Long or Short Vowel

[Frances Karttunen]

> In the Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl does the small line above a vowel
> imply that the vowel is long?

Yes, that is what the macron (small line) means.




The verbs that end in long vowels in their dictionary forms (mostly -ia: and
-oa: verbs; I'm using a: here for long a:, because email messes up macrons)
have short vowels in inflected forms if the vowel is at the end of the word
or followed by saltillo/glottal stop, which is written as "h" in the
dictionary.

For example, -ia: and -oa: verbs have a short vowel in both the singular and
plural simple present tense form.  It is short in the singular because there
is no suffix added to the singular form, and that puts the -a at the end of
the word.  The vowel is also short in the plural, because the plural suffix
is -h.  But the vowel shows up long in the customary present, where the
suffix is -ni and in the imperfect, where the suffix is -ya.

There are some nouns where a long vowel does end up in word-final position.
For instance, the word for 'hand/arm' is ma:itl.  In the possessed form, a
possessive prefix is added, and the -tl is absent.  So you can think of it
as something like no-ma:i 'my hand/arm,' but the short final -i also
disappears, leaving noma: with a long vowel at the end of the word, and this
vowel stays long.

Likewise there are some uninflected words that have long vowels in
word-final position: ma: 'let it be that', za: 'only', no: 'also', ahmo:
'no, not', ce: 'one'

The number of particles that end in a long vowel is small, and they can just
be learned.  The nouns that end up with long vowels at the end of possessed
forms can be recognized, because that have the vowel "i" between the long
vowel and the -tl of the dictionary form.

Then the general rule that long vowels turn up short at the end of words and
before -h applies across the board.

Fran Karttunen