The Nahuatl language (general info and dialects)

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]68 national languages are recognized by the Mexican government including 63 indigenous languages. The most widely spoken indigenous language is natal or >> I'll explain this consonant represented by TL in a minute. Nawat is a member of the Uto Aztec language family which has languages spoken in Mexico and the western United States. There are many dialects or varieties of Nawat and they are often considered distinct languages that form a branch of Uto Aztec. the Nan branch. When you see information about Nawat online or in books, it's usually classical Nawat, which was spoken by the Aztec or Meshika people around the 13th century when they migrated southward to central Mexico and some of them as far south as Nicaragua. Then in the 15th century, they established the Aztec Empire based in Tanoshitlan, present day Mexico City. And with the expansion of their empire came the expansion of the Nawat language. Classical nawak is no longer spoken or used in writing, but various varieties of modern nawak developed from it. You could say it's similar to how the modern romance languages developed from Latin. Nat can be divided into four dialect groups, central and northern, western, and eastern. One feature that distinguishes these dialects is the pronunciation of the phone represented in writing by TL.

[00:01:19]In central and northern nawat, it retains its classical sound. So the name of the language is pronounced nawat.

[00:01:26]This is a consonant not found in English or Spanish or most other languages. A voiceless alvear lateral africate. You make this sound by positioning your tongue as though you are making an L sound. But you block the airflow then release some constricted airflow over the sides of your tongue. In eastern Nawat, it has come to be pronounced t.

[00:01:45]So the name of the language is pronounced nawat. In western nawat, it has come to be pronounced l. So the name of the language is pronounced Nal. The degree of mutual intelligibility is low between some varieties while varieties geographically close to each other tend to have high mutual intelligibility. The modern variety that we'll focus on in this video is Orisaba Nawat, spoken in the mountainous Sierra Desolika area south of the town of Orisaba.