Aztec language

Classical Nahuatl (also known simply as Aztec or Nahuatl) are the variants of Nahuatl, spoken in the Valley of Mexico and central Mexico as a lingua franca at the time of the 16th-century Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. During the subsequent centuries, it was largely displaced by Spanish and evolved into some of the modern Nahuan dialects in use today. Nonetheless, Classical Nahuatl has survived through a multitude of written sources by Nahua peoples and Spaniards in the Latin script, as well as a fair amount of codices in the precolonial proto-script.

Learning resources

Pronounciation

Phonology overview: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_Nahuatl#Phonology

“(Changing) Word Prosody in Nahuatl”: details of pronounciation: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1z9DkTiDBS4zPCiUdd0tZKHzTTC2KqqD2/view?usp=sharing

Collection of pronounced word mp3 files, sorted alphabetically: https://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/language/pronunciation

Orthography

Overview of classical and modern orthographies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nahuatl_orthography

Detailed guide of classical and modern spelling conventions: https://nahuatlstudies.blogspot.com/2016/07/how-to-spell-nahuatl-nawatl-nauatl.html

Dictionaries

Online dictionary: http://www.condip.dk/condip.php

Best online dictionary (Spanish, English and Classical Nahuatl): https://nahuatl.uoregon.edu/

Great French online dictionary: http://sites.estvideo.net/malinal/nahuatl.page.html

“An analytical dictionary of classical nahuatl”: best modern dictionary pdf: lendable version: https://archive.org/details/analyticaldictio0000kart or in a better digitalization here: https://web.archive.org/web/20130423035132/http://www.mexicauprising.net/Nahuatl+dictionary.pdf

“Vocabulario de la lengua mexicana”: Best classical (Spanish!) dictionary: https://archive.org/details/vocabulariodela00platgoog/page/n27/mode/2up

Courses and grammars

User-friendly introduction to 16th century Nahuatl by Joseph Campbell and Frances Karttunen.

Foundation Course Volume I part 1: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1f92YeILoE3i5SIEcZv8kRm-WZSJDJAY1/view

Foundation Course Volume I part 2: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1C80Brq_zvlAd4qJ5-IXpUiFYH4FXhaIe/view?usp=sharing

Volume II of this Foundation Course, which is essentially a vocabulary and key: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1l-MjxxkDx10RoAbq9aMYSCYsSDzEbGRc/view

“Introduction to Classical Nahuatl” - Revised Edition, by J. Richard Andrews: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pXSWo2XszJrtFfnLzo8NJ_cMXcMzuJ-g/view?usp=sharing

“Nahuatl as written”: introduction to reading and translating classical texts: https://adele-blow-job-stephens.blogspot.com/2018/09/download-nahuatl-as-written-pdf-free.html

“Classical nahuatl wikibook”: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Classical_Nahuatl

Introductory grammar overview and vocabulary explainations: ​https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/11644302

“Inadequate Nahuatl reference Grammar”: simplified basic grammar overview: https://pages.ucsd.edu/~dkjordan/nahuatl/nahugram.html

“Arte de la lengua Mexicana”: best classical grammar: https://archive.org/details/artedelalenguame00carouoft

Activities

“Inadequate Nahuatl Lessons”: Beginners morphology interactive lessons: https://pages.ucsd.edu/~dkjordan/nahuatl/nahuatllessons/INL-00.html

Online vocabulary learning flash cards: https://app.memrise.com/course/1399684/classical-nahuatl/

Free E-Mail nahuatl course with pay options: https://nahuatl.thinkific.com/courses/freenahuatl2020

Well organized online spanish nahuatl course: https://nawatl.com/

Spanish nahuatl workbook pdf: http://jupiter.plymouth.edu/~wjt/Nahuatl/Nahuatl1.pdf

Some texts

“Cantares Mexicanos: Songs of the Aztecs”: Translated from the Nahuatl, with an Introduction and Commentary by John Bierhorst: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1V3mrjExCQe_lkE06vM48owLqLPgCJAoN/view?usp=sharing

Aesops fables translated: https://nahuatlahtolli.wordpress.com/category/aesops-fables/

“Flower songs of hungry coyote”: http://www.famsi.org/research/curl/nezahualcoyotl2.html

“Florentine codex”: https://www.wdl.org/en/item/10096/view/1/1/ contents: https://nahuatlahtolli.wordpress.com/2014/09/25/florentine-codex-table-of-contents/

Some nahuatl songs: https://nahuatlahtolli.wordpress.com/2015/08/08/nahuatl-songs/

Codex “Chimalpahin”: https://nahuatlahtolli.wordpress.com/2015/06/30/codex-chimalpahin-table-of-contents/ contents: https://nahuatlahtolli.wordpress.com/2015/06/30/codex-chimalpahin-table-of-contents/

Some more bilingual texts: https://pages.ucsd.edu/~dkjordan/nahuatl/ReadingMictlan.html https://pages.ucsd.edu/~dkjordan/nahuatl/ReadingToltecs.html https://pages.ucsd.edu/~dkjordan/nahuatl/ReadingQuetzalcoatl.html https://pages.ucsd.edu/~dkjordan/nahuatl/ReadingCoatlicue.html https://pages.ucsd.edu/~dkjordan/nahuatl/nican/NicanMopohua.html https://pages.ucsd.edu/~dkjordan/nahuatl/aztecfolio/AztecFolio.html

More texts: http://sup-infor.com/sources/liste-nahuatl.htm

Christian song texts in nahuatl: https://archive.org/details/depsalmodiachris00saha/page/30/mode/2up

Miscellaneous

Nahuatl greetings: https://nahuatlahtolli.wordpress.com/2014/09/24/phrasebook-greetings/ https://omniglot.com/language/phrases/nahuatl.php

“Conventions of polite speech in nahuatl”, Karttunnen: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KzoEVH8m2LTUZLtsNARrDqEYuCoAsH7j/view?usp=sharing

“El insulto en nahuatl”: on insults (in spanish): https://drive.google.com/file/d/13LEph4ybrKVJz1kGol8JIZVaN0S1yM38/view?usp=sharing

On one-word poems: http://nahuatlstudies.blogspot.com/2016/05/nahuatl-one-word-poems-guestblog-by-ben.html

List of nahuatl place names with their literal translations: https://archive.org/details/AztecPlaceNames/page/n19/mode/2up

List of “Nahuatl Borrowings in Mexican Spanish Vocabulary”: http://www.mexica.net/nahuatl/nahuawds.php

Precolonial writing and texts

Codex overview: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aztec_codices#List_of_Aztec_codices Many digitalizations can be found in the sources of the linked articles

Online codex digitalizations: http://www.famsi.org/research/mltdp/catalog.htm

More online codex digitalizations: http://www.famsi.org/research/loubat/index.html

Best codex Mendoza digitalization: https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00486220/surfaces/68210492-1fd1-499e-acee-188fa1226ca1/

How precolonial codices were created: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uh0qKLDBYCiLdktYWzQyxIuvNlCLPi_n/view

Introductory overview on nahuatl codices: https://blogs.uoregon.edu/mesoinstitute/about/curriculum-unit-development/codices/

Introduction to nahuatl glyphs: https://web.archive.org/web/20171028204843/http://www.ancientscripts.com/aztec.html

Alfonso Lacadena‘s „Methodological Implications for the Decipherment of Nahuatl Writing“: http://www.mesoweb.com/pari/publications/journal/804/PARI0804.pdf

Gordon Whittaker‘s: „The principles of nahuatl writing“: http://whp.uoregon.edu/dictionaries/nahuatl/whittakernahuatlwriting.pdf

On the Whittaker-Lacadena-debate: http://nahuatlstudies.blogspot.com/2016/06/aztec-writing-how-does-it-really-work.html

Miscellaneous details of nahuatl writing jump-site: https://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/writing/

The workings of nahuatl placename glyphs (in spanish!): https://www.academia.edu/5049025/Toponimia_Nahuatl_en_los_Codices_Azoyu_1_Azoyu_2_Palimpsesto_de_Veinte_Mazorcas_Lienzo_de_Chiepetlan_1._Un_Estudio_Critico_de_los_nombres_de_lugar_de_los_antiguos_se%C3%B1orios_del_oriente_de_Guerrero

Descriptions and analysis of several codex pages and their glyphs (spanish): https://www.tetlacuilolli.org.mx/codices.php

Searchable list of nahuatl place names with spanish explainations: https://pueblosoriginarios.com/lenguas/glifos_aztecas.php

Largest searchable internet lexicon of nahuatl glyphs: https://aztecglyphs.uoregon.edu/

Wikimedias glyph list: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Aztec_glyphs