Tlequiyahuitl wrote:Niltze!
As I'm new to Unilang this is my first post, so hello! (not sure if this was the right forum for that but oh well) I've been spending the past little while learning Classical Nahuatl using
this site as well as "An Introduction to Classical Nahuatl" by Launey/MacKay. I'm not sure if the Nahuatl part of this forum is still active, but hopefully it is. Is there any particular thread where we can teach each other and help each other learn Nahuatl?
Hello, glad to see another Nahuatl learner.
I know that
Johnklepac is learning some. And I would like to learn some eventually. Right now I'm too busy with Hebrew to be able to learn Nahuatl. But hopefully soon. I haven't seen Mizton here in a bit, and I'm not sure if he still checks in every so often or not. I hope he still does though, as he's a great asset to this subforum and specifically Nahuatl learners here. And that's about as the Nahuatl "section" has been lately. Not that I want to discourage you.
As for where you and find (a) thread(s) dealing with Nahuatl, you found the spot. There are a few threads in this subforum that deal with Nahuatl, but does be shy if you want to create your own thread.
By the way, I am hesitant to use Mizton's lessons (or really, any online lessons except the "Inadequate" ones) for a couple reasons, one of which is that I'm not sure that anybody really knows how the greetings truly worked in Classical Nahuatl. Most sources I've found online tend to use calques from Spanish, esp. buenos dias/cualli tonalli, which is much too Indo-European in syntax to be right. I'm also hesitant about "quen ticah" for "how are you", even "quen tinemi" seems a bit more plausible. Does anybody have any sources on this kind of thing? I have a few just none that seem very well researched.
My guess on greetings in Classical Nahuatl (i.e. Nahuatl as spoken before Spanish contact, which is what I believe you're asking about) is that we simply don't have enough information that has survived. The texts of Classical Nahuatl would be written after Spanish conquest, and most would be of a historical or religious nature. Thus they really would not contain very much (if any) dialogue or information on greetings. That's not to say some writings on the language itself don't exist. They do.
PS: does anybody have "Nahuatl as Written: with copious examples and texts"? If so, would you recommend it?
Yes, I do have it. And I would recommend it. It is especially helpful with dealing with the classical orthographies. I'm not sure I'd start with that textbook, but it does go through the grammar clearly.
Hope this helps.