Flipping through the grammar reminded me what I revile about such things: the organization. They're totally unfit for people who don't enter with background knowledge about similar languages. Instead, I'm starting out with the short introduction to Nahuatl grammar in the front of the dictionary. With that out of the way, then...
I already knew about noun endings, but not that they can be predicted from the end of the stem. That's convenient.
Noun stem | Ending (singular) | Ending (plural) | Example |
vowel | tl | h (humans); meh (other) | tetl (stone) |
consonant other than <l> | tli; in | tin; meh | tahtli (mother); chapulin (grasshopper) |
<l> | li | tin | palli (child) |
A reference list of pronouns in various forms:
Pronoun |
Subject (transitive verb) |
Object (transitive verb) |
Subject (intransitive verb) |
Possessive |
I |
ni |
nech |
nino |
no |
you (s) |
ti |
mitz |
timo |
mo |
she; he; it |
- |
c; qu; qui |
mo |
i |
we |
ti |
tech |
tito |
to |
you (pl) |
am; an |
amech |
ammo |
amo |
they |
- |
quim; quin |
mo |
im; in |
someone |
te |
|
|
te |
something |
tla |
|
|
|
Nouns are often compounded; all entries but the last drop their suffixes, final <i>s are also dropped, and <hui>s change to <uh>s.
Adjectives, luckily, don't change much, declining only based on number. Ones that end with <li> change it to <tin>, ones that end in <c> and <qui> change it to <queh>, and those that end in <h> add <queh>.
Relative clauses are created with the word
in. It's that simple, apparently.
I'll start off with this vocabulary, a mix of words used as examples in the lessons, ones I already know, and ones I looked up for fun:
water - atl
stone - tetl
person - tlacatl
mother - nantli
father - tahtli
chili - chilli
child - pilli
fish - michin
grasshopper - chapulin
good - cualli
bad - ahcualli
house - calli
god - teotl
bird - tototl
language; word - tlahtolli
dog - itzcuintli; chichi
snake - coatl
lizard - cuetzpalin
cat - mizton
insect - yolcatontli
turtle - ayotl
flower - xochitl
coyote - coyotl
cacao - xocolatl
book - amoxtli
today; now - axcan
tree - tetepontli
Edit: What the heck is up with these blank lines? I never added them voluntarily.