Orizaba Nahuatl

Orizaba Nahuatl is a native American language spoken in the southeastern Mexican state of Veracruz mostly in the area to the south of the city of Orizaba.[2] It is also known as Orizaba Aztec and Náhuatl de la Sierra de Zongolica.[3] It has 79 percent intelligibility with Morelos Nahuatl.[3] There is a dialect called Ixhuatlancillo Nahuatl[3] which is spoken in a town to the north of Orizaba. There is one secondary school which uses this language.[3]

Orizaba Nahuatl
Āwilisāpan Nāwatl
Native toMexico
RegionVeracruz
Native speakers
(120,000 cited 1991)[1]
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3nlv
Glottologoriz1235

Phonology

Vowels
Short
Front Back
High i
Mid e o
Low a
Long
Front Back
High iː ⟨ī⟩
Mid eː ⟨ē⟩ oː ⟨ō⟩
Low aː ⟨ā⟩

Consonants
Consonants[4]
Labial Apical Post-
alveolar		 Velar Glottal
Central Lateral Unrounded Rounded
Nasal m ⟨m⟩ n ~ ŋ ⟨n⟩
Plosive p ⟨p⟩ t ⟨t⟩ k ⟨k⟩ kʷ ⟨kw⟩ h ⟨h⟩
Affricate ts ⟨ts⟩ tɬ ⟨tl⟩ tʃ ⟨ch⟩
Fricative w ~ β ~ ɸ ⟨w⟩ s ⟨s⟩ l ⟨l⟩ ʃ ⟨x⟩ ɣ ⟨g⟩
Semivowel j ⟨y⟩

Writing

The orthography of Orizaba Nahuatl (nlv) is similar to that of Classical Nahuatl (nah), though it features the consonants of this modern variety internationally rather than on the basis of Castilian (Spanish) orthography:

  • "I will enter his/her house."
"Nicalaquīz īcal." [nah]
"Nikalakīs īkal." [nlv]

This corresponds to a more phonetic translation while still making use of macrons to mark long vowels. In this orthography the name of the language is Nawatl (as capitalized for English speakers), rather than Nahuatl. Most grammar and vocabulary changes are minor, most of them corresponding to neologisms and loan words from Spanish. Example:

  • "Now/At this moment/Today."
"Āxcān." [nah]
"Axan." [nlv]

(In this case both long vowels and intermediate consonant are lost.)

Some loanwords from Spanish:

"Kahwen" (from café, coffee; also used in Classical Nahuatl as cafetzin).
"Kawayoh" (from caballo, horse; also used in Classical Nahuatl as cahuayoh).
"Kochih" (from coche, car).
"Refreskoh" (from refresco, soft drink or soda).

Notes
  1. Orizaba Nahuatl at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. , Orizaba Nawatl, SIL-México, retrieved 19 Nov, 2007
  3. Orizaba Nahuatl at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) closed access
  4. Theodore R. Goller; Patricia L. Goller; Viola G. Waterhouse (April 1974). "The Phonemes of Orizaba Nahuatl". International Journal of American Linguistics. 40 (2): 126–131. doi:10.1086/465295. JSTOR 1264347. S2CID 142992381.
Orizaba Nahuatl test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator


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