Classical Nahuatl grammar

The grammar of Classical Nahuatl is agglutinative, head-marking, and makes extensive use of compounding, noun incorporation and derivation. That is, it can add many different prefixes and suffixes to a root until very long words are formed. Very long verbal forms or nouns created by incorporation, and accumulation of prefixes are common in literary works. New words can thus be easily created.

Morphophonology

The phonological shapes of Nahuatl morphemes may be altered in particular contexts, depending on the shape of the adjacent morphemes or their position in the word.

Assimilation

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.

ch	+	y	→	chch	oquich-(tli) man +   -yō-(tl) -ness →   oquichchōtl valor oquich-(tli) + -yō-(tl) → oquichchōtl man {} -ness {} valor
l	+	tl	→	ll	cal- house +   -tl ABS →   calli house cal- + -tl → calli house {} ABS {} house
l	+	y	→	ll	cual-(li) good +   -yō-(tl) -ness →   cuallōtl goodness cual-(li) + -yō-(tl) → cuallōtl good {} -ness {} goodness
x	+	y	→	xx	mix-(tli) cloud +   -yoh covered in →   mixxoh cloudy mix-(tli) + -yoh → mixxoh cloud {} {covered in} {} cloudy
z	+	y	→	zz	māhuiz-(tli) fear +   -yō-(tl) -ness →   māhuizzōtl respect māhuiz-(tli) + -yō-(tl) → māhuizzōtl fear {} -ness {} respect

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 -itta "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:

• m becomes n which is further devoiced
  • pā-mitl "flag" — to-pān "our flag"
  • mo-xī-ma "he shaves" — mo-xīn "he shaved"
• y devoices to x, or to z when preceded by /s/ (i.e. z or ce, ci) in the same word
  • nā-yi "I do — ō-nāx "I did"
  • tla-ce-li-ya "plants are in bud, spring is arriving" — tla-ce-liz "plants were in bud"
• t debuccalizes to h. This alternation does not affect all instances of syllable-final t and is sensitive to stem choice and position in the word.
  • ō-ni-cat-ca "I was" — ni-cah "I am". Here the alternation is mandatory in word-final position, but absent in non-word-final syllable-final position.
  • nic-ma-ti "I find out" — ō-nic-mah or ō-nic-mat "I found out" (the former being more common), but ō-tic-mat-queh "we found out". Here likewise the alternation is absent in non-word-final syllable-final position, but is optional in word-final position.
  • ni-tlā-ca-ti "I am born" — ō-ni-tlā-cat "I was born". Here the alternation is always absent.

Additionally, syllable final /kʷ/, spelled uc maybe sometimes delabialize to c with no conditioning factors, as in the word Totēc, from to-tēuc "our lord".

Pronouns

Independent Personal Pronouns

Classical Nahuatl has three series of independent personal pronouns which are used to focus or emphasize the referent, in decreasing order of emphatic strength: full, reduced, and short.

	Full	Reduced	Short
1s	nehhuātl	nehhuā	neh
2s	tehhuātl	tehhuā	teh
3s	(y)ehhuātl	(y)ehhuā	yeh
1p	tehhuāntin	tehhuān	—
2p	amehhuāntin	amehhuān
3p	(y)ehhuāntin	(y)ehhuān

The referent of an independent pronoun is not restricted to the subject of the sentence, but can be used to focus a subject, object, or possessor, as in teh ōticchīuh "you did it", ca nehhuātl in ōnēchittaqueh "It was me that they saw", nehhuātl nāxcā "it is my property". Independent pronouns are never required except for emphasis as in other pro-drop langauges, and do not replace affixal person marking, which is always obligatory.

While the full and reduced series can stand independently as the predicate of a clause, as in huel nehhuātl "it is indeed I", the short series requires a predicate with matching person which it served to emphasize.

Subject Marking

The subject of every predicate is obligatorily marked with a series of prefixes indexing its person and number. Both verbal predicates ("I sing") and nominal predicates ("I am a person") mark their subjects ("I" in the two preceding examples) identically, and nouns freely stand as the predicate of a sentence without a copula on which to host subject marking.

Person	Marker	Verbal Predicate	Nominal Predicate
1s	n(i)-	nicuīca "I sing"	nitlācatl "I am a person
2s	t(i)-	ticuīca "you sing"	titlācatl "you are a person"
3s	Ø-	cuīca "he/she/it sings"	tlācatl "he/she is a person"
1p	t(i)- + plural predicate	ticuīcah "we sing"	titlācah "we are people"
2p	am- + plural predicate	ancuīcah "you (pl) sing"	antlācah "you (pl) are people"
3p	Ø- + plural predicate	cuīcah "they sing"	tlācah "they are people"
2s Optative	x(i)- + optative singular verb	xicuīca "sing!"
2p Optative	x(i)- + optative plural verb	xicuīcacān "sing!"

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 a suffix called the absolutive (unrelated to the absolutive case of ergative-absolutive languages). This suffix takes the form -tl after vowels (ā-tl, "water") and -tli after consonants, which assimilates with a final /l/ on the root (tōch-tli, "rabbit", but cal-li, "house"). A smaller class of nouns instead take -in (mich-in, fish), and some have no absolutive suffix (chichi, dog).

The absolutive suffix is absent when the noun is incorporated into a compound of which it is not the head, for example with the roots tōch, mich, and cal in the following compounds: tōch-cal-li, "rabbit-hole", mich-matla-tl, "fishing net", cal-chīhua, "to build a house". Possessed nouns do not take the absolutive suffix, and instead take a possessive suffix marking their number.

Number

• 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: -tin, -meh, or a final glottal stop -h. Some plurals are formed also with reduplication of the consonant (if present) and vowel onset of the stem's first syllable , and the reduplicated vowel lengthened if not already long, e.g. cuāuh-tli "eagle" — cuācuāuh-tin "eagles".
• In compound nouns, reduplication may apply to the embedded (i.e. first) noun, the head noun, or rarely both, e.g.:
  • tlāca-tecolōtl "sorcerer, demon" — tlātlāca-tecolo-h, not *tlāca-tētecolo-h
  • chiyan-cuāuh-tli "species of bird of prey" — chiyan-cuācuāuh-tin, not *chīchiyan-cuāuh-tin.
  • cin-tēo-tl "maize god (figure) — cīcin-tētēo-h, (also attested as cīcin-tēo-h)

Only animate nouns can take a plural form. These include most animate living beings, but also words like tepētl — tepēmeh ("mountain, mountains"), citlālin — cīcitlāltin ("star, stars"), and some other phenomena.

Possible forms of the absolutive plural

	-h	-tin	-meh
With reduplication	teōtl, tēteoh	tōchtli, tōtōchtin	Never occurs
Without reduplication	cihuātl, cihuah	oquichtli, oquichtin	michin, michmeh

The plural is not totally stable and in many cases several different forms are attested.

Alienable 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.

	singular	plural
1st person	no-, "my"	to-, "our"
2nd person	mo-, "thy"	amo-, "your"
3rd person	ī-, "his, hers, its"	īn-/īm-, "their"
Unknown possessor	tē-, "their" (somebody's)

The -o- of the first and second person singular and plural suffixes no-, to-, mo-, amo- is eclipsed by the following vowel of any vowel initial noun, except for short i, which may instead be eclipsed by o. Whether this stem initial short i is considered a "real" vowel which resists eclipsis varies with each noun stem, and some nouns are attested with both possibilities.

Class	Absolutive	Possessed
Full vowel eclipses o	āmol-li, "soap"	n-āmol, "my soap"
o eclipses i	ichpōchtli, "daughter"	no-chpōch, "my daughter"
Both variations attested	izti-tl, "fingernail"	no-zti or n-izti, "my fingernail"

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 -huān, and observes the same restriction as the absolutive in that it is only available for animate nouns.

Class	Absolutive	Possessed Singular	Possessed Plural
-in or Ø, Ø	mich-in, "fish"	no-mich-Ø, "my fish"	no-mich-huān, "my fish"
-tli, Ø	cih-tli, "grandmother"	no-cih-Ø, "my grandmother"	no-cih-huān, "my grandmothers"
-tli, -hui	oquich-tli, "husband"	n-oquich-hui, "my husband"	n-oquich-huān, "my husbands"
-tl, uh	cihuā-tl, "wife"	no-cihuā-uh, "my wife"	no-cihuā-huān, "my wives"
-tl, Ø	ahui-tl, "aunt"	n-ahui-Ø, "my aunt"	n-ahui-huān, "my aunts"
(a)-tl, Ø	nac(a)-tl, "meat"	no-nac-Ø, "my meat"
(i)-tl, Ø	com(i)-tl, "pot"	no-con-Ø, "my pot"
(a)-tl, -i	cōzc(a)-tl, "jewelry"	no-cōzqu-i "my jewelry"	no-cōzca-huān, "my pieces of jewelry"

nocal

no-

1SG.POSS-

cal

house

-Ø

-SG.POSS

no- cal -Ø

1SG.POSS- house -SG.POSS

my house

Affective nouns

Some other categories can be inflected on the noun such as:

Honorific formed with the suffix -tzin.

cihuātzintli

cihuā

woman

-tzin

HON

-tli

ABS

cihuā -tzin -tli

woman HON ABS

'woman (said with respect)'

Inalienable possession

The suffix -yo — the same suffix as the abstract/collective -yō(tl) — 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 nonac and nonacayo (possessed forms of nacatl) mean "my meat", but nonac may refer to meat that one has to eat, while nonacayo refers to the flesh that makes up one's body. This is known as inalienable, integral or organic possession.

See also: Inalienable possession

Derivational morphology

• -tia derives from noun X a verb with an approximate meaning of "to provide with X " or "to become X."
• -huia derives from noun X a verb with an approximate meaning of "to use X " or "to provide with X."
• -yōtl derives from a noun X a noun with an abstract meaning of "X-hood or X-ness."
• -yoh derives from a noun X a noun with a meaning of "thing full of X" or "thing with a lot of X."

Verbs

All verbs, as with nouns, are marked with prefixes which agree with the person of the subject. The marking of subjects and objects follows a nominative–accusative alignment, thus transitive verbs also take a set of prefixes which mark their objects. Verbs inflect for a number of tense, aspect, and mood categories and the number of their subjects through a series of stem changes and suffixes.

Verbs may appear with a series of valency changing suffixes, decreasing their valency through passivization, or increasing it through the addition of causative or applicative objects. These valency changing suffixes are exploited in a system of verbal honorifics.

Verbs may be derived from nominal stems through the addition of a number of verbalizing suffixes, some fully productive while others more restricted in distribution. Morphological verbs may frequently in turn be interpreted in a noun-like fashion, and a number of patterns derive morphologically fully nominal stems from verbs.

Tense and mood inflection

The different tenses and moods are formed by adding various suffixes to the appropriate verbal base. Base 1 is the normal or citation form of the verb, also known as the imperfective stem, with no special suffixes. Base 2, also known as the perfective stem, is usually shorter in form than base 1, often dropping a final vowel, though formation thereof varies. Base 3, the hypothetical stem, is normally the same as base 1, except for verbs whose stem ending in two vowels, in which case the second vowel is dropped, and the formerly penultimate, now final vowel is lengthened in front of a suffix that does not begin with the glottal stop -h.

Stem 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. Almost all verbs belong exclusively to one class, but some verbs show variable class membership or change their class concomitantly with a change in transitivity.

Important to understanding the behavior of vowel length in the various stems, and to characterizing the phonological shapes of the four stem classes, is the generalization that underlying long vowels are phonetically shortened when appearing at the end of the verb (i.e. not followed by further suffixes) or before a glottal stop, and these vowels' underlying length may then resurface when suffixes are attached. The base 1 citation form, which exposes the vowel in final position, is thus not always sufficient to predict a stem's class membership or the correct vowel length in all forms, in particular in verbs of class 1, whose underlying final vowel may be either short or long. Thus in the following examples and analysis, citation forms of verbs are given with their underlying final vowel length, and only in inflected forms is phonetic shortening applied.

Stems ending in -iā or -oā, which are the only verbs which end in two consecutive vowels, are always of class 3. Class 4 is composed of only the following verbs: tla-cuā, tla-mā, tla-pā, tla-māmā (and its variant tla-mēmē), tla-nāhuā, mo-zōmā, yā. Stems which end in a long vowel (e.g. ō or ā) with the exception of those listed above in class 4, or in two consonants (including geminate -tt-) followed by a vowel, are always of class 1. This leaves stems ending in a single consonant followed by a single, short vowel, which may belong to either class 1 or 2, and sometimes show variable class membership.

Verbs of class 3 and 4 end in an long vowel, and thus exhibit the lengthening and shortening of vowels characteristic of bases 1 and 3, while the final vowel of verbs of class 2 are never long, and thus are invariant in length. In the examples and analysis presented below, class 1 is divided into two classes based on the underlying length of the final vowel, notated class 1-S(hort) and 1-L(ong), to better illustrate the behavior of vowel length.

Class	Class 1-S		Class 1-L		Class 2		Class 3		Class 4
verb base	chōca (cry)		temō (descend)		yōli (live)		choloā (flee)		tlacuā (eat)
Base 1	base form	chōca-	base form	temō	base form	yōli-	base form	choloā-	base form	tlacuā-
Base 2	no change	chōca-	no change	temō	drop vowel	yōl-	replace vowel with -h	choloh-	-h	tlacuah-
Base 3	no change	chōca-	no change	temō	no change	yōli-	drop vowel, lengthen penult	cholō-	no change	tlacuā-

Present

The present tense is formed from base 1. The plural subject suffix is -h. Examples: nicochi 'I am sleeping,' tlahtoah 'they are speaking,' nicchīhua 'I am making it.' A number of common irregular verbs lack a morphological present tense, instead using the preterite without the antecessive prefix ō-, with a present tense meaning.

Imperfect

The imperfect is similar in meaning to the imperfect in the Romance languages. It is formed with base 1, plus -ya or -yah in the plural, with the base final vowel lengthened in classes 3 and 4, and verbs of class 1 ending in an underlying long vowel. Examples: nicochiya 'I was sleeping,' tlahtoāyah 'they used to speak,' nicchīhuaya 'I was making it.'

Quotidian

The habitual present, customary present, or quotidian tense is formed from base 1. The suffix is -ni, with the base final vowel lengthened in classes 3 and 4, and verbs of class 1 ending in an underlying long vowel. Rather than one specific event this tense expresses the subject's tendency or propensity to repeatedly or habitually perform the same action over time (e.g. miquini 'mortal,' lit. '(one who is) prone to die'. It is frequently translated into English with a noun or noun phrase, for example: cuīcani 'one who sings, singer,' tlahcuiloāni (from ihcuiloa 'write, paint') 'scribe,' or 'tlahtoāni' (from ihtoa 'speak') the title for the ruler of a Mexica city.

When used purely in a verbal sense, its plural is formed with the suffix -nih, but when used nominally, plural formation of this form is variable. It can be in -nih or -nimeh. In some cases, the plural does not use -ni at all but instead a preterite ending, as with tlahtohqueh, the plural of tlahtoāni, or tlahcuilohqueh, the plural of tlahcuiloāni. These preterite forms are also used to create possessive forms.

Preterite

The preterite or perfect tense is similar in meaning to the English simple past or present perfect. The preterite singular is formed by attaching the suffix -c to base 2 of verbs in class 1, and is otherwise identical to base 2 for verbs of class 2, 3, and 4. The preterite plural is formed by attaching the suffix -queh to base 2 for verbs of all classes, in particular without the -c suffix in class 1 verbs.

The preterite is often accompanied by the prefix ō- (sometimes called the augment, or antecessive prefix). The function of this prefix is to mark that the action of the verb is complete at the time of speaking (or in a subordinate clause, at the time of the action described by the main verb). The augment is frequently absent in mythic or historical narratives. Examples: ōnicoch 'I slept,' ōtlatohqueh 'they spoke,' ōnicchīuh 'I made it.'

In irregular verbs which lack a morphological present tense, the preterite is used without the antecessive prefix ō-, with a present tense meaning. In these verbs, the morphological pluperfect is used to convey both the preterite and pluperfect.

The preterite is frequently used to create nominalized agentive constructions, with the meaning of "-er" or "one who". In this nominalized preterite, the prefix ō- is never used, and the archaic singular participial suffix -qui is sometimes attached to base 2 of verbs of classes 2 and 3, which take no suffix in the preterite when used verbally. The plural remains in -queh, and is frequently morphologically identical to the verbal preterite. The meaning of the nominalized preterite is often similar to that of the habitual, and forms of the same verb in the nominalized preterite and the habitual are sometimes synonymous, such that plural forms of the nominalized preterite are sometimes borrowed as the plural of the nominalized habitual, as in singular tlahtoāni, plural tlahtohqueh. Examples: iuccic 'one that has become ripe or cooked', micqui 'one who has died, a cadaver', tlapixqui 'one who has guarded, a guard', tlahcuiloh 'one who has written, a scribe' (no -qui). The plural sometimes requires reduplication as in the plural of morphological nouns, as in mīmicqueh (ones who have died, cadavers).

Pluperfect

The pluperfect 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 formed on base 2, as in the preterite, with the suffix -ca in the singular and -cah in the plural, and frequently uses the prefix ō- . Examples: ōnicochca 'I had slept,' ōtlahtohcah 'they had spoken,' ōnicchīuhca 'I had made it.

Admonitive

The vetitive or admonitive mood issues a warning that something may come to pass which the speaker does not desire, and by implication steps should be taken to avoid this (compare the English conjunction lest). The negative of this mood simply warns that a non-occurrence of the action is undesirable. The admonitive singular is formed identically to the preterite, except for class 1 verbs, which attach -h and not -c to base 2. The plural is formed by attaching -tin or -tih to the singular. The admonitive is used in conjunction with the particles mā or mā nēn. Examples: mā nicoch 'be careful, lest I sleep,' mā tlatohtin 'watch out, they may speak,' mā nicchīuh 'don't let me make it.'

Future

The future is formed on base 3, with the suffix -z in the singular and -zqueh in the plural, and the base final vowel lengthened in classes 3 and 4, and verbs of class 1 ending in an underlying long vowel. Examples of the future: nicochiz 'I will sleep,' tlahtōzqueh 'they will speak,' nicchīhuaz 'I will make it.'

Optative-Imperative

The imperative or optative are formed on base 3 with no suffix in the singular, and the suffix -cān in the plural, with the base final vowel lengthened only when not word final (i.e. before the plural suffix) in verbs of classes 3 and 4, and verbs of class 1 ending in an underlying long vowel. The imperative uses the special imperative subject prefixes, available only in the second person; the optative uses the normal subject prefixes (effectively it is the same mood, but outside of the second person). The imperative is used for commands, the optative is used for wishes or desires, both used in conjunction with particles: mā nicchīhua 'let me make it!'

Past Optative

The past optative is formed identically to the quotidian, but uses the optative second person subject prefix xi-. 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 are all names for the same verbal mood. It is formed on the inflected future singular with the suffix is -quiya in the singular and -quiyah 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: nicochizquiya 'I would have slept,' tlahtōzquiyah 'they would have spoken,' nicchīhuazquiya 'I would have made it.'

Summary

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.

	1-s (chōca)		1-l (temō)		2 (yōli)		3 (choloā)		4 (tlacuā)
Number	singular	plural	singular	plural	singular	plural	singular	plural	singular	plural
Present	chōca	chōcah	temo	temoh	yōli	yōlih	choloa	choloah	tlacua	tlacuah
Imperfect	chōcaya	chōcayah	temōya	temōyah	yōliya	yōliyah	choloāya	choloāyah	tlacuāya	tlacuāyah
Quotidian	chōcani	chōcanih	temōni	temōnih	yōlini	yōlinih	choloāni	choloānih	tlacuāni	tlacuānih
Preterite	chōcac	chōcaqueh	temōc	temōqueh	yōl	yōlqueh	choloh	cholohqueh	tlacuah	tlacuahqueh
Pluperfect	chōcaca	chōcacah	temōca	temōcah	yōlca	yōlcah	cholohca	cholohcah	tlacuahca	tlacuahcah
Admonitive	chōcah	chōcahtin	temoh	temohtin	yōl	yōltin	choloh	cholohtin	tlacuah	tlacuahtin
Future	chōcaz	chōcazqueh	temōz	temōzqueh	yōliz	yōlizqueh	cholōz	cholōzqueh	tlacuāz	tlacuāzqueh
Past Optative	(xi-)chōcani	(xi-)chōcanih	(xi-)temōni	(xi-)temōnih	(xi-)yōlini	(xi-)yōlinih	(xi-)choloāni	(xi-)choloānih	(xi-)tlacuāni	(xi-)tlacuāni
Optative-Imperative	(xi-)chōca	(xi-)chōcacān	(xi-)temo	(xi-)temōcān	(xi-)yōli	(xi-)yōlicān	(xi-)cholo	(xi-)cholōcān	(xi-)tlacua	(xi-)tlacuācān
Conditional	chōcazquiya	chōcazquiyah	temōzquiya	temōzquiyah	yōlizquiya	yōlizquiya	cholōzquiya	cholōzquiyah	tlacuāzquiya	tlacuāzquiyah

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, or suppletive, forming their inflectional paradigm with forms from the paradigms of distinct stems, or both suppletive and defective.

Defective verbs

The most common class of defective verbs are those in which the inflected present tense is missing, and its meaning is thus expressed through the use of the preterite. The pluperfect in turn replaces the preterite and continues to be used as a pluperfect. In this preterite-as-present use, the antecessive prefix ō- is not used. Common verbs in this class include cah "to be", on-o-c "to lie spread out, to be in a place, to remain", ihca-c "to stand, to remain", pilca-c "to be hanging", and any verbs derived from this class, which display the same defective behavior. These verbs are otherwise regular.

Huītz "to go" can be analyzed as huī-tz, being composed of the verb huī attached directly to the verb (i)tz, whose simplex form is unattested. It is used here to illustrate the irregular inflection of the small family of verbs including huī-tz, and the two verbs tlatqui-tz and tlahuīca-tz (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.

The derivational suffixes -huah, -eh, and yoh may also analyzed as short verbs which obligatorily embed a nominal stem, and use the morphological preterite as a present tense, as they pattern with common verbs in forming their plural in -queh, i.e. -huahqueh, -ehqueh, -yohqueh.

Suppletive verbs

The verbs cah/ye "to be" and yauh/huih "to go" draw their forms from two distinct stems. Cah is used only in the preterite(-as-present) and pluperfect, with ye used in all other forms. Yauh and related forms supply most of the forms of the singular, and huih the plural. Huāllauh is composed of the verb yauh with the directional prefix hual-, the initial y- of the stem becoming l by regular progressive assimilation.

Summary

The inflected forms of the common irregular verbs cah/ye, yauh/huih, huī-tz, and huāllauh are provided below.

	cah/ye		huītz		yauh/huih		huāllauh/huālhuih
Number	singular	plural	singular	plural	singular	plural	singular	plural
base 1	ye				yā/yauh	yā/huih	huāllauh/huālhuih
Present					yauh	huih	huāllauh	huālhuih
Imperfect	yeya	yeyah			huiya/yāya	huiyah/yāyah	huālhuiya	huālhuiyah
Quotidian	yeni	yenih			yāni	yānih	huāllāni	huāllānih
base 2	cah		huītz		ya		huālla
Preterite	cah	cateh	huītz	huītzeh	yah	yahqueh	huāllah	huāllahqueh
Pluperfect	catca	catcah	huītza	huītzah	yahca	yahcah	huāllahca	huāllahcah
Admonitive	yeh	yehtin			yah	yahtin	huāllah	huāllahtin
base 3:	ye				yā		huālla
Future	yez	yezqueh			yāz	yāzqueh	huāllāz	huāllāzqueh
Optative-Imperative	(xi-)ye	(xi-)yecān			(xi-)yauh	(xi-)huiān	(xi-)huāllauh	(xi-)huālhuiān
Past Optative	(xi-)yeni	(xi-)yenih			(xi-)yāni	(xi-)yāni	(xi-)huāllāni	(xi-)huāllānih
Conditional	yezquiya	yezquiyah			yāzquiya	yāzquiyah	huāllāzquiya	huāllāzquiyah

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 teci "he grinds (something)", quiteci "he grinds it". Another small class of unaccusative ambitransitive verbs ending in -hua exhibit a regular covariance of class and transitivity, being of class 1 when used intransitively, and class 2 transitively, i.e. ōnichipāhuac "I became clean", ōnicchipāuh "I cleaned it".

A number of inherently bitransitive verbs, among them maca "to give", and verbs with additional causative and applicative objects, could have more than one object, but only index one definite object though the object prefixes, i.e. nimitztlamaca "I give you something", nictēmaca "I give it to people", but not *nimitzquimaca "I give you 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. 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.: nino- "I do to myself", mo "it does to itself", "they do to each other", etc. 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 semantically specific nor definite in some instances, e.g.: nicchīhuaz in tleh in ticnequiz "I shall do whatever you want", ahmō itlah molcāhuaz "nothing is forgotten".

The nonreferential object pronouns, marked N, signal that the object of the verb cannot cross-reference and thereby agree in person and number marking with another coreferential constituent in the clause if one exists, an otherwise obligatory and pervasive feature of Classical Nahuatl syntax. The nonreferential pronouns mark the object as general, nonspecific people or things. The nonreferential objects have thus commonly been termed nonspecific or indefinite. Nonreferential objects may be animate marked a, inanimate marked i, or reflexive.

Object	Marking	Examples
1s	-nēch-, 'me'	tinēchitta 'you see me' nēchitta 'he/she/it sees me'
2s	-mitz-, 'you'	nimitzitta 'I see you' mitzitta 'he/she/it sees you'
3s	-c-, -qui- 'him, her, it'	niquitta 'I see it' quitta 'he/she/it sees him/her/it'
1p	-tēch- 'us'	titēchitta 'you (singular) see us' tēchitta 'he/she/it sees us'
2p	-amēch- 'you'	namēchitta 'I see you' amēchitta 'he/she/it sees you'
3p	-quim- 'them'	niquimitta 'I see them,' quimitta 'he/she/it sees them'
1sr	-no- 'myself'	ninotta 'I see myself' ninotlazohtla 'I love myself'
1pr	-to- 'ourselves', 'each other'	titottah 'we see ourselves/each other' titotlazohtlah 'we love ourselves/each other'
2/3r	-mo- 'yourself/selves' 'him/her/itself' 'themselves' 'each other'	motta 'he/she/it sees him/her/itself' mottah 'they see themselves/each other' ammotlazohtlah 'you love each other'
Na	-tē- 'someone, people'	nitēitta 'I see (someone, people)' tēitta 'he/she/it sees (someone, people)'
Ni	-tla- 'something, things'	nitlatta 'I see (something, things)' tlatta 'he/she/it sees (something, things)'
Nr	-ne- 'people do to each other'	neittalo "people see themselves/each other"

Transitive verbs must always take an object prefix, whether referential or nonreferential, if the object is unknown or unspecified. Plural suffixes are never used to mark plural objects, only plural subjects. Nonreferential objects do not distinguish number.

A Classical Nahuatl verb thus has the following structure:

SUBJECT PREFIX + OBJECT PREFIX + VERB STEM + SUBJECT NUMBER

ex:

ti-quim-itta-h

ti-

we-

quim-

them-

itta

see

-h

-PL

ti- quim- itta -h

we- them- see -PL

'we see them'

Direct arguments of the verb – that is, subject and object – are obligatorily marked on the verb. If there are both direct and indirect objects (which are not morphologically distinguished), only one may be marked on the verb.

Other inflectional categories may be optionally marked, for example direction of motion. Other inflections include the applicative and causative, both valency changing operations; that is, they increase the number of arguments associated with a verb, transforming an intransitive verb into transitive, or a transitive verb into bitransitive.

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. zahua in ninozahuaz "I will fast (abstain from food)", or tlaloa in titotlalohqueh "we ran". Other commonly used transitive verbs may be used transitively, but gain new or unexpected meanings when used reflexively, e.g.:

• nicnequi "I want it" — monequi "it wants itself, it is required"
• nicchīhua "I make, do it" — mochīhua "it makes itself, it happens, it becomes"
• anquinnōtzazqueh "you (pl) will summon them" — ammonōtzazqueh "you will converse with yourselves, deliberate, reflect".

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 true agent of the verb where it may not be salient, e.g.:

• mocua "it eats itself — it is eaten"
• mihtoāya "it used to say itself — it was said"
• titotolīniah "we afflict, mistreat ourselves — we are poor, we suffer"

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 -lia.

• niquittilia "I see it for him"

Causative

The causative construction adds an additional object to the verb. When applied to an intransitive verb, the subject of the intransitive source becomes the object of the causativized verb, and a new subject is introduced, the argument which causes the event described by the verb to happen, as in nihuetzca "I laugh" — tinēchhuetzquīltia "you make me laugh". When applied to a transitive verb, both the subject and object of the transitive source become objects of the causativized verb (though often only one is marked because of the prohibition of more than one definite object prefix), and a new subject is again introduced, as in nitēnōtza "I summon people" — tinēchtēnōtzaltia "you make me summon people".

The formation of the causative is highly variable, and may involve replacement of the stem final vowel with short or long i or ī, 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 -l-, a number of minor strategies, or a combination of these strategies, prior to the addition of the causative suffix, which is most commonly -tia, but may also be -lia or -huia 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:

• nēci "it appears" — nicnēxtia "I cause it to appear" (palatalization, loss of final i, -tia)
• chōca "he cries" — nicchōquiltia "I cause him to cry" (replacement of vowel with i, addition of -l-, -tia)
• tlācati "it is born" — nictlācatilia "I cause it to be born" (-lia)

Unspecified Subject/Impersonal/Passive

This construction, based on what Andrews calls the "nonactive" stem, is used for the passive voice of transitive verbs and for the "unspecified subject" or "impersonal" construction of both transitive and intransitive verbs. It is derived by adding to an imperfective active stem one of the simple endings -ō, -lō or -hua, or one of the combinations -o-hua, -lo-hua or -hua-lō (a free variant with -hua). Note that -(l)ō is shortened to -(l)o word-finally, according to the general phonological rule that word-finally or before a glottal stop long vowels are reduced.

The rules for which suffix is added to a given verb stem involve both phonology and transitivity. The suffix -lō is the most common, whereas -lo-hua (note the short vowel, also in -o-hua) is suffixed only to a small number of irregular verbs. In the case of the irregular compound verbs huī-tz "come," and tla-(i)tqui-tz and tla-huīca-tz both meaning "bring something," -lo-hua is suffixed to the embedded verb, i.e. before -tz.

• huītz / tlatquitz / tlahuīcatz > huīlohuatz / itquilohuatz / huīcalohuatz

For transitive verbs being made passive, the subject is discarded and the last-added object becomes the subject.

• tiquincui "you (s.) take them (something animate, e.g. dogs) > cuīloh "they are taken"
• tinēchincuīlia "you (s.) take them (animate) from me" > niquincuīlīlo "I am deprived of them, someone takes them from me" — note that the 3rd-person plural object prefix, contracted to -im-/in- after -nēch-, returns to its full form -quim-/-quin- when a preceding object prefix is removed.

For the impersonal or "unspecified subject" construction, meaning that "one does" or "people do" or sometimes "everyone does" (the action of the verb), the nonactive stem of an intransitive verb is used as is, since an intransitive verb cannot be passive; a transitive verb takes the nonspecific object prefixes -tē- and/or -tla- and the secondary reflexive object prefix -ne-, but cannot take specific object prefixes.

• miqui "he dies" > micohua "there is dying, people are dying"
• cuīcayah "they (specific people) were singing" > cuīcōya "people were singing, everyone was singing, there was singing"
• tizahuinih "we customarily abstain from food" > titozahuanih "we customarily make ourselves abstain from food, we customarily fast" (reflexive causative, more common since it implies intentionality) > nezahualo "people customarily fast, everyone customarily fasts"
• anquintlacualtiah "you (p.) feed them" > tētlacualtīlo "people feed people, people are fed"

Directional affixes

Deixis:

• -on- "away from the speaker"
• on+ tlahtoa "to speak" = ontlahtoa "he/she/it speaks towards there"
• -huāl- " towards the speaker"
• huāl+ tlahtoa "to speak" = huāllahtoa "he/she/it speaks towards here"

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.

	Past		Non-Past		Optative
	s	p	s	p	s	p
Introvert	-co	-coh	-qīuh	-qīuhuih	-qui	-quih
Extrovert	-to	-toh	-tīuh	-tīhuih	-ti	-tih or -tin

Derivational

A number of different suffixes exist to derive nouns from verbs:

• -lli used to derive passivized nouns from verbs.

ex:

tlaxcalli

tla

something

+

 

ixca

roast

+

 

l

 

+

 

tli

abs.

tla + ixca + l + tli

something {} roast {} {} {} {abs.}

"something roasted/ a tortilla"

ex:

tlahcuilolli

tla

 

+

 

ihcuiloa

write/draw

+

 

l

 

+

 

tli

abs.

tla + ihcuiloa + l + tli

{} {} write/draw {} {} {} {abs.}

"scripture/ a drawing"

• -liztli used to derive abstract nouns from verbs.

ex:

miquiliztli

miqui

to die

+

 

liz

 

+

 

tli

abs.

miqui + liz + tli

{to die} {} {} {} {abs.}

"death"

ex:

tlahcuiloliztli

tlahcuiloa

to write something

+

 

liz

 

+

 

tli

abs.

tlahcuiloa + liz + tli

{to write something} {} {} {} {abs.}

"the concept of writing or being a scribe"

• -qui used to derive agentive nouns from verbs.

ex:

ichtecqui

ichtequi

to steal

+

 

-qui

 

ichtequi + -qui

{to steal} {} {}

"a thief"

ex:

tlahuānqui

tlahuāna

to become drunk

+

 

-qui

 

tlahuāna + -qui

{to become drunk} {} {}

"a drunkard"

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 -t(i)-, 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 -t(i)-., whose vowel disappears before vowel-initial matrix verbs such as -oc and -ehua, and then the matrix verb itself. The verbs cah "to be" take the embedded form ye-t(i), and the verb itta "to see" the embedded form itz-t(i).

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.

Matrix verb	Embedding meaning	Examples
-cah "to be"	to be doing (progressive) to be in a state (stative)	toconchix-ti-cateh "we are guarding it" iztaz-ti-cah "it is white, has become white"
-yauh/-uh "to go"	to go along doing	tēcpān-ti-yāzqueh "they will go along in single file" itz-ti-huih "they go looking at — they head toward" tlan-ti-uh "it goes along ending — it approaches its end, it wanes"
-oc "to lie spread out"	to remain in a state (stative) to do lying down, spread out	tlālli mic-t-oc "the land lies dead — it is the dead of night" coch-t-oqueh "they lie down sleeping"
-nemi "to live, to go along"	to continue doing, repeat (iterative) to spend one's time doing	nictēmoh-ti-nemiz "I will continue searching for it" nehnen-ti-nencah "they continued walking around — they wandered" nēnquīz-ti-nemih "they spend their time doing nothing, they waste their time"
-ihcac "to stand"	to stand doing, in a state	nitlayacān-t-ihcac "I stand leading — I stand first in line"
-huetzi "to fall"	to do suddenly	noconān-ti-huetzi "I take it suddenly"
-momana "to spread oneself out"	to become, to enter a state (inceptive)	mic-ti-momana "it becomes (as if) dead — it takes on a palid appearance"
-motlālia "to seat oneself"	to sit in, to settle into a state	cuepōn-ti-motlālia in huēi citlālin "the great star begins to bloom, to shine — the morning star becomes visible"

Future embedding verbs

Two common verbs -nequi and *-quiya select an embedded verb inflected in the future singular. The verb nequi 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 occasionally "to be about to", "to be on the verge of" e.g.:

• niquitta "I see it" — niquittaznequi "I wish to see it"
• ye tlamiz "it will soon end" — ye tlamiznequi in xihuitl "the year wants to end — the year is about to end"
• tāpīzmiquih "we are dying of starvation" — tāpīzmiquiznequih "we are on the verge of dying of starvation".

The resulting compound verb may be inflected as with any other verb, e.g. niquittaznec "I wanted to see it". This construction may only be used to describe the subject wanting itself to perform the action; a periphrastic construction is used where the subject of the desired action and the subject who desires the action to occur are different.

An extremely common collocation is the compound verb quihtōznequi "it means it, it refers to it" (literally "it wants to say it", c.f. Spanish quiere decir).

The stem *-quiya never appears without an embedded future verb. When embedding another verb, it forms the construction commonly referred to as the conditional or the counterfactual.

Relational Nouns and Locatives

Spatial and other relations are expressed with relational nouns. Some locative suffixes also exist.

Noun Incorporation

Noun incorporation is productive in Classical Nahuatl and different kinds of material can be incorporated.

• Body parts
• Instruments
• Objects

Syntax

The particle in is important in Nahuatl syntax and is used as a kind of definite article and also as a subordinating particle and a deictic particle, in addition to having other functions.

Negation

Predicate negation is expressed with the proclitic ah-, or ca- when preceded by the particles mā or tlā, which may be hosted directly on the predicate, as in ahnicuīca "I do not sing" or ahnitlācatl "I am not a human", but is much more commonly hosted on a number of aspectual and modal particles which precede the predicate such as oc "still", ya "already, yet", huel "truly, able", producing respectively aoc "not anymore", aya "not yet", ahhuel "unable". When no such particle exists to host the clitic, it is commonly hosted on the particle mō, as in ahmō "not", which is frequently present even when such other particles exist, as in aocmō, ayamō, with the same meanings as above.

Negative quantification is expressed by attaching ah- to the indefinite pronouns āc "who(ever)", tleh "what(ever)", īc "when(ever)", quēn "how(ever)", etc., producing respectively ayāc "no one", ahtleh "nothing", aīc "never", ahquēn "in no way". When both aspectual or modal particles and indefinite pronouns are negated together, the indefinite usually follows the aspectual or modal, as in aoctleh "nothing anymore", but not in ahtleh huel "unable to … anything".

Questions

Polar Questions

Polar questions are generally marked with the particle cuix, which precedes negation and the aspectual and modal particles, as in cuix ahmō ōtinēchcac "have you not understood me?", but may also be indicated by intonation alone.

Non-configurationality

Classical Nahuatl can be classified as a non-configurational language, allowing many different kinds of word orders, even splitting noun phrases.

VSO basic word order

The basic word order of Classical Nahuatl is verb initial and often considered to be VSO, but some scholars have argued for it being VOS. However, the language being non-configurational, all word orders are allowed and are used to express different kinds of pragmatic relations, such as thematization and focus.

Nouns as predicates

An important feature of Classical Nahuatl is that any noun can function as a standalone predicate. For example, calli 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, nitēuctli means "I am a lord" with the regular first person singular subject ni- attached to the noun tēuctli "lord". Similarly tinocihuāuh means "you are my wife", with the possessive noun nocihuāuh "my wife" attached to the subject prefix ti- "you" (singular). This construction is also seen in the name Tītlācahuān meaning "we are his slaves", a name for the god Tezcatlipoca.

Number system

20

400

8000

Classical Nahuatl has a vigesimal or base 20 number system. In the pre-Columbian Nahuatl script, the numbers 20, 400 (20²) and 8,000 (20³) were represented by a flag, a feather, and a bag, respectively.

It also makes use of numeral classifiers, similar to languages such as Chinese and Japanese.

Basic numbers

1	cē	Becomes cem- or cen- when prefixed to another element.
2	ōme	Becomes ōm- or ōn- when prefixed to another element.
3	ēyi/yēi/ēi/yēyi	Becomes (y)ē- or (y)ēx- when prefixed to another element.
4	nāhui	Becomes nāhu-/nāuh- (i.e. /naːw/) when prefixed to another element.
5	mācuīlli	Derived from māitl "hand".
6	chicuacē	chicua- "5" + cē "1"
7	chicōme	chic- "5" + ōme "2"
8	chicuēyi	chicu- "5" + ēi "3"
9	chiucnāhui	chiuc- "5" + nāhui "4"
10	mahtlāctli	From māitl "hand" + tlāctli "torso".
15	caxtōlli
20	cēmpōhualli	From cēm- "1" + pōhualli "a count" (from pōhua "to count").
400	cēntzontli	From cēn- "1" + tzontli "hair".
8000	cēnxiquipilli	From cēn- "1" + xiquipilli "bag".

Compound numbers

Multiples of 20, 400 or 8,000 are formed by replacing cēm- or cēn- with another number. E.g. ōmpōhualli "40" (2×20), mahtlāctzontli "4,000" (10×400), nāuhxiquipilli "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 om- or on-, or in the case of larger units, preceded by īpan "on it" or īhuān "with it". E.g. mahtlāctli oncē "11" (10+1), caxtōlonēyi "18" (15+3), cēmpōhualmahtlāctli omōme "32" (20+10+2); cēntzontli caxtōlpōhualpan nāuhpōhualomōme "782" (1×400+15×20+4×20+2).

mahtlāctli

10‍

 

+

oncē

1‍

mahtlāctli {} oncē

10‍ + 1‍

"11"

Classifiers

Depending on the objects being counted, Nahuatl may use a classifier or counter word. These include:

• -tetl for small, round objects (literally "rock")
• -pāntli for counting rows
• -tlamantli for foldable or stackable things
• -ōlōtl for roundish or oblong-shaped things (literally "maize cob")

Which classifier a particular object takes is loose and somewhat arbitrary.

Ordinal numbers

Ordinal numbers (first, second, third, etc.) are formed by preceding the number with ic or inic.

References

• Andrews, J. Richard (2003). Introduction to Classical Nahuatl (revised ed.). Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0-8061-3452-9.
• Carochi, Horacio (2001) [1645]. Lockhart, James (ed.). Grammar of the Mexican language with an explanation of its adverbs. Translated by Lockhart, James. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-4281-2.
• Garibay K., Ángel María (1953). Historia de la literatura náhuatl. México D.F.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) (in Spanish and Nahuatl languages)
• Karttunen, Frances (1992). An analytical dictionary of Nahuatl. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
• Launey, Michel (1980). Introduction à la langue et à la littérature aztèques. Paris.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) (in French and Nahuatl languages)
• Launey, Michel (1992). Introducción a la lengua y a la literatura Náhuatl. México D.F.: UNAM. (in Spanish and Nahuatl languages)
• Launey, Michel (2011). Mackay, Christopher (ed.). An Introduction to Classical Nahuatl. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-73229-1. (in English and Nahuatl languages)
• Lockhart, James (2001). Nahuatl as Written: lessons in older written Nahuatl, with copious examples and texts. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-4282-0.
• Molina, Alonso de (1992) [1571]. Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana (Reprint ed.). México D.F.: Porrúa.
• Olmos, Andrés de (1993) [1547]. Arte de la lengua mexicana concluído en el convento de San Andrés de Ueytlalpan, en la provincia de Totonacapan que es en la Nueva España (Reprint ed.). México D.F.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Rincón, Antonio del (1885) [1595]. Arte mexicana compuesta por el padre Antonio del Rincón (Reprint ed.). México D.F.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Sahagún, Bernardino de (1950–71). Charles Dibble and Arthur Anderson (ed.). Florentine Codex. General History of the Things of New Spain (Historia General de las Cosas de la Nueva España). vols I-XII. Santa Fe, NM.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Sasaki, Mitsuya (December 2012). R-marking: Referential person affixes in Classical Nahuatl nouns (Master of Letters thesis). University of Tokyo.