Nahuatl dialects

[r. joe campbell]

   In the light of the recent interest shown in variation in Nahuatl
dialects, I wanted to contribute a small sample which shows how words
which are basically similar can differ because of certain pronunciation
"habits" (which linguists call "rules" -- descriptions of regularities).

   The villages are:

    Ameyaltepec, Guerrero
    San Miguel Canoa, Puebla
    Hueyapan, Morelos

   The spelling is "standard", except where the pronunciation necessitates
a change.  'cc' is pronounced like a single 'c', namely [k].
I'll intersperse some comments with the numbered examples.

                     Ameyaltepec     Canoa           Hueyapan

1.
   I leave it        niccahua        niccahua        niccava
   I left it        oniccauh        oniccah         oniccan

   Verbs like '-ca:hua' lose their final vowel in the preterit.  Note that
Ameyaltepec keeps the /w/ as [w] (spelled 'hu' before vowels and spelled
'uh' elsewhere -- the spelling inversion does NOT indicate a difference in
pronunciation; it is related to readability).  Canoa converts
syllable-final /w/ (including, of course, word-final ones) to [h].
Hueyapan converts intervocalic /w/ to [v] (pronounced as in English, not
to be confused the Spanish letter 'v'); in word-final position it is
pronounced as [n].


2.
   we leave it       ticcahuah       ticcahuah       ticcavah
   we left it       oticcauhqueh    oticcahqueh     oticcahqueh

   The only difference in #2 is that in Hueyapan, '-ca:hua' shows up in a
*third* phonetic form: '-cah-'.  Therefore children learning the language
in Hueyapan (and, naturally, as users of it throughout their lives) need
to recognize three forms of the stem:

   word-internal, before a vowel:     cava
   word-internal, before a consonant: cah
   word-final:                        can

3.
   I fall            nihuetzi        nihuetzi        nivetzi
   he falls          huetzi          huetzi          huetzi

   These examples establish the fact that in Hueyapan, speakers actually
have a pronunciation "rule" that converts /w/ into [v]; if it were not for
examples like this, we might simply believe that Hueyapan had undergone a
basic change and no longer had a /w/ at all.

4.
   I fell           onihuetz        onihuetz        onivetz
   he fell          ohuetz          ohuetz          oetz

   "oetz" shows that in Hueyapan speakers delete a /w/ that they recognize
as part of the word (cf. huetzi, nivetzi) when it is preceded by 'o'.

5.
   I shell it                                        nigoa
   I shelled it                                     onigon

   I don't recall the Ameyaltepec and Canoa forms, but I thought that the
Hueyapan examples would tickle your imagination.  And the explanation is
too big for this space....

6.
   you buy it                        ticcoa          ticcoa
   you bought it    oticcouh        oticcoh         oticcon



7.
   I return it       niccuepa        niccuepa        niccopa
   I return you      nimitzcuepa     nimitzcuepa     nimitzcopa
   I return (myself) nimocuepa       nimocuepa       nogopa



   These examples are the only ones in the whole set that indicate that
any of the three dialect has changed a vocabulary item: Hueyapan has
'copa' rather than 'cuepa'.  But, again, Hueyapan has an extra
pronunciation "rule": /k/ becomes [g] intervocalically.  Note, however,
that the sound of /k/ is maintained when it is preceded by a consonant.
Linguists will jump with joy when they notice that 'nogopa' (which is
really, in the speaker's mind {nocopa} is pronounced as [nogopa] and
'niccopa' "waits" until all the intervocalic /k/s have been converted to
[g] and then reduces its 'cc' to a single [k] sound between vowels.
If 'niccopa' got in a hurry and didn't wait, and converted its 'cc' into a
single 'c', then it would momentarily become 'nicopa', which would then be
changed into *[nigopa] by the /k/ to [g] "rule".

Incidentally, although Hueyapan has no "double consonants" (pronounced
*long*) except for /ll/ (as in 'calli'), Tepoztlan does have them, but
that's another story.....

   Maybe someone else has some other dialect comparisons?

Best regards,

Joe