An introduction to Classical Nahuatl

Description

Now available to an English-speaking audience, this book is a comprehensive grammar of classical Nahuatl, the literary language of the Aztecs. It offers students of Nahuatl a complete and clear treatment of the language’s structure, grammar, and vocabulary. It is divided into 35 chapters, beginning with basic syntax and progressing gradually to more complex structures. Each grammatical concept is illustrated clearly with examples, exercises, and passages for translation. A key is provided to allow students to check their answers. By far the most approachable textbook of Nahuatl available, this book will be an excellent teaching tool both for classroom use and for readers pursuing independent study of the language. It will be an invaluable resource to anthropologists, ethnographers, historians, archaeologists, and linguists alike. Cover Summary Title Page Contents Preface How to Use This Book PART ONE Preliminary Lesson: Phonetics and Writing Lesson One: Intransitive Verbs, Word Order, Absolutive Suffix Lesson Two: Nouns and Nominal Predicates, the Plural of Nouns, Questions and Negation Lesson Three: Transitive Verbs Lesson Four: Emphatic, Interrogative, Demonstrative and Negative Pronouns Lesson Five: Irregular Verbs, Introduction to Locatives Lesson Six: Directional and Reflexive Prefixes Lesson Seven: Quantifiers, Zan, Ye, Oc Lesson Eight: Preterite Tense Lesson Nine: Imperative/Optative, Vocative, Future, Imperfect Lesson Ten: Possessed Forms of the Noun Lesson Eleven: Inherent Possession, the Suffix -yō, ‘To Have’, Lesson Twelve: Nominal Suffixes, “Adjectives” Lesson Thirteen: The Principal Locative Suffixes Lesson Fourteen: Coordination, Phrases of Time and Manner Lesson Fifteen: Impersonal and Passive Verb Forms Review Exercises for Part One PART TWO Lesson Sixteen: Agent Nouns, the -ni Form Lesson Seventeen: Compound Nouns, Verbal Incorporation Lesson Eighteen: Bitransitive Verbs, Ambitransitive Verbs Lesson Nineteen: Causative Verbs Lesson Twenty: Applicative Verbs Lesson Twenty-One: Honorific and Deprecatory Verbs Lesson Twenty-Two: Pluperfect, Counterfactual, Vetitive, Directional Conjugations Lesson Twenty-Three: Morphological Peculiarities of Certain Nouns and Verbs Lesson Twenty-Four: More on Locatives Lesson Twenty-Five: More on Quantifiers Lesson Twenty-Six: Details about Number and Person, Indefinite Pronouns and Adverbs Lesson Twenty-Seven: Compound Verbs Lesson Twenty-Eight: Reduplication outside of the Plural, More on Verbs Lesson Twenty-Nine: Derivative Verbs Lesson Thirty: Derivative Nouns Lesson Thirty-One: Noun Clauses Lesson Thirty-Two: Attributives, Relative Clauses, Copula Verbs, Semi-Auxiliaries Lesson Thirty-Three: Comparisons, Clauses of Result, Purpose and Cause Lesson Thirty-Four: Conditions, More Particles Lesson Thirty-Five: Temporal Clauses, Particles, Interjections Appendix One: Traditional Orthography Appendix Two: The Aztec Calendar Appendix Three: Inflexional Patterns Appendix Four: Key to the Exercises Nahuatl-to-English Vocabulary English-to-Nahuatl Vocabulary Index