Nahuan languages

Until the middle of the 20th century, scholarship on Nahuan languages was limited almost entirely to the literary language that existed approximately 1540–1770 (which is now known as Classical Nahuatl, although the descriptor "classical" was never used until the 20th century[7]). Since the 1930s, there have appeared several grammars of individual modern dialects (in either article or book form), in addition to articles of narrower scope.[8]

The history of research into Nahuan dialect classification in the 20th century up to 1988 has been reviewed by Canger (1988). Before 1978, classification proposals had relied to a greater or lesser degree on the three way interdialectal sound correspondence /t͡ɬ ~ t ~ l/ (the lateral affricate /t͡ɬ/ of Classical Nahuatl and many other dialects corresponds to /t/ in some eastern and southern dialects and to /l/ in yet other dialects). Benjamin Lee Whorf (1937) had performed an analysis and concluded that /t͡ɬ/ was the reflex of Proto-Uto-Aztecan */t/ before /a/ (a conclusion which has been borne out). But in 1978 Campbell and Langacker made the novel proposal—which met with immediate universal acceptance—that this sound change had occurred back in Proto-Aztecan (the ancestor dialect of Pochutec and General Aztec) and that therefore the corresponding /t/ or /l/ in Nahuatl dialects were innovations.

As a geographical note: the northern part of the State of Puebla is universally recognized as having two subgroupings. The northern part of the State of Puebla is a long north to south lobe. In the middle of it from east-northeast to west-southwest runs the Sierra de Puebla (as Nahuanist linguists call it) or Sierra Norte de Puebla (as geographers call it). The "Sierra de Puebla" dialects are quite distinct from the "northern Puebla" dialects, which are spoken in northernmost Puebla State and very small parts of neighboring states.

Dakin (2003:261) gives the following classification of Nahuatl dialects (in which the word "north" has been replaced by "northern"), based on her earlier publications, e.g., Dakin (2000).

• Eastern Nahuatl
  • Huastec
  • Guerrero
  • Sierra Puebla
  • Tehuacán–Zongolica
  • Isthmus
  • Pipil
• Western Nahuatl
  • Central Nahuatl
    • "Classical" Nahuatl
    • Tlaxcala–Puebla
    • Central Puebla
    • Ometepec
    • Northern Puebla
  • Western Peripheral
    • Mexicanero
    • Coatepec
    • Temascaltepec
    • Michoacán
    • Pochutec

Most specialists in Pipil (El Salvador) consider it to have diverged from Nahuatl to the point it should no longer be considered a variety of Nahuatl. Most specialists in Nahuan do not consider Pochutec to have ever been a variety of Nahuatl.

Canger (1978; 1980) and Lastra de Suarez (1986) have made classification schemes based on data and methodology which each investigator has well documented. Canger proposed a single Central grouping and several Peripheral groupings. The Center grouping is hypothesized to have arisen during the Aztec Empire by diffusion of the defining feature (an innovative verb form) and other features from the prestigious dialect of the capital. The dialects which adopted it could be from multiple genetic divisions of General Aztec.[9] As for the various Peripheral groupings, their identity as Peripheral is defined negatively, i.e., by their lack the grammatical feature which, it is proposed, defines the Central grouping. Canger recognized the possibility that centuries of population migrations and other grammatical feature diffusions may have combined to obscure the genetic relationships (the branching evolution) among the dialects of Nahuatl.

Some of the isoglosses used by Canger to establish the Peripheral vs. Central dialectal dichotomy are these:

Lastra de Suárez in her Nahuatl dialect atlas (1986) affirmed the concept of the Center/Periphery geographic dichotomy, but amended Canger's assignment of some subgroupings to the Center or the Periphery. The three most important divergences are probably those involving Huastec dialects, Sierra de Zongolica dialects,[10] and northwestern Guerrero dialects. Lastra classifies these as Peripheral, Central, and Central, respectively, while in each case Canger does the opposite.

The dialectal situation is very complex and most categorizations, including the one presented above, are, in the nature of things, controversial. Lastra wrote, "The isoglosses rarely coincide. As a result, one can give greater or lesser importance to a feature and make the [dialectal] division that one judges appropriate/convenient" (1986:189). And she warned: "We insist that this classification is not [entirely] satisfactory" (1986:190). Both researchers emphasized the need for more data in order for there to be advances in the field of Nahuatl dialectology. Since the 1970s, there has been an increase in research whose immediate aim is the production of grammars and dictionaries of individual dialects. But there is also a detailed study of dialect variation in the dialect subgroup sometimes known as the Zongolica (Andrés Hasler 1996). A. Hasler sums up the difficulty of classifying Zongolica thus (1996:164): "Juan Hasler (1958:338) interprets the presence in the region of [a mix of] eastern dialect features and central dialect features as an indication of a substratum of eastern Nahuatl and a superstratum of central Nahuatl.[11] Una Canger (1980:15–20) classifies the region as part of the eastern area, while Yolanda Lastra (1986:189–190) classifies it as part of the central area."

As already alluded to, the nucleus of the Central dialect territory is the Valley of Mexico. The extinct Classical Nahuatl, the enormously influential language spoken by the people of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital, is one of the Central dialects. Lastra in her dialect atlas proposed three Peripheral groupings: eastern, western, and Huasteca.[12] She included Pipil in Nahuatl, assigning it to the Eastern Periphery grouping. Lastra's classification of dialects of modern Nahuatl is as follows (many of the labels refer to Mexican states):

• Western Periphery
  • West coast
  • Western México State
  • Durango–Nayarit
• Eastern Periphery
  • Sierra de Puebla[13]
  • Isthmus
  • Pipil
• Huasteca
• Center
  • Nuclear subarea (in and near Mexico, D.F.)
  • Puebla–Tlaxcala (areas by the border between the states of Puebla and Tlaxcala)
  • Xochiltepec–Huatlatlauca (south of the city of Puebla)
  • Southeastern Puebla (this grouping extends over the Sierra de Zongolica located in the neighboring state of Veracruz)
  • Central Guerrero (so called; actually northern Guerrero, specifically the region of the Balsas River)
  • Southern Guerrero

This list is taken from the Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas (INALI)'s Catálogo de Lenguas Indígenas Nacionales.[14] The full document has variations on the names especially “autodenominaciones” ("self designations", the names these dialect communities use for their language), along with lists of towns where each variant is spoken.

• Náhuatl de la Sierra, noreste de Puebla
• Náhuatl del noroeste central
• Náhuatl del Istmo
• Mexicano de la Huasteca veracruzana
• Náhuatl de la Huasteca potosina
• Náhuatl de Oaxaca
• Náhuatl de la Sierra negra, sur
• Náhuatl de la Sierra negra, norte
• Náhuatl central de Veracruz
• Náhuatl de la Sierra oeste
• Náhuatl alto del norte de Puebla
• Náhuatl del Istmo bajo
• Náhuatl del centro de Puebla
• Mexicano bajo de occidente
• Mexicano del noroeste
• Mexicano de Guerrero
• Mexicano de occidente
• Mexicano central de occidente
• Mexicano central bajo
• Mexicano de Temixco
• Mexicano de Puente de Ixtla
• Mexicano de Tetela del Volcán
• Mexicano alto de occidente
• Mexicano del oriente
• Mexicano del oriente central
• Mexicano del centro bajo
• Mexicano del centro alto
• Mexicano del centro
• Mexicano del oriente de Puebla
• Mexicano de la Huasteca Hidalguense

(name [ISO subgroup code] – location(s) ~approx. number of speakers)

• Eastern Huasteca [nhe] – Hidalgo, Western Veracruz, Northern Puebla ~450,000
• Western Huasteca [nhw] – San Luis Potosí, Western Hidalgo ~450,000
• Guerrero [ngu] – Guerrero ~200,000
• Orizaba [nlv] – Central Veracruz ~140,000
• Southeastern Puebla [nhs] – Southeast Puebla ~135,000
• Highland Puebla [azz] – Puebla Highlands ~125,000
• Northern Puebla [ncj] – Northern Puebla ~66,000
• Central [nhn] – Tlaxcala, Puebla ~50,000
• Isthmus-Mecayapan [nhx] – Southern Veracruz ~20,000
• Central Puebla [ncx] – Central Puebla ~18,000
• Morelos [nhm] – Morelos ~15,000
• Northern Oaxaca [nhy] – Northwestern Oaxaca, Southeastern Puebla ~10,000
• Huaxcaleca [nhq] – Puebla ~7,000
• Isthmus-Pajapan [nhp] – Southern Veracruz ~7,000
• Isthmus-Cosoleacaque [nhk] – Northwestern Coastal Chiapas, Southern Veracruz ~5,500
• Tetelcingo [nhg] – Morelos ~3,500
• Michoacán [ncl] – Michoacán ~3,000
• Santa María de la Alta [nhz] – Northwest Puebla ~3,000
• Tenango [nhi] – Northern Puebla ~2,000
• Tlamacazapa [nuz] – Morelos ~1,500
• Coatepec [naz] – Southwestern México State, Northwestern Guerrero ~1,500
• Durango [nln] – Southern Durango ~1,000
• Ometepec [nht] – Southern Guerrero, Western Oaxaca ~500
• Temascaltepec [nhv] – Southwestern México State ~300
• Tlalitzlipa [nhj] – Puebla ~100
• Pipil [ppl] – El Salvador ~100
• Tabasco [nhc] – Tabasco ~30

Geographical distributions of Nahuan languages by ISO code:[15]