• DOI:10.1086/465892
• Corpus ID: 143084964

An Inconspicuous Basic Split in Nahuatl

@article{Canger1985AnIB,
  title={An Inconspicuous Basic Split in Nahuatl},
  author={Una Canger and Karen Dakin},
  journal={International Journal of American Linguistics},
  year={1985},
  volume={51},
  pages={358 - 361}
}

• Una Canger, K. Dakin
• Published 1 October 1985
• Linguistics
• International Journal of American Linguistics

Eric Hamp has often made clear the great importance of little things. In that spirit, we are pleased to present a detail of Nahuatl that reveals important information about the history of that language and its speakers. In the sixteenth-century Nahuatl dictionary compiled by Fray Alonso de Molina (1571), a few words are given in two variant forms, one form with e and one with i: centli, cintli 'macorca de mayz curada y seca'; iztetl, iztitl 'uia'; and itetl, ititl 'barriga o vientre'. Both forms occur in dialects spoken today, but their distribution is not arbitrary; some well-defined dialects systematically display the forms with e, while in other also clearly defined ones, only the forms with i occur. (Cf. Lastra 1985.) We have both independently been puzzled by these variant forms, and in agreement with our individual inclination we have approached them from different points of view: Karen Dakin has looked at them within the broader UtoAztecan frame, whereas Una Canger has looked at their distribution in the known Nahuatl dialects (cf. Canger, forthcoming); and we have both arrived at the same conclusion, namely, that the variation represents a very old-probably the oldest-recognizable split or isogloss within the Nahuatl language. In addition to the words cited from Molina's dictionary, we have both collected cases of variation between e and i. Two of these, which follow the same dialect pattern, are pertinent here: tesi, tisi 'grind'; testli, titli 'corn dough'. In the Valley of Mexico, North Puebla, Tlaxcala, and Morelos, the words in question have e, and in La Huasteca, the Sierra de Puebla, Isthmus, Pipil, and Central Guerrero, they have i. The Western Periphery is not as clear as the other dialect areas: 'corn' has i, sintli, everywhere, but 'grind' has e everywhere, tesi. And more generally, the Western Periphery seems to prefer e rather than i, thus patterning with the dialects in the restricted and continuous area in and around the Valley of Mexico rather than with those north, east, and south of that.