Loans In Colonial And Modern Nahuatl

The dictionary expands on the original idea of Karttunen and Lockhart to map the usage of loans in Nahuatl, by using a much larger and diversified corpus of sources, and by including contextual use, missing in earlier studies. Most importantly, these sources enrich the colonial corpus with modern data – significantly expanding on our knowledge on language continuity and change.

Death and Life in Colonial Nahua Mexico presents seven dramas from the first truly American theater. Composed in Nahuatl during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, most of these plays survive only in later copies. Five are morality plays. Presenting Christian views of moral reform, death, judgment, and punishment for sin, they reveal how these themes were adapted into Nahua culture. The other two plays dramatize biblical narratives: the stories of Abraham and Isaac and of the three wise men. In this volume, Barry D. Sell and Louise M. Burkhart offer faithful transcriptions of the Nahuatl as well as new English translations of these remarkable dramas. Accompanying the plays are four interpretive essays and a foreword that broaden our understanding of these rare works. This volume is the first in a four-volume set entitled Nahuatl Theater, edited by Barry D. Sell and Louise M. Burkhart

A history of the Mixtec Indians of southern Mexico, this book focuses on several dozen Mixtec communities in the region of Oaxaca during the period from about 1540 to 1750.

This special issue of Ethnohistory highlight new aspects of the use of Nahuatl as a lingua franca during the colonial period. The language of the Aztecs, Nahuatl was also spoken by mestizos, mulatos, and Spaniards. By emphasizing interethnic communication in largely quotidian contexts, this issue breaks new ground in the examination of colonial language, investigating the many ways in which Nahuatl shaped the lives of all inhabitants of New Spain. One essay shows how the bilingual ability of many mestizos and mulatos, which resulted from acculturation to both indigenous and Hispanic society, facilitated cultural and linguistic transfer across ethnic boundaries. One contributor considers the use of Nahuatl by clerics, including early colonial creole clergy, while another uses inquisitorial records to argue that the Church frequently lacked the translators required to conduct its investigations. The issue also reproduces a unique Nahuatl language sermon, demonstrating the influence of Nahua aides in modifying the messages conveyed by catechistic documents. Another contributor argues that classical Nahuatl's utility as an imperial lingua franca was limited and influenced by Pipil, a form of Nahuatl spoken in the region prior to the Nahua-Spanish invasions of the sixteenth century. Robert C. Schwaller is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Kansas. Contributors: Mark Z. Christiansen, Laura E. Matthew, Martin Austin Nesvig, Caterina Pizzigoni, Sergio Romero, John F. Schwaller, Robert C. Schwaller, Yanna Yannakakis

The sixteen-volume Handbook of Middle American Indians, completed in 1976, has been acclaimed the world over as the single most valuable resource ever produced for those involved in the study of Mesoamerica. When it was determined in 1978 that the Handbook should be updated periodically, Victoria Reifler Bricker, well-known cultural anthropologist, was elected to be general editor. This third volume of the Supplement is devoted to the aboriginal literatures of Mesoamerica, a topic receiving little attention in the original Handbook. According to the general editor, "This volume does more than supplement and update the coverage of Middle American Indian literatures in the Handbook. It breaks new ground by defining the parameters of a new interdisciplinary field in Middle American Indian studies." The aim of the present volume is to consider literature from five Middle American Indian languages: Nahuatl, Yucatecan Maya, Quiche, Tzotzil, and Chorti. The first three literatures are well documented for both the Classical and Modern variants of their languages and are obvious candidates for inclusion in this volume. The literatures of Tzotzil and Chorti, on the other hand, are oral, and heretofore little has been written of their genres and styles. Taken together, these essays represent a substantial contribution to the Handbook series, with the volume editor's introduction placing in geographic perspective the five literatures chosen as representative of the Middle American literary tradition.