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Part of
Language Contact and Change in Mesoamerica and Beyond
Edited by Karen Dakin, Claudia Parodi and Natalie Operstein
[Studies in Language Companion Series 185] 2017
► pp. 264–300

Chapter 13
Western and Central Nahua dialects

Possible influences from contact with Cora and Huichol

| Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

This contribution explores the possibilities in the terms of comparative and historical linguistics that detailed analyses of six isoglosses in Nahua dialectology can serve to determine the chronology of key changes identified. Other proposals that treat those same changes are evaluated, in particular two made by Campbell & Langacker (1978), one concerning the possible subgrouping of Nahua with Corachol, and another within Nahua regarding the status of Pochutec as related to Western and Eastern Nahua. Revisions in previous analyses are also proposed with regard to the changes undergone by proto-UA **p in initial position, the complicated part played by the correspondences for the proto-UA vowel **u in forming the isoglosses for the Uto-Aztecan system of short vowels, and lastly, considerations that yet need to be taken into account about the origins of and the role played by the isoglosses for the lateral affricate ƛ. Secondly, the paper deals with the role in triggering such changes played by contact and more importantly multilingualism in western Mexico, especially that involving Nahua with Cora and Huichol. And third, although only very tentatively, the importance of the later Western Nahua migrations into the central area of Mexico and how the historical conditions that surrounded these may relate to the linguistic results. The findings help to explain the situation that Canger (1988) proposed in which Central Nahuatl in her terms (2011), was an “Urban Nahuatl”, a PostClassic koine of sorts, created when later waves of Western Nahuas arrived in the high plateau, a region that must have already been settled in part by earlier waves of Eastern Nahuas whose arrival, very probably, had been during the Classic period.

Article outline
  • 1.Introduction: Points of linguistic prehistory for Uto-Aztecan in western México
    • 1.1The Uto-Aztecan family
  • 2.Historical and geographical setting
  • 3.Dialectological evidence
    • 3.1Notes on pertinent Nahua and Corachol developments from proto-Uto-Aztecan vowels and consonants
      • 3.1.1Vowels
      • 3.1.2Consonant correspondences
    • 3.2A history of Nahua diversification based on shared innovations
    • 3.3Canger’s proposals about diversification and the special role of Central Nahua
    • 3.4Isoglosses that divide Eastern from Western Nahua
      • 3.4.1Isogloss 1: Remote/past preclitic proto-UA **wa/a=
      • 3.4.2Isogloss 2: Ti-to/ni-no- (cf. Dakin 1994: 67)
      • 3.4.3Isogloss 3: -tin plural (include pronouns)
      • 3.4.4Isogloss 4: **p > h/#_V in Corachol and Nahua
      • 3.4.5Isogloss 5: The dialect split reflecting the development of proto-Uto-Aztecan **u in Nahua
        • 3.4.5.1**u and its reflexes as i in Eastern Nahua and as e in Western and Central Nahuas
        • 3.4.5.2Contrasts in the distribution of proto-UA **u and proto-UA **ɨ reflexes in Corachol and Nahua
        • 3.4.5.3Is the Western Nahua change possibly related to contact with Corachol languages?
        • 3.4.5.4Campbell and Langacker’s Corachol-Nahua and “General Aztec” proposals as affected by contact proposal about proto-UA **u
        • 3.4.5.5The Corachol-Nahua subgrouping proposal
        • 3.4.5.6The “General Aztec” vs Pochutec subgrouping proposal
      • 3.4.6Isogloss 6: t/ƛ/l
  • 4.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 30 June 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.185.13dak
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