Looking for my first Nahuatl recordings

[Alec Battles]

Actually, I wasn't so keen on Nahuatl as Written because he doesn't
seem to include
include vowel lengths. (This is my impression based on the Amazon preview.)

Years ago I went through all the trouble of learning to read and
pronounce Literary Arabic in order to get a
better grasp on how vowel lengths probably sounded back in the day
when most languages had them.

People who haven't learned how to pronounce long vowels which don't
take the main accent in a word
probably wouldn't care, and I understand that the length of a vowel in
Classical Nahuatl is more of a scholarly reconstruction in some cases.

But as far as I'm concerned, it would be a royal pain not to learn
first things first. And so if I'm going to get just one first book, it would
have to be one of the ones that marks vowel length: Carochi,
Kartunnen, or Andrews...

Alec

>        We're not talking about using Lockhart's edition of Carochi. You need to get Lockhart's "Nahuatl as Written."
> John
>
> On Sep 24, 2010, at 6:16 PM, Alec Battles wrote:
>
>> Thank everyone for their wonderful recommendations. Jesse, I would not
>> want to hear recordings of a dead language by its (un?)dead native
>> speakers. Imagine hearing Plato speak. *bleaugh* Nevertheless, I have
>> found my year and a half among Modern Greek speakers helped me to
>> parse text in Greek. What are languages if they are not spoken.
>>
>> Karttunen seems just as methodical as Carochi himself. And
>> unfortunately both cost $80. I'll toss a coin up in the air and
>> probably end up buying the opposite book anyway.
>>
>> As far as recordings go, I think most teachers would find me quite
>> hard to please. I have always learned languages without listening to
>> exercises being read aloud. I prefer texts being read aloud, stories
>> being told, conversations being had. Someone reading their 150-odd
>> characters of twitter out would be different.
>>
>> Thanks again for all of the info, everyone. I'm going to stick to the
>> 1882 Carochi until I've got enough money to buy either the K&C or the
>> updated Carochi.
>>
>> Best,
>> Alec
>
>

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