Tetelcingo Nahuatl


Tetelcingo Nahuatl, called Mösiehuali̱ by its speakers, is a Nahuatl variety of central Mexico. It is one of the core varieties closely related to Classical Nahuatl. It is spoken in the town of Tetelcingo, Morelos, and the adjacent Colonia Cuauhtémoc and Colonia Lázaro Cárdenas. These three population centers lie to the north of Cuautla, Morelos and have been largely absorbed into its urban area; as a result the Tetelcingo language and culture are under intense pressure.
In 1935 William Cameron Townsend published a study of Mösiehuali̱, and a number of other studies have been published since then.

Phonology

Vowels

Tetelcingo Nahuatl has converted the distinction of vowel quantity found in more conservative varieties into one of vowel quality. The short vowels are reflected as in Tetelcingo, while the long vowels become .
“Short” VowelsFrontCentralBack
Closei̱
Mide o
Opena

“Long” VowelsFrontCentralBack
Closei u
Midie
Openö

Consonants

Tetelcingo Nahuatl, like many dialects of Nahuatl, does not have voiced obstruent consonants. Voiced obstruents and other non-native consonants do occur in loanwords from Spanish, however, and there are many such words in the language.

Honorifics

Another striking characteristic of Tetelcingo Nahuatl is the pervasiveness and complexity of its honorifics. Generally every 2nd or 3rd person verb, pronoun, postposition or possessed noun must be marked honorifically if its subject or object, designatum, object or possessor is a living adult. Extra-honorific forms of several kinds exist, especially for addressing or referring to godparental relations, high officials or God. Many third person honorifics use morphemes that in Classical Nahuatl were used to mark non-active verbs or unspecified or plural participants. Not infrequently a different stem is used for honorifics, or the honorific form is in some other way irregular.
A few examples are given below, using the orthography of Brewer and Brewer 1962. Where more than one form is listed, the second is more highly honorific.
Stem Meaning2nd person sg2nd person sg honorific3rd person sg3rd person sg honorific
pronountajatejuatziyajayejuatzi
one's housemocalmocaltziicaltiecal, tiecaltzi
beforemixpamixpantzincoixpatieixpa, tieixpantzinco
goti̱yatomobicayabi̱biloa, mobica
cometi̱bitzti̱mobicatz, ti̱hualmobicai̱bitzbiloatz, hualmobica
notice it, get it ti̱qui̱jti̱li̱atomojti̱li̱li̱aqui̱jti̱li̱aqui̱jti̱lilo
say itti̱qui̱jtoatomojtalfi̱aqui̱jtoaqui̱jtulo

Literature