You say, ‘tomato,’ I say, 'tomatl'

Ancient Nahuatl dialects pepper our modern language

Nahuatl, an ancient language spoken by the Aztecs and related tribes in central and northern Mexico, is very much alive today in Arizona and the Southwestern United States.

When you say “tomato” and “avocado,” you are speaking Nahuatl. Many Nahuatl words have been grafted into Spanish and English. Tomato derives from the Nahuatl word for tomatl, and avocado is derived from Nahuatl ahuacatl. Chili is another familiar word in the United States that is Nahuatl.

When listening to people of the Yaqui, Tohono O’odham, Pima or Hopi tribes in Arizona, or the Huichol, Mayo or Tarahumara tribes in Northern Mexico, you are hearing distinct dialects of Nahuatl.

Latinos – particularly those who identify themselves as Chicanos – have embraced traditions stemming from civilizations speaking Nahuatl.

Chicanos like Zarco Guerrero in Mesa have named a child with the Nahuatl name Quetzal (from the Nahuatl name Quetzalcoatl, an Aztec deity).

“The Nahuatl language helps preserve our ancestral culture,” says Guerrero, a noted mask maker and artist. “Hearing it is like a journey to our past.”

In addition, if you attended Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) festivities throughout the Valley, you saw calacas (the Nahuatl word for skeletons) represented in art, dance performances and even candies.

Nahuatl (‘na:.watl) is a group of related languages and dialects of the Aztecan branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family indigenous to Mesoamerica. It is still spoken by about 1.5 million Nahua people in Central Mexico. However, thousands of Mexican immigrants brought dialects of Nahuatl with them when they settled in the U.S.

Nahuan languages have existed in central Mexico since 600 AD. One of these groups, the Aztecs, dominated central Mexico until the time of the Spanish conquest.

When the Spanish subjugated the Aztecs and neighboring tribes, they tried to suppress the native Nahuatl and replace it with Spanish. However, in some areas of Mexico Nahuatl and its related languages remains the primary language of many Mexicans.

Often Mexican schools will teach young children bilingually, in Spanish and a native tongue such as Nahuatl. Under the Mexican Law of Linguistic Rights, Nahuatl is recognized as a national language with the same validity as Spanish and Mexico’s other indigenous languages.

In Arizona, Nahuatl and its branch languages are taught in college classes and in community settings. The University of Arizona teaches Nahuatl language and culture through its Interdisciplinary Program in Latino American Studies.

A summer program takes students to Mexico for Nahuatl instruction. They also interact with families who speak Nahuatl (for more information, contact the IPLAS office at (520) 626-7248).

Nearer to home, Raul Monreal, director of the South Mountain Community College branch in Guadalupe, says the college offers a class of Yaqui (derived from Nahuatl) language and culture.

“This is the mother tongue for a lot of our students and offers ways for them to learn and understand their culture,” he says.

Guadalupe is a town of 5,000 people near Phoenix. About half of the residents are Yaqui, and the rest Mexican American. Guadalupe was founded around 1900 by Yaquis fleeing persecution in Mexico.

Monreal says the value of learning an ancestral language like Nahuatl is that the student also learns about the world view, myths, spirituality, customs and traditions that are imbued in the language.

For Yaquis and Mexican Americans, learning a Nahuatl-related language goes beyond memorizing a number of vocabulary words.

“It’s really about them understanding themselves and their families, and their history,” says Monreal.

For more information on learning Nahuatl, readers can refer to the classic textbooks, Introduction to Classical Nahuatl by J. Richard Andrews (University of Texas Press) and Speaking Mexicano: Dynamics of Syncretic Language in Central Mexico by Jane and Kenneth Hill (The University of Arizona Press). Nahuatl texts, primers, dictionaries and courses are available online at the Summer Institute of Linguistics Nahuatl Web site, http://www.sil.org/americas/mexico/nahuatl/00i-nahuatl.htm.