Classical Nahuatl/Printable version

Classical Nahuatl

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Introduction

Nahuatl (pronounced in two syllables, NA-watl ['na.watɬ]) is a term applied to some members of the Aztecan or Nahuan sub-branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family. The languages called "Nahuatl" are all Native American languages indigenous to central Mexico.

A reproduction of the original page 13 of the Codex Borbonicus, showing elements of an almanac associated with the 13th trecena of the tonalpohualli, the Aztec version of the Mesoamerican calendar. An example of a largely semasiological text, that holds meaning and can be read, but which does not represent phonemes of the actual spoken language.

The term "Nahuatl" is often used specifically with reference to the Classical Nahuatl language, which was the language of the Aztec Empire, and, according to Aztec historiography, the earlier Toltec Empire, and was used as a lingua franca in much of Mesoamerica during the 7th century AD through the late 16th century, at which time its prominence and influence was interrupted by the Spanish conquest of the New World. It should be pointed out that Nahuatl influence increased slightly for some time before decreasing, as the Spaniards used Nahuatl to strengthen their influence over the conquered territories and to spread Christianity; it was even used in places it had not previously been spoken. This was also done (although not to the same extent) for the Quechua in South America. When the Spanish colonies began to gain independence, the Spanish-speaking leaders (mainly "criollos") made Spanish the predominant language.

The term "Nahuatl" also serves to identify a number of modern Nahuatl dialects (linguistic variants, some of them mutually unintelligible) that are still spoken by at least 1.5 million people in what is now Mexico, as well as small populations in El Salvador and the United States of America. All of these dialects show influence from the Spanish language to some degree, although the extent of this influence varies. No modern dialects are identical to Classical Nahuatl, but those spoken in and around the Valley of Mexico are generally more closely related to Classical Nahuatl than peripheral ones. Modern variants of Nahuatl are still the most widely spoken group of Native American languages in Mexico, although most Nahuatl speakers also speak Spanish as a second language.

Nahuatl was originally written with a pictographic script which was not a full writing system but instead served as a mnemonic to remind readers of texts they had learnt orally. The script appeared in inscriptions carved in stone and in picture books, many of which the Spanish destroyed. The Spanish introduced the Latin alphabet to write Nahuatl, and a large amount of prose and poetry was subsequently written. There has been considerable debate about how to spell Nahuatl in Latin script, as many of the sounds present in Nahuatl are not present in the Romance languages Latin was developed to express.

Pronunciation

Aztec or Nahuatl writing is a pictographic and ideographic system the Aztecs used to write Nahuatl. It is not considered to be a true writing system since there were no set of characters that represented specific words, but rather ideas. Nahuatl today is written in Roman characters used by the Spaniards when they began annotating the language.

The spelling rules are largely based on then-Spanish orthography, rather than phonemic rules and therefore have not perfect grapheme-to-phoneme correspondence.

Vowels

Nahuatl has four short vowels: a, e, i, and o. The vowels a, e and i sound similar to Spanish, while o can sound like either a Spanish o or a u. Unlike in English, where cuter and cutter have different vowels, the vowels of Nahuatl don't change depending on what follows them.

Each vowel also has a long form, marked by a line or macron over the vowel: ā, ē, ī, ō. They have the same sound as the short vowels, but are simply held longer.

Consonants

Nahuatl ch, m, n, p, t, and y are pronounced like English.

As in English, c represents an s-sound when followed by e or i, but a k-sound elsewhere.

Cu is pronounced kw, like in Spanish, or like English qu. Its inverse, uc, is the same sound at the end of a syllable.

Hu is pronounced like English w. Like cu, it is reversed at the end of a syllable, so auh sounds like ow, and iuh sounds like eww.

H alone, when not part of ch, hu or uh, may have represented a glottal stop, as in the Cockney pronunciation of bottle, or it may have been a sound like English h. Unlike English h, it is pronounced at the end of syllables: ah isn't simply a vowel, but a vowel followed by a consonant.

Before a vowel, l is the same as English or Spanish l. Before a consonant or at the end of a word, however, it is neither dark like English l in full, nor clear like Spanish l. It is a voiceless sound, like Welsh ll. This isn't important to understanding, though, and it can be pronounced like an English l without introducing confusion.

Double ll is simply l, held longer. It isn't a palatal sound like in Spanish, or a single l like in English.

Qu is used to represent the k-sound before e and i, like in Spanish. It isn't pronounced "kw" as in English.

X is pronounced like English sh.

Tl is pronounced like t with the tongue held in a position for l

Tz is pronounced like German z, or like English ts except that the t is pronounced even at the start of words — not like tsar or tsunami, where the t may be silent for some speakers.

Z is pronounced like English s.

Stress

Stress regularly falls on the second last syllable of a word.

Spelling

The spelling used here is a modern standardized system, in order to represent all the sounds of Nahuatl consistently. The spelling used in the original manuscripts did not always represent Nahuatl pronunciation accurately. In particular, vowel length and h were usually omitted.

Spelling & Pronunciation of Classical Nahuatl Words

Because the spelling of Nahuatl was originally based on spelling conventions in Spanish, Nahuatl texts are generally "pronounced like Spanish," with the following exceptions and points to note:

• Words are stressed on the second-to-the-last vowel (excluding U) regardless of final consonants
• X is pronounced like English SH.
• LL is pronounced like a long L (not as in Spanish).
• TL counts as a single consonant, never as a full syllable.
• U does not occur as an independent vowel. The only Nahuatl vowels are A, E, I, and O, although each of them can be long or short.
• CU and UC are both pronounced KW.
• HU and UH are both pronounced W.
• H without an adjacent U represents a "silent" glottal stop (as in go_over); in modern Nahuatl it sometimes has a sound similar to an English H and may have had that value in some dialects of Classical Nahuatl as well. (For an English speaker, pronouncing the H like an English H is not really wrong and has the advantage that it helps one remember that it is there.)
• C before E or I is pronounced like English S. (The letter S is not used in Classical Nahuatl.)
• Z is pronounced like English S. (The letter S is not used in Classical Nahuatl.)

However over the centuries there has been considerable instability in the spelling of Nahuatl. Some common variations:

• The letters U and O may be used interchangeably to represent the sound of O.
• The letter U alone may be used instead of UH or HU to represent the sound of W.
  (At the time of the Conquest, the written letters V and U were usually reversed in Spanish from their modern values, so U indeed had the value of a modern English W.)
• The letter H representing the glottal stop may or may not be written.
• Vowel length may or may not be marked.
• The consonant Y may be written with the letter I.
• The vowel I may be written with the letter Y.
• The letter Ç may be used in place of Z to represent the sound of S.

In this century, linguists working with modern Nahuatl have sometimes preferred spellings that look less Spanish and more in accord with IPA usage. Thus:

• W may be used in place of HU or UH for the sound of W.
• K may be used in place of QU/C for the sound of K.
• S may be used in place of Z/C for the sound of S.

For compound letters, single symbols may also be used to match the Americanist orthography found in other writings about North American indigenous languages:

• ƛ for TL
• č for CH
• ¢ for TZ
• k^w for CU/UC

This is done in order to stress that these are single consonants, not compounds. However, these symbols are rare and not found on standard keyboards, so they are not widely adopted.

Grammar

Classical Nahuatl grammar sketch

300px Page of the Florentine Codex (ca 1580)showing Nahuatl written with latin script

Phonology

Syllable structure

Maximal syllable is CVC. Maximal consonant cluster is -CC- medially. Initial and final consonant clusters do not occur. Affixes have two forms, one before/after a vowel, and one before/after a consonant.

Consonant mutations

l + tl > ll (cal- "house" + -tli Absolutive suffix = calli "house (Abs.)")

l + y >/ ll (cual- "good thing" + -yōtl abstract suffix = cuallōtl "goodness")

n + p > mp (on "deictic particle" + pa "locative" = ompa "there")

y wordfinally > x (nicchīya "I observed it" + past tense loss of final vowel = nicchīx "I observed it")

Morphology

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.

The Noun

Nouns belong to one of two classes: animates or inanimates. Originally the grammatical distinction between these were that inanimate nouns had no plural forms, but in most modern dialects both animate and inanimate nouns are pluralizable. The noun is inflected for two basic contrasting categories: plural and possessedness. Nominal morphology is mostly suffixing. Some irregular formations exist.

In Nahuatl, nouns take a suffix called the "absolutive". This suffix takes the form -tl after vowels (ā-tl, "water") and -tli after consonants, which assimilates to a final /l/ (tōch-tli, "rabbit", but cal-li, "house"). Some nouns have an irregular form in -in (mich-in, fish). These suffixes are dropped in most derived forms: tōch-calli, "rabbit-hole", mich-matlatl, "fishing net".

• The absolutive singular suffix has three basic forms: -tl/tli, -lin/-in, and some irregular nouns with no suffix.
• The absolutive plural suffix has three basic forms: -tin, -meh, or just a final glottal stop -h. Some plurals are formed also with reduplication of the noun's first syllable.
• The possessive singular suffix has two basic forms: -uh (on stems ending in a vowel) or -Ø (on stems ending in a consonant).
• The possessive plural suffix has the form -huān.

The table below present some common nouns conjugated as examples.

Plural forms

Only animate nouns can take a plural form. These include most animate living beings, but also words like tēpetl ("mountain"), citlalli ("star") and some other phenomena. Plurals are formed in several ways:

• The absolutive suffix is replaced with -h (glottal stop), -tin or -meh
• Some nouns may have a reduplication of their first consonant and vowel, with the reduplicated vowel long.

Possible plurals combination

	-h	-tin	-meh
With reduplication	teōtl, tēteōh	tōchtli, tōtōchtin	Never occurs
Without reduplication	cīhuatl, cīhuah	oquichtli, oquichtin	michin, michmeh

The plural isn't totally stable and in many cases several different forms are attested.

Noun Inflection

Absolutive singular	cīhuatl "woman"	oquichtli "man"	totōlin "turkey"	tlācātl "person (sg.)"
Absolutive Plural	cīhuah "women"	oquichtin "men"	totōlmeh "turkeys"	tlatlācah "persons"
Possessed Singular	nocīhuauh "my woman"	noquich "my man"	nototōl "my turkey"	notlācauh "my person"
Possessed Plural	nocīhuahuān "my women"	noquichhuān "my men"	nototōlhuān "my turkeys"	notlācahuān "my persons"

Possessor prefixes

• 1st Person Singular: no-

nocal "my house"

• 2nd Person Singular: mo-

mocal "your house"

• 3rd Person Singular: ī-

īcal "his/her/its house"

• 1st Person Plural: to-

tocal "our house"

• 2nd Person Plural: anmo-

anmocal "Your house (pl.)"

• 3rd Person Plural: īn-

īncal "their house"

• Unknown owner: tē-

tēcal "someone's house"

Some other categories can be inflected on the noun such as:

Honorific formed with the suffix -tzin.

cīhua "woman" + tzin+ tli absolutive = cīhuatzintli "woman (said with respect)"

Derivational Morphology

• -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"

The Verb

The verb is marked with prefixes in order to agree with the person and number of the subject and the object of the sentence; additionally, verbs inflect for tense and aspect.

Subject prefixes and suffix

This set of prefixes are used to express the subject of transitive and intransitive verbs . They can also be prefixed to a noun, X, to make a predicative construction with the meaning "is X".

• 1st Person Singular: ni-

nitlācatl I am a man", nicochi "I sleep",

• 2nd Person Singular: ti-

titlācatl "you are a man", ticochi "you sleep"

• 3rd Person Singular: Ø- (none)

tlācatl "he/she/it is a man", cochi "he/she/it sleeps"

• 1st Person Plural: ti + plural -h/-queh

titlatlācah "we are men", ticochih"we sleep"

• 2nd Person Plural: an + plural -h/-queh

antlatlācah "You are men", ancochih "You sleep"

• 3rd Person Plural: Ø- (none) + plural -h/-queh

tlatlācah "they are men", cochih "they sleep"

Object prefixes

This set of prefixes is used to express the direct object of transitive verbs.

• 1st Person Singular: nēch

nēchitta "he/she/it sees me", tinēchitta "you see me"

• 2nd Person Singular:mitz

mitzitta "he/she/it sees you", nimitzitta "I see you"

• 3rd Person Singular: qui

quitta "he/she/it sees him/her/it"

• 1st Person Plural: tēch

tēchitta "he/she/it sees us"

• 2ndPerson Plural: amēch

amēchitta "he/she/it sees You (pl.)"

• 3rd Person Plural: quim

quimitta "he/she/it sees them"

• unknown animate object: tē

tēitta "he/she/it sees someone"

• unknown inanimate object: tla

tlatta "he/she/it sees something"

Temporal and aspectual suffixes

• Present: has no suffix.
• Perfect: -c/h/?/Ø niquittac "I saw him/her/it (preterit aspect) "
• Future: -z niquittāz "I will see him/her/it "
• Imperfect: -ya niquittāya "I saw him/her/it (imperfect aspect) "
• Irrealis: -zquiya niquittāzquiya "I would have seen him/her/it"

Applicative

The applicative construction adds an argument to the verb. The role of the added argument can be benefactive, malefactive, indirect object or similar. It is formed by the suffix -lia.

• niquittilia "I see it for him"

Causative

The causative construction adds an argument to the verb. This argument is an agent causing the object to undertake the action of the verb. It is formed by the suffix -tia.

• niquittatia "I make him see it/I show it to him"

Unspecified Subject/Passive

The construction called "passive" by some grammarians and "unspecified subject construction" by others removes the subject from the valency of the verb, substituting it with a null reference, and promoting the argument marked by object prefixes to subject. The passive or unspecified subject construction uses one of two suffixes: -lo or -hua.

• quitta "he sees it"+ -lo= quittalo "it is seen (by someone)"
• miqui "he dies" + hua = micohua "there is dying/people are dying"

Directional Affixes

Deixis:

• -on- "away from the speaker"
• on+ tlahtoa "to speak" = ontlahtoa "he/she/it speaks towards there"
• -huāl- " towards the speaker"
• huāl+ tlahtoa "to speak" = huāllahtoa "he/she/it speaks towards here"

Introvert: Imperfective: -qui "comes towards the speaker in order to X" qui + itta "to see" + qui ="quittaqui "he/she/it will come here to see it" Perfective: -co "has come towards the speaker in order to X" qui + itta "to see" + co =quittaco "he/she/it has come here to see it"

Extrovert: Imperfective: -tīuh "goes away from the speaker in order to X" qui + itta "to see" + tīuh ="quittatīuh "he/she/it will go there to see it" Perfective: -to " has gone away from the speaker in order to X" qui + itta "to see" + to =quittato "he/she/it has gone there to see it"

Derivational

A number of different suffixes exist to derive nouns from verbs:

• -lli used to derive passivized nouns from verbs.

tla "something" + ixca "roast" + l + tli = tlaxcalli "something roasted/ a tortilla"
tla + ihcuiloa "write/draw" + l - tli = tlahcuilolli "scripture/ a drawing"

• -liztli used to derive abstract nouns from verbs.

miqui "to die" + liztli = miquiliztli "death"
tlahcuiloa "to write something" + liztli = tlahcuiloliztli "the concept of writing or being a scribe"

• -qui used to derive agentive nouns from verbs.

ichtequi "to steal" + qui = ichtecqui "a thief"
tlahuāna "to become drunk" + qui = tlahuānqui "a drunkard"

• -ni used to derive habitual nouns from verbs.

miqui "to die" +ni = miquīni "a mortal"
cuacua "to bite" + ni = cuacuāni "someone that is known to be capable of or to habitually bite"

Verbal compounds

Two verbs can be compounded with the morpheme -ti-.

Relational Nouns and Locatives

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

Noun Incorporation

Noun incorporation is productive in Classical Nahuatl and different kinds of material can be incorporated.

• Body parts
• Instruments.
• Objects.

Syntax

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.

Non-configurationality

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

VSO basic word order

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

Numeral System

Classical nahuatl has a vigesimal numeral system.

Numbers

• cē -1
• ōme -2
• yei -3
• nāhui - 4
• macuilli -5
• chicuacēn - 6
• chicuōme - 7
• chicueyi - 8
• chicunāhui - 9
• matlactli - 10
• caxtolli 15
• cēmpōhualli - 20

Colour Terminology

The Nahuatl colour system lacks a separate term for blue, and instead uses a single term to cover both blue and green nuances. It has been argued that Nahuatl has no basic colour terms, (in the Berlin & Kay sense of the word) because they are all derived with a -tic suffix from verbs or nouns.

Basic Colour terms

• īstac - white
• tlīltic - black
• chichiltic - red
• costic - yellow
• xoxoctic- green and blue
• quiltic - green
• tlilectic - dark

Kinship Terminology

The kinship system of Classical Nahuatl distinguishes older and younger siblings.

Common Words

These are common Nahuatl words.

Common Nahuatl Words
English	Nahuatl	IPA	Location
a/the (single item)	cē	seː	before the noun
also	nō	noː	before the noun
which/that	tlen	t͡ɬen	before the noun
the/this (topic marker)	in	in	before the noun
on/in	īpan	'iːpan	before the noun
also	nōzo	'noːso	before the noun
and/but	auh	aʍ	between
and/with	īhuān	'iːwaːn	between

Verb List

Here is a list of Nahuatl verbs. To use these verbs in sentences, go back to the previous page and look at the conjugations of the verb "to want" and simply exchange these verbs into every conjugation of that verb.

Verb List
English	Nahuatl	IPA
believe	mati	'mati
write/paint/record	cuiloa	kʷi'loa
move	calpatla	kaɬ'pat͡ɬa
respond	nānquiliā	naːŋ'kiliaː
come to an agreement during a dispute	calnōnōtza	kalnoː'noːt͡sa
be as it should be	ixtlāhui	iʃ't͡ɬaːwi
return/translate	cuepa	'kʷepa
take by surprise or stealth	nāhualahci	naːwa'laʔsi
write	āmatlahcuiloa	aːmat͡ɬaʔkʷi'loa
fix something up	yēcchihchīhua	jeːktʃiʔ'tʃiːwɑ
make/create	yōcoya	joː'koja
mean (word)	quihtōznequi	kiʔtoːs'neki
to fight with an object	huilāna	wi'laːna
show something	nēnēxtiā	neːneːʃtiaː
give	maca	'maka
add something lacking	ahxiltiā	aʔ'ʃiɬtiaː
is (location)	cah	kaʔ
cross	panō	panoː
to be called (named)	ītōcā	iːtoːcaː
make tortillas	tlaxcalchihua	t͡ɬaʃkaɬ't͡ʃiwa
dirty	toca	'toka
eat	cua	kʷa
laugh	huetzca	'wet͡ska
to cry	choca	't͡ʃoka
leave	quiza	'kisa
do	chihua	't͡ʃiwa
cut	tequi	'teki
live	nemi	'nemi
lower/go down	temo	'temo
want	nequi	'neki
wash	paca	'paka
have	pia	'pia
count	pohua	'powa

Pronouns

These are Nahuatl pronouns. Nahuatl sentences with subject pronouns must also have verbs conjugated with subject-verb agreement. Nahuatl sentences do not need subject pronouns, since the subject is included in the conjugation of the verb.

Pronouns
	English	Nahuatl	IPA	English	Nahuatl	IPA	English	Nahuatl	IPA
Singulars	I	nehuātl	'newaːt͡ɬ	you	tehuātl	'tewaːt͡ɬ	he or she	yehuātl	'jewaːt͡ɬ
Plurals	we	tehuāntin	te'waːntin	you (plural)	amehuāntin	ame'waːntin	they	yehuāntin	je'waːntin

Comparison Words

• same = zanyenoyehuatl

Question Words

Question Words
English	Nahuatl	IPA
who/which one	āc	aːk

Conjunctions

These are Nahuatl conjunctions.

Conjunctions
English	Nahuatl	IPA	position
since/because	ca ye	ka je	?
and/but	auh	aʍ	between

verb: to want

This page covers the verb conjugations of the verb "to want" nequi.

Conjugations of the verb "to want"
Past Tense
English	Nahuatl	IPA	English	Nahuatl	IPA	English	Nahuatl	IPA
I wanted	ōninequi	oːni'neki	you wanted	ōtinequi	oːti'neki	s/he wanted	ōnequi	oː'neki
you (plural) wanted	annequiqueh	anne'kikeʔ	we wanted	tinequiqueh	tine'kikeʔ	they wanted	nequiqueh	ne'kikeʔ
Present Tense
I want	ninequi	ni'neki	you want	tinequi	ti'neki	s/he wants	nequi	'neki
you (plural) want	annequih	an'nekiʔ	we want	tinequih	ti'nekiʔ	they want	nequih	'nekiʔ
Future Tense
I will want	ninequiz	ni'nekis	you will want	tinequiz	ti'nekis	s/he will want	nequiz	'nekis
you (plural) will want	annequizqueh	anne'kiskeʔ	we will want	tinequizqueh	tine'kiskeʔ	they will want	nequizqueh	ne'kiskeʔ
Imperative (Command)
(singular person) want (something)	xinequi	ʃi'neki				(plural people) want (something)	xinequican	ʃine'kikan

Example Sentences

Example 1
	Object	Verb	Subject
Nahuatl	Anime	ītōcā	Xapon	tlayōlītīliztli.
English (literally)	Anime	is called	Japanese	animation
English translation	Japanese animation is called anime.

Incorporation of Foreign Words

Due to the phonology of Nahuatl not covering all possible sounds in Spanish, foreign words that are incorporated into Nahuatl are made to fit Nahautl's phonology using the closest Nahuatl phoneme.

Conversion table
Spanish Sound	Nahuatl Sound	Reasoning
guerrero	quellelo
gobernador	copelnatol
medio	melio	medial position exception
caballo	cahuallo	medial position exception
doña	toya	one form of substitution for "ñ"
doña	tona	one form of substitution for "ñ"
Fabian	papia	F turns into a P
José	Xoce	normal substititution
cristiano, cruz	quixtiano, coloz	Nahuatl cannot start with two consonants. If a Spanish word starts with two consonants, the "r" sound in dropped.
mula	mola
batan	patan

Numbers

Note: It is counted in steps of 20, ordinal numbers have "ic" (=so that) in front of the numeral (in some dialects also "ipan")

arabic number	roman number	numeral	ordinal number	ordinal number word
0	-	ahtle
1	I	ce	1.	ic ce
2	II	ome	2.	ic ome
3	III	yei	3.	ic yei
4	IV	nahui	4.	ic nahui
5	V	macuilli	5.	ic macuilli
6	VI	chicuace	6.	ic chicuace
7	VII	chicome	7.	ic chicome
8	VIII	chicuyei	8.	ic chicuyei
9	IX	chicnahui	9.	ic chicnahui
10	X	matlactli	10.	ic matlactli
11	XI	matlactlihuan ce	11.	ic matlactlihuan ce
12	XII	matlactlihuan ome	12.	ic matlactlihuan ome
13	XIII	matlactlihuan yei	13.	ic matlactlihuan yei
14	XIV	matlactlihuan nahui	14.	ic matlactlihuan nahui
15	XV	caxtölli	15.	ic caxtölli
16	XVI	caxtöllihuan ce	16.	ic caxtöllihuan ce
17	XVII	caxtöllihuan ome	17.	ic caxtöllihuan ome
18	XVIII	caxtöllihuan yei	18.	ic caxtöllihuan yei
19	XIX	caxtöllihuan nahui	19.	ic caxtöllihuan nahui
20	XX	cempohualli	20.	ic cempohualli
21	XXI	cempohuallihuan ce	21.	ic cempohuallihuan ce
22	XXII	cempohuallihuan ome	22.	ic cempohuallihuan ome
23	XXIII	cempohuallihuan yei	23.	ic cempohuallihuan yei
...	...	...	...	...
29	XXIX	cempohuallihuan chicnahui	29.	ic cempohuallihuan chicnahui
...	...	...	...	...
30	XXX	cempohuallihuan matlactli	30.	ic cempohuallihuan matlactli
31	XXXI	cempohuallihuan matlactli ce	31.	ic cempohuallihuan matlactli ce
...	...	...	...	...
39	XXXIX	cempohuallihuan caxtöllihuan nahui	39.	ic cempohuallihuan caxtöllihuan nahui
...	...	...	...	...
40	XL	ompohualli	40.	ic ompohualli
50	L	ompohuallihuan matlactli	50.	ic ompohuallihuan matlactli
60	LX	eipohualli	60.	ic eipohualli
70	LXX	eipohuallihuan matlactli	70.	ic eipohuallihuan matlactli
80	LXXX	nauhpohualli	80.	ic nauhpohualli
90	XC	naupohuallihuan matlactli	90.	ic naupohuallihuan matlactli
100	C	macuilpohualli	100.	ic macuilpohualli
200	CC	matlacpohualli	200.	ic matlacpohualli
300	CCC	caxtölpohualli	300.	ic caxtölpohualli
1.000	M	ce mil	1000.	ic ce mil
...	...	...	...	...
∞	-		-	-

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Common phrases

Nahuatl (Uto-Aztecan)

• Nahuatl: Nawatlahtolli/Nahuatlahtolli
• hello: niltse/niltzé
• good-bye: nimitzittaz (lit. "I will see you")
• thank you: tlasohkamati/tlazohcāmati
• that one: inon
• yes: kema/quemâh (ordinary), kemakatsin (reverential)
• no: ahmo (ordinary), ahmotsin (reverential)
• English: Inglestlahtolli
• Do you speak [English]?: Nitlatlahtoa [Inglestlahtolli]?
• What is your name?: Tlen motokatsin?