Nahuatl in the middle years: Language contact phenomena in texts of the colonial period (University of California publications in linguistics, 85) [Paperback]

Frances E. Karttunen (Author), James Lockhart (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, Spanish

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press (May 1977)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520095618
• ISBN-13: 978-0520095618
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,637,758 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Tracing the descent from the Conquest to the pre-modern, March 5, 2007

By 

bukhtan (Chicago, Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nahuatl in the middle years: Language contact phenomena in texts of the colonial period (University of California publications in linguistics, 85) (Paperback)

Lockhart and Karttunen, probably the preeminent "Nahuatlists" in the English-speaking world, describe the changes that occurred in Nahuatl from the Conquista to the early 1700's; after that time, texts are few and unedifying.
The book is written in clear and direct language. One of the pleasures of learning Nahuatl is the plainness of the scholarly writing; jargon and political undercurrenting is less common in this field than in many others. These particular authors certainly exemplify this directness.

Contents:

Introduction

PHONOLOGY AND PHONETICS REFLECTED BY THE ORTHOGRAPHY
Letter substitution in loanwords
Instability of nasals
Hypercorrection

LOANWORDS AND LOANWORD MORPHOLOGY
Nouns: Type & rate of borrowing, and Loan noun morphology
Adjectives
Verbs
Particles

SEMANTIC CHANGE IN LIEU OF LOANWORDS
the Early stages
Continuing developments with verbs

CONCLUSION

APPENDIX I
LOANWORD LISTS
Loanwords and phrases from texts: Loanwords, and Selected unanalyzed phrases and neologisms
Loanwords in Molina's Vocabulario, 1571
Loanwords in Pedro de Arenas' Vocabulario manual, 1611

APPENDIX II
TRANSCRIPTIONS AND TRANSLATIONS OF SAMPLE DOCUMENTS
[fifteen pages of ten documents in Nahuatl, land sales, will, petitions, complaints to goverments, and selections from annals; from 1548 to 1736]

APPENDIX III
SOME REMARKS ON THE NOMINAL SUFFIXES

NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Especially helpful for most readers, outside of major universities, I would think, are the ten documents in Nahuatl; texts are not so easy to get for learners out here in Pop Culture America.
Reader who are interested in modern Nahuatl may want to consult:

"Speaking Mexicano", by Hill and Hill,

the result of investigations made in the Puebla area in the late Seventies, when the Nahuatl village culture was already being eroded pretty quickly. I wonder what has happened since the recent mass movements of Mexican nationals to the exploitative low-wage economies in the United States and the advent of NAFTA. But press reports indicate that there are still native speakers of Nahuatl.