Orizaba Nahuatl

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Orizaba Nahuatl
Āwillisāpan Nāwatl
Spoken in	Veracruz
Total speakers	120,000 (1991 SIL)
Language family	American Uto-Aztecan Southern Uto-Aztecan Aztecan General Aztec Aztec Orizaba Nahuatl
Writing system	Latin alphabet
Official status
Official language in	None
Regulated by	none
Language codes
ISO 639-1	None
ISO 639-2	nlv
ISO 639-3	nlv –
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Orizaba Nahuatl is a native American language spoken in the southeastern Mexican state of Veracruz mostly in the area to the south of the city of Orizaba.^[1] It is also known as Orizaba Aztec and Náhuatl de la Sierra de Zongolica. It has 79 percent intelligibility with Morelos Nahuatl. There is a dialect called Ixhuatlancillo Nahuatl which is spoken in a town to the north of Orizaba. There are several primary schools and one secondary school which use this language along with Spanish. ^[2]

[edit] Writing

Ortography is similar to that of Classical Nahuatl, but making use of modern consonants:

• "I will enter to his/her house."

"Nicalaquīz īcal." [nah]

"Nikalakīs īkal." [nlv]

This correspond to a more phonetic translation, but still making use of macrons to mark long vowels. Most grammar and vocabulary changes are minor, most of them corresponding to neologisms and loan words from Spanish. Example:

• "Now/At this moment/Today."

"Āxcān." [nah]

"Axan." [nlv]

This lost both long vowels and intermediate consonant.

Some loan words from Spanish:

"Kahwen" (from café, coffee; also used in Classical Nahuatl as "cafetzin").

"Kawayoh" (from caballo, horse; also used in Classical Nahuatl as "cahuayoh").

"Kochih" (from coche, car).

"Refreskoh" (from refresco, soft drink or soda).

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• Orizaba Nahuatl lessons