Грамматические особенности классического науатля

Grammatical features of Classical Nahuatl
The grammar of Classical Nahuatl is agglutinative, head marking, and makes extensive use of compounding, noun incorporation and derivation. That is, it can add many different prefixes and suffixes to a root until very long words are formed. Very long verbal forms or nouns created by incorporation, and accumulation of prefixes are common in literary works. New words can thus be easily created.

Vowel length was phonologically distinctive in Classical Nahuatl, but vowel length was rarely transcribed in manuscripts, leading to occasional difficulties in discerning whether a given vowel was long or short. In this article, long vowels are indicated with a macron above the vowel letter: ⟨ā, ē, ī, ō⟩. Another feature which is rarely marked in manuscripts is the saltillo or glottal stop ([ʔ]). In this article, the saltillo is indicated with an h following a vowel. The grammarian Horacio Carochi (1645) represented saltillo by marking diacritics on the preceding vowel: grave accent on non final vowels ⟨à, ì, è, ò⟩ and circumflex on final vowels ⟨â, î, ê, ô⟩. Carochi is almost alone among colonial era grammarians in consistently representing both saltillo and vowel length in transcription, even though they are both essential to a proper understanding of Classical Nahuatl.

The phonological shapes of Nahuatl morphemes may be altered in particular contexts, depending on the shape of the adjacent morphemes or their position in the word.

The words of Nahuatl can be divided into three basic functional classes: verbs, nouns and particles. Adjectives exist, but they generally behave like nouns and there are very few adjectives that are not derived from either verbal or nominal roots. The few adverbs that can be said to exist fall into the class of particles.

Non possessed nouns take a suffix called the absolutive. This suffix takes the form tl after vowels (ā tl, "water") and tli after consonants, which assimilates with a final /l/ on the root (tōch tli, "rabbit", but cal li, "house"). Some nouns are irregular and, for the absolutive suffix, instead take in (mich in, fish). In most derived forms, any of these suffixes would drop: tōch cal li, "rabbit hole", mich matla tl, "fishing net". Possessed nouns do not take the absolutive suffix (see Noun inflection below), but do receive a prefix to denote the possessor.

Absolutive singularcihuātl "woman, wife"oquichtli "man, husband"totōlin "turkey"tlācatl "person (sg. )"Absolutive Pluralcihuah "women"oquichtin "men"totōlmeh "turkeys"tlātlācah "people"Possessed Singularnocihuāuh "my wife"noquich "my husband"nototōl "my turkey"notlācauh "my person (ie. my slave)"Possessed Pluralnocihuāhuān "my wives"noquichhuān "my husbands"nototōlhuān "my turkeys"notlācahuān "my slaves"

The suffix yo — the same suffix as the abstract/collective yō(tl) — may be added to a possessed noun to indicate that it is a part of its possessor, rather than just being owned by it. For example, both nonac and nonacayo (possessed forms of nacatl) mean "my meat", but nonac may refer to meat that one has to eat, while nonacayo refers to the flesh that makes up one's body. This is known as inalienable, integral or organic possession.

tia derives from noun X a verb with an approximate meaning of "to provide with X " or "to become X." huia derives from noun X a verb with an approximate meaning of "to use X " or "to provide with X." yōtl derives from a noun X a noun with an abstract meaning of "X hood or X ness." yoh derives from a noun X a noun with a meaning of "thing full of X" or "thing with a lot of X."

All verbs are marked with prefixes in order to agree with the person of the subject, and, where there is one, the object. In addition, verbs take a special suffix to mark plural subjects (only animates take plural agreement). An example of an intransitive verb, with subject marking: niyōli 'I live,' tiyōli 'you (singular) live,' yōli he, she, it lives,' tiyōlih 'we live,' anyōlih 'you (plural) live,' yōlih 'they live.'

Two verbs can be compounded with the ligature morpheme ti .

Spatial and other relations are expressed with relational nouns. Some locative suffixes also exist.

The particle in is important in Nahuatl syntax and is used as a kind of definite article and also as a subordinating particle and a deictic particle, in addition to having other functions.

Classical Nahuatl can be classified as a non configurational language, allowing many different kinds of word orders, even splitting noun phrases.

The basic word order of Classical Nahuatl is verb initial and often considered to be VSO, but some scholars have argued for it being VOS. However, the language being non configurational, all word orders are allowed and are used to express different kinds of pragmatic relations, such as thematization and focus.

An important feature of Classical Nahuatl is that any noun can function as a standalone predicate. For example, calli is commonly translated "house" but could also be translated "(it) is a house". As predicates, nouns can take the verbal subject prefixes (but not tense inflection). Thus, nitēuctli means "I am a lord" with the regular first person singular subject ni attached to the noun tēuctli "lord". Similarly tinocihuāuh means "you are my wife", with the possessive noun nocihuāuh "my wife" attached to the subject prefix ti "you" (singular). This construction is also seen in the name Tītlācahuān meaning "we are his slaves", a name for the god Tezcatlipoca.

Classical Nahuatl has a vigesimal or base 20 number system. In the pre Columbian Nahuatl script, the numbers 20, 400 (202) and 8,000 (203) were represented by a flag, a feather, and a bag, respectively. It also makes use of numeral classifiers, similar to languages such as Chinese and Japanese.

1 cē Becomes cem or cen when prefixed to another element. 2 ōme Becomes ōm or ōn when prefixed to another element. 3 ēyi/yēi/ēi/yēyi Becomes (y)ē or (y)ēx when prefixed to another element. 4 nāhui Becomes nāhu /nāuh (i. e. ) when prefixed to another element. 5 mācuīlli Derived from māitl "hand". 6 chicuacē chicua "5" + cē "1" 7 chicōme chic "5" + ōme "2" 8 chicuēyi chicu "5" + ēi "3" 9 chiucnāhui chiuc "5" + nāhui "4" 10 mahtlāctli From māitl "hand" + tlāctli "torso". 15 caxtōlli 20 cēmpōhualli From cēm "1" + pōhualli "a count" (from pōhua "to count"). 400 cēntzontli From cēn "1" + tzontli "hair".

Multiples of 20, 400 or 8,000 are formed by replacing cēm or cēn with another number. E. g. ōmpōhualli "40" (2×20), mahtlāctzontli "4,000" (10×400), nāuhxiquipilli "32,000" (4×8,000). The numbers in between those above—11 to 14, 16 to 19, 21 to 39, and so forth—are formed by following the larger number with a smaller number which is to be added to the larger one. The smaller number is prefixed with om or on , or in the case of larger units, preceded by īpan "on it" or īhuān "with it". E. g. mahtlāctli oncē "11" (10+1), caxtōlonēyi "18" (15+3), cēmpōhualmahtlāctli omōme "32" (20+10+2); cēntzontli caxtōlpōhualpan nāuhpōhualomōme "782" (1×400+15×20+4×20+2).

Ordinal numbers (first, second, third, etc.) are formed by preceding the number with ic or inic.