed, e.g. * * The defective, preterite-as-present verb is always used with the prefix (except when head of a verbal compound), i.e. . The irregular verb in combination with the prefix may indicate either location or existence, e.g. .Direction of motion suffixes
Two sets of suffixes may be attached to base 3 (the future stem) of a verb indicating the direction of motion. These have a more literal directional meaning than the prefixes, and are often translated as "come/go to in order to do" and thus have also been termed ''purposive'' suffixes. The ''inbound'' or ''introvert'' series marks the subject arriving or coming, while the ''outbound'' or ''extrovert'' marks the subject as leaving or going. Each series only inflects for three forms: the past, the non-past, which can refer either to the present or the future, and the optative.Verbal compounds
Verbs, unlike nouns, generally cannot freely combine. A small class of ''embedding'' verbs, however, may form compounds with an ''embedded'' verb stem of a shape determined by the embedding or ''matrix'' verb. Two major classes of matrix verb exist, those that categorize for an embedded base 2 stem (the perfective stem) followed by the ligature , and those that categorize for a verb inflected in the future singular with no ligature. In both cases, the two verbs form a single compound that shares subject, object, and tense-aspect-mood marking. The valency changing operations, however, which create new stems, may individually target either the embedded stem, the matrix stem, or both in some cases. Verbal compounds are used to convey a variety of aspectual and modal distinctions in addition to those marked by the usual inflectional paradigm.Perfective embedding verbs
These form the largest class of embedding verbs. The perfective stem of the embedded verb is immediately followed by the ligature , whose vowel disappears before vowel-initial matrix verbs such as and , and then the matrix verb itself. The verb takes the embedded form , and the verb the form . A non-exhaustive list of common perfective embedding verbs is presented below, separated into the embedded verb and its prefixes, the ligature, and the matrix verb. The stem only appears embedded in a matrix verb. The stem normally only found and related verbs is also often found embedded. Embedding may apply recursively, e.g.Future embedding verbs
Two verbs, and , select an embedded verb in the future singular. The verb may be used independently with the meaning 'to need' or 'to want', and when it embeds a future verb, it may mean 'to want to do' or 'to be about to', 'to be on the verge of', e.g. * — * — * — . The resulting compound verb may be inflected as with any other verb, e.g. . This construction may only be used to describe the subject wanting itself to perform the action; aNoun Incorporation
Object incorporation
Transitive verbs may incorporate a direct object, which must generally be indefinite and nonspecific. The verb thus lowers its valency, transitive verbs becoming intransitive and bitransitive verbs becoming monotransitive, deriving a verb signifying the general 'grouping together of the verb and object sa meaningful totality', e.g. * — * — * —Modifying incorporation
Verbs of any valence may incorporate a noun with a wide range of semantic functions, leaving its valency unchanged. The incorporated noun may be an ''instrument'', ''comparison'', ''cause'', ''place'', ''time'', or ''part'' , e.g. * from , * from , * from , * from , * from , * from ,Relational nouns and locatives
As with many languages of the Mesoamerican linguistic area, locative expressions in Classical Nahuatl are often formed with possessed relational nouns, many transparently derived from body part nouns, e.g. from . Many categories expressed using adpositions or case in other languages (e.g. 'with', 'for', 'because of') are likewise expressed with possessed relational nouns, e.g. . Productive processes exist deriving locative expressions from verbs, and locatives can be incorporated into verb and nominal compounds. Some relational nouns may likewise incorporate noun stems, forming complex locatives, e.g. . Some frequent relational nouns include: The degree to which relational forms may be analyzed as nominal in nature differs, with some transparently derived from nouns and able to appear with the absolutive suffix, e.g. , and some more ambiguous, having been analyzed variously as nouns with a phonologically null absolutive suffix, or as true locative suffixes, e.g. the ubiquitous form . Some locatives do not appear to be derived from relational nouns, e.g. , , . Andrews identifies 4 behaviors that a relational noun may display: # It may be possessed, e.g. # It may embed a noun, optionally possessed, e.g. # It may embed a noun with the ligature , optionally possessed, e.g. # It may be further embedded in a nominal compound or a verb, e.g. . Many relational nouns allow more than one behavior.Path-neutrality
Classical Nahuatl locatives are ''path-neutral'', that is, they identify that a constituent is a place and not a thing, but not the presence or absence of motion, or its direction relative to the location. As such, a locative may be ambiguous between a source of motion, a goal, or the location of an event, with 'the spatial role of a locative disambiguated by virtue of other clues such as the lexical meaning of the verb, the translocative/cislocative directional prefix attached to the verb stem, the spatial relationship between the speaker and the location which the locative denotes, etc.', e.g.Derivational processes
There exist a variety of strategies and morphological devices in Classical Nahuatl for deriving words of one part of speech from a stem or inflected word of another. Derivation can apply recursively, potentially creating long and derivationally complex forms. While many derivational devices are highly productive, some derived forms have unpredictable meanings, and some derivational strategies are no longer productive, applying only to a closed set of stems.Derived nouns
A common and productive source of derived nouns is the nominalization of verbs. Morphologically verbal forms may be nominalized through reanalysis as a noun, and in many cases a nominalized verb is formally identical to its verb source. Other processes derive fully nominal stems which may participate directly in the full breadth of Classical Nahuatl nominal morphology.Preterite agent
Verbs in the ''preterite'' may be reanalyzed as agentive nouns, referring to the person or thing that carries out the action, e.g. , . The nonreferential object prefixes replace the referential ones in transitive verbs. While such forms are frequently formally identical to verbs, singular forms may take the archaic preterite ending , rarely present in non-nominalized verbs, e.g. (compare ). Some verbs permit nominalizations with or without the ending with a difference in meaning, forms with generally referring to animate entities, e.g. . Some plural forms may require reduplication of the verb stem as with some nouns, e.g. (compare ). When possessed or subject to further compounding, incorporation, or derivation, the nominalized preterite takes a special form sometimes known as the ''general use-stem'', attaching the suffix to the base 2 ''perfective stem'', e.g. , .Nouns of ownership in , , and
The suffixes , , and attach to nouns, deriving a noun with the meaning 'one who owns ...' from the suffixes and , and 'one who owns abundantly, characteristically, or is covered in ...' from the suffix , e.g. from ; from ; from . The suffixes and are synonymous variants of one another; consonant-final nouns stems generally select , and vowel-final stems , with some exceptions. The suffix is subject to progressive assimilation following consonant-final stems, e.g. from . Though almost always translated as nouns, the forms , , and are in fact verbs in the preterite, nominalized as agentive nouns through the process described above. Traces of their verbal origin can however be seen in their plural formation in , e.g. , their use of the ''general-use stem'' when possessed or in compounds as with other nominalized preterite agents, and their ability to be embedded by perfective-embedding verbs, e.g. .active customary agent
Verbs in the form, also called the ''habitual'', ''customary'', or ''quotidian'', may function as nouns with the meaning 'one who customarily does ...' or 'one who is given to ...', describing a trait or quality, e.g. , , . The referential object prefixes are generally not used with nominalizations of the form, the non-referential object prefixes being used instead. The plural of this form may be in either as with verbs, or as with nouns, with a slight difference in nuance, the verbal plural implying a 'characteristic or habit' and the nominal one ' embership ina group or category of people who have this characteristic'. The meaning of the form may be similar to that of the preterite agent, and in some cases, the plural is built on the nominalization of the corresponding preterite form, as with , the plural of , or , the plural of . The agent cannot generally participate in nominal morphology (e.g. being possessed, compounding), and the ''general-use stem'' of the corresponding preterite agent must be used instead, e.g. .passive patients and impersonal instruments
A ''passivized'' verb in the form functions as a noun meaning 'entity capable or worthy of being ...', e.g. from , passive of ; from , passive of . An ''impersonalized'' verb in the form functions as a noun meaning 'instrument by means of which an action is carried out', e.g. from , impersonal of . These nouns may be possessed, using the ''impersonal imperfect'' as the possessive stem, e.g. .Action nominalizations in
The suffixes and attach to verbs, deriving nouns with the meaning 'the action, process, or state of ...', e.g. from , from . The variant is generally only selected by intransitive verbs ending in short , though many verbs which select may also take , e.g. ''or'' from . The suffixes generally attach to base 3 (the future base) of the verb, meaning long vowels are retained, and class 3 verbs lose their final and lengthen the penult. Verbs ending in and may replace the final vowel with prior to attaching the suffixes, e.g. from , and verbs ending in and may palatalize the final consonants to and , e.g. from . Transitive verbs must use the nonreferential object prefixes, and reflexive verbs use the nonreferential reflexive , e.g. from ; from . Rarely, intransitive or transitive stems (without nonreferential object prefixes) may take and , deriving a patient noun with the meaning 'an entity capable or worthy of being ...', e.g. from ; from . These forms may participate in nominal compounding or further derivation, and can be possessed, the possessor always referencing the ''subject'' of the source verb, e.g. .Patient nominalizations
This process derives fully nominal noun stems which take the absolutive suffix and refer to the ''patient'' of the source verb. Within this category are strategies which are comparatively less common and productive, and whose derived noun's semantic relation to the source verb can be opaque; alongside a highly productive strategy that derives noun stems with a comparatively regular meaning. The base 4 ''nonactive'' or ''impersonal'' stem, with or without the suffix , is generally taken as the stem of the derived noun, though some may also be derived from the base 2 ''preterite'' stem. In the first, less common strategy, a ''monotransitive'' verb (i.e. one taking only a single object) with no object prefixes, put into the appropriate base, is directly used as a noun stem, e.g. * from * from * from Some ''intransitive'' or ''impersonal'' verbs may also participate in this strategy, e.g. * from * from A more regular and productive strategy built on ''monotransitive'' verbs attaches the prefix to the appropriate base, for verbs with animate objects which normally take , e.g. * from * from * from This strategy is thought to have been highly productive in the Classical period, to the extent that 'there are many patient nouns with [] which appears in the dictionaries and grammatical texts but are not attested in other contexts, suggesting that the patient nominalization with [] is so powerful that it was easy to fabricate words which were not in use in real conversations or narratives.' Other, less common strategies include nominalizations of reflexive verbs which take , deriving a noun with an instrumental or process meaning; and verbs which can take or an animate and inanimate object, and may be nominalized with either or , with a difference in meaning, e.g. * from * from * from * fromDerived verbs
* derives from noun X a verb with an approximate meaning of "to provide with X " or "to become X." * derives from noun X a verb with an approximate meaning of "to use X " or "to provide with X." * derives from a noun X a noun with an abstract meaning of "X-hood or X-ness."Syntax
The syntax of Classical Nahuatl is basically predicate-initial while allowing fronting for focalization or topicalization, allows extensive null anaphora, some freedom in the internal ordering of the noun phrase, and features a series of particles preceding the verb in a relatively fixed order which encode distinctions such asPre-predicate particles
These particles cannot stand independently as sentences and must precede a predicate, whether verbal or nominal. A non-exhaustive list of some of the most common pre-predicate particles is given below. Long strings of particles frequently combine in a fixed order, written as single words, and some collocations have fixed and unpredictable meanings.Word order
Many possible orders of Subject, Object, and Verb are attested in Classical Nahuatl corpora, and some degree of uncertainty exists regarding its basic word order. Characterizations have differed, stemming from both the differing size of corpora examined and interpretations of marginal patterns. Launey characterizes the basic, unmarked word order of Classical Nahuatl as Verb-Subject, or more generally Predicate-Subject, in the case of non-verbal predicates. Arguments of predicates are generally preceded by the particle . With transitive verbs, the unmarked word order is VSO, and either argument may be freely omitted. The object, if indefinite, immediately follows the verb, appearing without the particle , producing the order VOS, reminiscent of the pattern of pseudo-noun-incorporation in other predicate-initial languages such as Niuean and Chʼol. Steele reports three generalizations from textual analysis: # In transitive clauses with Subject and Object both explicit, the most common orders are SVO and VOS, followed by VSO. SOV is marginal. # In transitive clauses with only one explicit argument, verb-initial orders are preferred, though the order VO is much more common than OV, while VS is only slightly more common than SV. # In intransitive clauses, the order VS is more common. Hill and Hill characterize the verb-initial orders as basic, analyzing preverbal arguments as 'generally being demonstrably left-dislocated (as evidenced by intonation contours and pauses in modern varieties, and to some degree by punctuation in documents)'. Some examples of VOS order with definite objects are however noted by Steele, e.g. Sasaki, citing Launey, provides examples of all three 'very rare' OV orders in transitive clauses, but likewise analyzes these as 'normally the result of some discourse-pragmatic operations such as topicalization.'Topicalization
A constituent may appear before the predicate and any pre-predicate particles, topicalizing it, with the remainder of the predicate serving as its comment. The topicalized constituent may be a subject, object, or a possessor of another constituent in the comment. Both subject and object may rarely be topicalized together, producing the surface order SOV, while the order OSV is 'virtually unknown'. Rarely, a topic is not referenced by any constituent in the comment. Regular nouns as well as personal pronouns may both appear as topics, e.g.Focalization
Owing to Classical Nahuatl's flexibility in allowing expressions of many types to directly serve as predicates without a copula, or as arguments through the use of the particle , the semantic roles of predicate and argument may be reversed, focalizing an argument which is presented as new or contrastive information, against the background of the remainder of the sentence. Such constructions have been analyzed as clefts, with the focalized element serving as the predicate, and the cleft clause introduced by the particle . Subjects, objects, locatives, and constituents of many other semantic types may all be focalized. Definite arguments (i.e. those that would normally be preceded by the particle ) cannot be focalized directly, as the predicate may not be marked with . Instead, one of the emphatic independent personal pronouns is focalized, e.g.The particle
The particle , also called the ''adjunctor'', is one of the most frequent words in the Classical Nahuatl language. Used variously as a kind of definite article, complementizer, subordinator, relativizer, and frequently seen in expressions of time, place, manner, and comparison, its meaning and approximate translation are highly dependent on the context in which it is found, and only some of its uses are covered here. The prototypical use of marks an argument of a predicate. In this usage it can frequently be translated as aThe particle
The particle , called either the ''augment'' or the ''antecessive order particle'', can be found preceding verb forms with a past meaning indicating that "the action, process, or state reported by the verb-stem has taken place prior to another event" and that "a completed event can have consequences at a later time - in particular, at the moment of speaking." The particle is almost always found with verbs in the preterite or pluperfect in conversation, though may be absent in historical narrative or myth. Less commonly, the particle is also found with verbs in the imperfect, and also the past optative and conditional in the antecedent and consequent respectively of certain types of past conditional clauses. Though often written as a single word with a following verb, the particle is not a verbal prefix, and does not behave phonologically as part of the verb in that it does not license the use of the allomorph of the 3s-object prefix before another consonant, e.g. not . Furthermore, certain particles preceding the verb as well as constituents commonly anteposed before the verb may optionally host the particle in its place, e.g. * the particle : — * the particle : — * an anteposed subject or object: — * an anteposed locative: — Although frequently associates with verbs in the preterite, it is never found in nominalizations of the preterite.Emphatic pronouns
Classical Nahuatl has three series of emphatic pronouns which are used toIndeterminate pronouns and quantifiers
Classical Nahuatl possesses a series ofNegation
Predicate negation is expressed with the proclitic , which may be hosted directly on the predicate, as in or , but is much more commonly hosted on other pre-predicate particles such as , , , producing respectively , , . When no such particle exists to host the clitic, it is commonly hosted on the particle , as in , which is frequently present even when such other particles exist, as in , , with the same meanings as above. A negated admonitive verb signals a strengthened imperative 'do not fail to...', and always takes the form appended directly to the verb. Negative quantification is expressed by attaching to the indeterminate pronouns , , , , etc., producing respectively , , , . Multiple indeterminate pronouns may appear under the scope of negation, where only one negative particle appears, e.g. . When both aspectual or modal particles and indefinite pronouns are negated together, the indefinite usually follows the aspectual or modal, as in , but not in , which appears closer to the predicate, e.g. . When preceded by or in the optative-imperative or a conditional clause, the negative particle takes the form , whose behavior is otherwise unchanged, e.g. , , e.g.Questions
Polar questions
Content questions
Content questions may be formed with an indeterminate pronoun at the beginning of a sentence, optionally followed by the question particle , e.g. Alternatively, the pronoun may be followed by the particles , giving the question an air of 'exasperation or amazement', e.g. ; or the particle 'to express a rhetorical question containing a note of surrender', e.g. The indeterminate pronoun may also used predicatively, followed by the particle in a construction reminiscent of a pseudo-cleft, e.g. , or .Embedded questions
Both polar questions and content questions, optionally preceded by the particle and embedded under an appropriate predicate, can form embedded questions. In such constructions, verbs of speaking or saying such as or may be translated as 'ask', e.g. . The particle as a polar question marker may be replaced by , e.g. .Relative clauses
Relative clauses are externally-headed, and prototypically postnominal and introduced by the particle . Apart from the gap left by the relativized noun, the relative clause retains all the properties of an independent clause; verbs, in particular, continue to agree with the relativized element. When agreement markers do not unambiguously identify the role of the relativized element, cases of ambiguity are possible, and context must determine which reading is intended, e.g. Short relative clauses may appear without the particle postnominally, or immediately prenominally, e.g. Typically, however, long and more complex relative clauses of the types presented below must be of the form noun relative clause. Possessors, including those of relational nouns, may also be relativized, with the possessed noun in initial position in the relative clause, immediately following ,. Locatives may be relativized with or . e.g.Distribution and analysis of subject marking
In addition to the obligatory marking of subjects and objects on predicates, Classical Nahuatl also exhibits a typologically highly uncommon phenomenon whereby the of predicates also bear identical subject markers which agree with coreferential arguments marked on the predicate, even in the 1st- and 2nd-person. Examples taken from (Sasaki, 2012), transcription, glossing and translations slightly adapted. This morphological symmetry between verbs and nouns, and between predicates and arguments, has led Launey and Andrews to propose ''omnipredicative'' and ''omniclausal'' analyses respectively of Classical Nahuatl syntax, in which every putative argument noun is 'primarily predicative' in nature, and its 'argumental use is derived through the process of cross-reference' in Launey's omnipredicative formulation; Andrews' is even more radical, proposing that 'what have been traditionally called "nouns" and "verbs" are not really nouns and verbs, but word-sized nominal and verbal clauses which obligatorily contain a subject and a predicate within single words'. Under such analyses, 'Classical Nahuatl nouns are pre-formed subject–predicate complexes regardless of their syntactic positions and even non-predicational ..nouns preserve their predicative structures through the process of subordination.' Launey and Andrews thus analyze even 3rd-person argument nouns with no overt subject prefixes as bearing covert subject marking cross-referenced with the 3rd-person marking of the predicate, e.g. Sasaki identifies several problems with such analyses: # They incorrectly predict the denotation of multi-word figurative expressions (i.e. '' difrasismos''), of which each constituent is independently agreement-marked, to identify the subject with each constituent separately, and not the expression's derived, figurative meaning. # The denotation of constructions containing agreement-marked complements of copulae and other resultative expressions cannot be straightforwardly derived from an analysis in which the complement is itself a complete predicative proposition with clausal structure. # The denotation of quantificational expressions which may bear agreement-marking (e.g. , ) is quantificational as expected (i.e. 'all of us') and not predicative (i.e. 'we are all').In such as and , each constituent is individually agreement-marked. Sasaki argues omnipredicative and omniclausal models of Classical Nahuatl syntax incorrectly predict expressions such as should mean and not .
Complements
Sasaki notes a class of verbs which are closely associated with an agreement-marked complement with which they appear to form a complex predicate, and which frequently show an alternation in meaning when paired with a complement, e.g. vs. , vs. , vs. . Sasaki argues an analysis wherein the verb and its agreement-marked complement are both predicates fails to account for either the semantic alternation of the verb, or the fact that the complement lacks an independent truth condition or illocutionary force.Quantificational expressions
Quantificational expressions such as 'all of' and 'one of' may bear agreement-marking, but the meaning of such expressions in not predicative. Furthermore, such agreement is optional in some cases, a phenomenon which is difficult to explain under an analysis in which it is the exponent of the subject of a predicate in a language in which subject-marking is otherwise obligatory.Non-configurationality
Classical Nahuatl can be classified as aNouns as predicates
An important feature of Classical Nahuatl is that any noun can function as a standalone predicate. For example, is commonly translated "house" but could also be translated "(it) is a house". As predicates, nouns can take the verbal subject prefixes (but not tense inflection). Thus, means "I am a lord" with the regular first person singular subject attached to the noun "lord". Similarly means "you are my wife", with the possessive noun "my wife" attached to the subject prefix "you" (singular). This construction is also seen in the name meaning "we are his slaves", a name for the godNumber system
Classical Nahuatl has aBasic numbers
Compound numbers
Multiples of 20, 400 or 8,000 are formed by replacing or with another number. E.g. "40" (2×20), "4,000" (10×400), "32,000" (4×8,000). The numbers in between those above—11 to 14, 16 to 19, 21 to 39, and so forth—are formed by following the larger number with a smaller number which is to be added to the larger one. The smaller number is prefixed with or , or in the case of larger units, preceded by "on it" or "with it". E.g. "11" (10+1), "18" (15+3), "32" (20+10+2); "782" (1×400+15×20+4×20+2).Classifiers
Depending on the objects being counted, Nahuatl may use a classifier or counter word. These include: * for small, round objects (literally "rock") * for counting rows * for foldable or stackable things * for roundish or oblong-shaped things (literally "maize cob") Which classifier a particular object takes is loose and somewhat arbitrary.Ordinal numbers
Notes
References
Further reading
* * * * * * * *