Grammar of the Mexican Language

Book excerpt: The primary native language of central Mexico before and after the Spanish conquest, Nahuatl was used from the mid-sixteenth century forward in an astounding array of alphabetic written documents. James Lockhart, an eminent historian of early Latin America, is the leading interpreter of Nahuatl texts. One of his main tools of instruction has been Horacio Carochi's monumental 1645 Arte de la lengua mexicana, the most influential work ever published on Nahuatl grammar. This new edition includes the original Spanish and an English translation on facing pages. The corpus of examples, source of much of our knowledge about vowel quality and glottal stop in Nahuatl, is presented once in its original form, once in a rationalized manner. Copious footnotes provide explanatory commentary and more literal translations of some of Carochi's examples. The volume is an indispensable pedagogical tool and the first critical edition of the premier monument of Nahuatl grammatical literature.