San José State University |
---|
applet-magic.com Thayer Watkins Silicon Valley & Tornado Alley USA |
---|
the Language of the Aztecs < |
At one time the Aztecs ruled over an empire of about ten million people, millions of whom would have spoken Nahuatl. There are still about a million people in Mexico who speak a dialect of Nahuatl. However, in the current dialects the consonant tl has either become t (Nahuat) or l, (Nahual).
Nahuatl is classified as a member of the Uto-Aztecean family of languages. This is a large (26 member) group of languages spoken over an area of western North America. In the north it includes the languages of the Ute Amerindian tribes, which is part of the Shoshonean group. The Shoshonean group also includes the language spoken by the Commanches. Another division of the Uto-Aztecean family is the Sonoran group which includes Nahuatl. The Uto-Aztecean family also includes languages spoken in what is now Guatemala. The Uto-Aztecean family may also be linguistically affiliated with the group of languages which included the one spoken by the Kiowa Amerindians.
For more on the history of the Aztecs see Aztecs.
HOME PAGE OF Thayer Watkins |