Pipil language
Encyclopedia
Pipil is a Uto-Aztecan language descended from Nahuatl
which was spoken in several parts of present day Central America before the Spanish conquest. It is on the verge of extinction in western El Salvador
(it is not being passed down to younger generations) and has already gone extinct elsewhere in Central America
. In El Salvador it was the language of several tribes: Nonualcos, Cuscatlecos, Mazahuas, and Izalcos. The name Pipil for this language is used by the international scholarly community, chiefly to differentiate it more clearly from Nahuatl
. In this article the name Nawat will be used whenever there is no risk of ambiguity.
in southern Veracruz
, Tabasco
, and Chiapas
, states in the south of Mexico, that like Pipil have reduced the earlier /t͡ɬ/ consonant (a lateral affricate) to a /t/. These Mexican lects share more similarities with Nawat than do the other Nahuatl varieties.
Pipil specialists (Campbell, Fidias Jiménez, Geoffroy Rivas, King, Lemus, and Schultze, inter alia) generally treat Pipil/Nawat as a separate language, at least in practice. Lastra de Suárez (1986) and Canger (1988) classify Pipil among "Eastern Periphery" dialects of Nahuatl.
Classification of Pipil/Nawat (Campbell (1985))
Uto-Aztecan is uncontroversially divided into eight branches, including Nahuan. Research continues into verifying higher level groupings. However, the grouping adopted by Campbell of the four southernmost branches may not yet be generally accepted.
, Honduras
, and Panama
are now extinct
. In El Salvador, Nawat is moribund: it is seldom used and only by a few elderly speakers in the Salvadoran departments of Sonsonate
and Ahuachapán
. The towns of Cuisnahuat
and Santo Domingo de Guzmán have the highest concentration of speakers. Campbell's 1985 estimate (based on fieldwork conducted 1970–1976) was 200 speakers. Gordon (2005) reports only 20 speakers were left in 1987. Official Mexican reports have recorded as many as 2000 speakers. The exact number of speakers was difficult to determine because persecution of Pipil speakers throughout the 20th century (massacres after suppression of the 1932 Salvadoran peasant uprising
, more slayings during the Salvadoran civil war of the 1980s, laws that made speaking Nawat illegal) made them conceal their use of the language.
A few small scale projects to revitalize Nawat in El Salvador have been attempted since 1990. The Asociación Coordinadora de Comunidades Indígenas de El Salvador (ACCIES) and Universidad Don Bosco of San Salvador have both produced some teaching materials. Monica Ward has developed an on-line language course. The Nawat Language Recovery Initiative is a grassroots association currently engaged in several activities including an ongoing language documentation
project, and has also produced a range of printed materials. Thus, as the number of native speakers continues to dwindle, there is growing interest in some quarters in keeping the language alive, but the national government has not joined these efforts (cf. Various, 2002).
According to a special report which appeared in El Diario de Hoy in 2009, due to the current preservation and revitalization efforts of various non-profit organizations in conjunction with several universities — combined with a post-civil war resurgence of Pipil identity in the country of El Salvador — the current number of Nawat speakers has risen from 200 in the 1980s to 3,000 speakers at the time of the reports writing, the vast majority being young people, giving the language hope of being pulled from the brink of extinction.
of a single basic rounded vowel phoneme. These features are thus characteristic but not diagnostic.
However, Pipil [t] corresponds not only to the two Classical Nahuatl sounds [t] and [t͡ɬ] but also to a word final saltillo or glottal stop in nominal plural suffixes (e.g. Pipil -met : Classical -meh) and verbal plural endings (Pipil -t present plural, -ket past plural, etc.). This fact has been claimed by Campbell to be diagnostic for the position of Pipil in a genetic classification, on the assumption that this /t/ is more archaic than the Classical Nahuatl reflex, where the direction of change has been [t] > saltillo.
One other characteristic phonological feature is the merger in Pipil of original geminate [ll] with single [l].
to form plural nouns, of more limited distribution in the language of the Aztecs, is greatly generalised in Pipil. Still other grammatical features that were productive in Classical Nahuatl have only left fossilised traces in Pipil: for example, synchronically Pipil has no postpositions, although a few lexical forms derive etymologically from older postpositional forms, e.g. apan 'river' < *'in/on the water', kujtan 'uncultivated land, forest' < *'under the trees'; these are synchronically unanalyzable in modern Pipil.
Pipil has developed two widely-used article
s, definite
ne and indefinite se. The demonstrative
pronouns/determiners ini 'this, these' and uni 'that, those' are also distinctively Pipil in form. The obligatory marking of number
extends in Pipil to almost all plural
noun phrase
s (regardless of animacy
), which will contain at least one plural form, most commonly marked by reduplication
.
Many nouns are invariable for state, since -ti (cf. Classical -tli, the absolute suffix after consonants) is rarely added to polysyllabic noun stems, while the Classical postconsonantal construct suffix, -wi, is altogether unknown in Pipil: thus sin-ti 'maize' : nu-sin 'my maize', uj-ti 'way' : nu-uj 'my way', mistun 'cat' : nu-mistun 'my cat'.
An important number of nouns lack absolute forms and only occur inalienably
possessed, e.g. nu-mey 'my hand' (but not *mey or *mey-ti), nu-nan 'my mother' (but not *nan or *nan-ti), thus further reducing the number of absolute-construct oppositions and the incidence of absolute -ti in comparison to Classical Nahuatl.
Postpositions have been eliminated from the Pipil grammatical system, and some monosyllabic prepositions originating from relational
s have become grammaticalized.
To form the past tense
, most Pipil verbs add -k (after vowels) or -ki (after consonants, following loss of the final vowel of the present stem), e.g. ki-neki 'he wants it' : ki-neki-k 'he wanted it', ki-mati 'he knows it' : ki-mat-ki 'he knew it'. The mechanism of simply removing the present stem vowel to form past stems, so common in Classical Nahuatl, is limited in Pipil to polysyllabic verb stems such as ki-talia 'he puts it' → ki-tali(j) 'he put it', mu-talua 'he runs' → mu-talu(j) 'he ran', and a handful of other verbs, e.g. ki-tajtani 'he asks him' → ki-tajtan 'he asked him'.
Pipil has a perfect in -tuk (synchronically unanalyzable), plural -tiwit. Another tense suffix, -tuya, functions both as a pluperfect (k-itz-tuya ne takat 'he had seen the man') and as an imperfect of stative verbs (inte weli-tuya 'he couldn't'), in the latter case having supplanted the -ya imperfect found in Mexican dialects.
Pipil has two conditional
tenses, one in -skia expressing possible conditions and possible results, and one in -tuskia for impossible ones, although the distinction is sometimes blurred in practice. A future tense
in -s (plural -sket) is attested but rarely used, a periphrastic future being preferred, e.g. yawi witz (or yu-witz) 'he will come'.
In serial constructions, the present tense
(really the unmarked
tense) is generally found except in the first verb, regardless of the tense of the latter, e.g. kineki / kinekik / kinekiskia kikwa 'he wants / wanted / would like to eat it'.
There are also some differences regarding how prefix
es are attached to verb-initial stems; principally, that in Pipil the prefixes ni-, ti-, shi- and ki- when word-initial retain their i in most cases, e.g. ni-ajsi 'I arrive', ki-elkawa 'he forgets it'.
Nahuatl
Nahuatl is thought to mean "a good, clear sound" This language name has several spellings, among them náhuatl , Naoatl, Nauatl, Nahuatl, Nawatl. In a back formation from the name of the language, the ethnic group of Nahuatl speakers are called Nahua...
which was spoken in several parts of present day Central America before the Spanish conquest. It is on the verge of extinction in western El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
(it is not being passed down to younger generations) and has already gone extinct elsewhere in Central America
Central America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...
. In El Salvador it was the language of several tribes: Nonualcos, Cuscatlecos, Mazahuas, and Izalcos. The name Pipil for this language is used by the international scholarly community, chiefly to differentiate it more clearly from Nahuatl
Nahuatl
Nahuatl is thought to mean "a good, clear sound" This language name has several spellings, among them náhuatl , Naoatl, Nauatl, Nahuatl, Nawatl. In a back formation from the name of the language, the ethnic group of Nahuatl speakers are called Nahua...
. In this article the name Nawat will be used whenever there is no risk of ambiguity.
Status and classification
Most authors refer to this language in by the names Pipil or Nawat. However, Nawat (along with the synonymous Eastern Nahuatl) has also been used to refer to Nahuatl language varietiesVariety (linguistics)
In sociolinguistics a variety, also called a lect, is a specific form of a language or language cluster. This may include languages, dialects, accents, registers, styles or other sociolinguistic variation, as well as the standard variety itself...
in southern Veracruz
Veracruz
Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave , is one of the 31 states that, along with the Federal District, comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided in 212 municipalities and its capital city is...
, Tabasco
Tabasco
Tabasco officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Tabasco is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 17 municipalities and its capital city is Villahermosa....
, and Chiapas
Chiapas
Chiapas officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Chiapas is one of the 31 states that, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 118 municipalities and its capital city is Tuxtla Gutierrez. Other important cites in Chiapas include San Cristóbal de las...
, states in the south of Mexico, that like Pipil have reduced the earlier /t͡ɬ/ consonant (a lateral affricate) to a /t/. These Mexican lects share more similarities with Nawat than do the other Nahuatl varieties.
Pipil specialists (Campbell, Fidias Jiménez, Geoffroy Rivas, King, Lemus, and Schultze, inter alia) generally treat Pipil/Nawat as a separate language, at least in practice. Lastra de Suárez (1986) and Canger (1988) classify Pipil among "Eastern Periphery" dialects of Nahuatl.
Classification of Pipil/Nawat (Campbell (1985))
- Uto-Aztecan
- Southern Uto-Aztecan
- Nahuan (Aztecan, Nahuatlan)
- Pochutec (extinct)
- General Aztec
- Core Nahua
- Pipil
- Nahuan (Aztecan, Nahuatlan)
- Southern Uto-Aztecan
Uto-Aztecan is uncontroversially divided into eight branches, including Nahuan. Research continues into verifying higher level groupings. However, the grouping adopted by Campbell of the four southernmost branches may not yet be generally accepted.
Present state and future prospects of the language
The varieties of Nawat in GuatemalaGuatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
, Honduras
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
, and Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
are now extinct
Extinct language
An extinct language is a language that no longer has any speakers., or that is no longer in current use. Extinct languages are sometimes contrasted with dead languages, which are still known and used in special contexts in written form, but not as ordinary spoken languages for everyday communication...
. In El Salvador, Nawat is moribund: it is seldom used and only by a few elderly speakers in the Salvadoran departments of Sonsonate
Sonsonate Department
Sonsonate is a department of El Salvador in the western part of the country. The capital is Sonsonate.The department has a population of over 500,000 and an area of 1,226 km².Created on June 12, 1824...
and Ahuachapán
Ahuachapán Department
Ahuachapán is a department of El Salvador in the west of the country. The capital is Ahuachapán. In the South it has the Apenca-Ilamatepec Range and the Cerro Grande de Apaneca...
. The towns of Cuisnahuat
Cuisnahuat
Cuisnahuat is a municipality in the Sonsonate department of El Salvador....
and Santo Domingo de Guzmán have the highest concentration of speakers. Campbell's 1985 estimate (based on fieldwork conducted 1970–1976) was 200 speakers. Gordon (2005) reports only 20 speakers were left in 1987. Official Mexican reports have recorded as many as 2000 speakers. The exact number of speakers was difficult to determine because persecution of Pipil speakers throughout the 20th century (massacres after suppression of the 1932 Salvadoran peasant uprising
1932 Salvadoran peasant uprising
The peasant uprising of 1932, also known as La matanza , was a brief, peasant-led rebellion that occurred on January 22 of that year in the western departments of El Salvador...
, more slayings during the Salvadoran civil war of the 1980s, laws that made speaking Nawat illegal) made them conceal their use of the language.
A few small scale projects to revitalize Nawat in El Salvador have been attempted since 1990. The Asociación Coordinadora de Comunidades Indígenas de El Salvador (ACCIES) and Universidad Don Bosco of San Salvador have both produced some teaching materials. Monica Ward has developed an on-line language course. The Nawat Language Recovery Initiative is a grassroots association currently engaged in several activities including an ongoing language documentation
Language documentation
Language documentation is the process by which a language is documented from a documentary linguistics perspective. It aims to “to provide a comprehensive record of the linguistic practices characteristic of a given speech community”...
project, and has also produced a range of printed materials. Thus, as the number of native speakers continues to dwindle, there is growing interest in some quarters in keeping the language alive, but the national government has not joined these efforts (cf. Various, 2002).
According to a special report which appeared in El Diario de Hoy in 2009, due to the current preservation and revitalization efforts of various non-profit organizations in conjunction with several universities — combined with a post-civil war resurgence of Pipil identity in the country of El Salvador — the current number of Nawat speakers has risen from 200 in the 1980s to 3,000 speakers at the time of the reports writing, the vast majority being young people, giving the language hope of being pulled from the brink of extinction.
Present geographic distribution
Localities where Pipil was reported by Campbell as spoken in the 1970s include the following:
|
|
|
Phonology
Two salient features of Pipil are found in several Mexican dialects: the change of [t͡ɬ] to [t] and [u] rather than [o] as the predominant allophoneAllophone
In phonology, an allophone is one of a set of multiple possible spoken sounds used to pronounce a single phoneme. For example, and are allophones for the phoneme in the English language...
of a single basic rounded vowel phoneme. These features are thus characteristic but not diagnostic.
However, Pipil [t] corresponds not only to the two Classical Nahuatl sounds [t] and [t͡ɬ] but also to a word final saltillo or glottal stop in nominal plural suffixes (e.g. Pipil -met : Classical -meh) and verbal plural endings (Pipil -t present plural, -ket past plural, etc.). This fact has been claimed by Campbell to be diagnostic for the position of Pipil in a genetic classification, on the assumption that this /t/ is more archaic than the Classical Nahuatl reflex, where the direction of change has been [t] > saltillo.
One other characteristic phonological feature is the merger in Pipil of original geminate [ll] with single [l].
Grammar
Pipil lacks some grammatical features present in Classical Nahuatl, such as the past prefix o- in verbs. It distributes others differently: for example, 'subtractive' past formation, which is very common in the classical language, exists in Pipil but is much rarer. On the other hand, reduplicationReduplication
Reduplication in linguistics is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word is repeated exactly or with a slight change....
to form plural nouns, of more limited distribution in the language of the Aztecs, is greatly generalised in Pipil. Still other grammatical features that were productive in Classical Nahuatl have only left fossilised traces in Pipil: for example, synchronically Pipil has no postpositions, although a few lexical forms derive etymologically from older postpositional forms, e.g. apan 'river' < *'in/on the water', kujtan 'uncultivated land, forest' < *'under the trees'; these are synchronically unanalyzable in modern Pipil.
Noun phrase
| Nahuatl | Pipil | Pipil example | |
|---|---|---|---|
| plural marking | limited in Classical | generalized | taj-tamal 'tortillas' sej-selek 'tender, fresh (pl.)' |
| plural formation | mostly suffixes | mostly redup. | |
| absolute -tli (Pipil -ti) | generally kept | often absent | mistun 'cat (abs.)' |
| construct /C_ | -wi or zero | always zero | nu-uj 'my path' |
| inalienability | nouns generally have absolutes | many inalienables | *mey-ti, *nan-ti... |
| possessive prefixes | lose o before vowel | retain vowel (u) | nu-ikaw 'my brother' |
| articles | no generalized articles in Classical | definite ne, indefinite se | ne/se takat 'the/a man' |
| post/prepositions | postpositions | no post-, only prepositions | tik ne apan 'in the river' |
Pipil has developed two widely-used article
Article (grammar)
An article is a word that combines with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun. Articles specify the grammatical definiteness of the noun, in some languages extending to volume or numerical scope. The articles in the English language are the and a/an, and some...
s, definite
Definite Article
Definite Article is the title of British comedian Eddie Izzard's 1996 performance released on VHS. It was recorded on different nights at the Shaftesbury Theatre...
ne and indefinite se. The demonstrative
Demonstrative
In linguistics, demonstratives are deictic words that indicate which entities a speaker refers to and distinguishes those entities from others...
pronouns/determiners ini 'this, these' and uni 'that, those' are also distinctively Pipil in form. The obligatory marking of number
Grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
extends in Pipil to almost all plural
Plural
In linguistics, plurality or [a] plural is a concept of quantity representing a value of more-than-one. Typically applied to nouns, a plural word or marker is used to distinguish a value other than the default quantity of a noun, which is typically one...
noun phrase
Noun phrase
In grammar, a noun phrase, nominal phrase, or nominal group is a phrase based on a noun, pronoun, or other noun-like word optionally accompanied by modifiers such as adjectives....
s (regardless of animacy
Animacy
Animacy is a grammatical and/or semantic category of nouns based on how sentient or alive the referent of the noun in a given taxonomic scheme is...
), which will contain at least one plural form, most commonly marked by reduplication
Reduplication
Reduplication in linguistics is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word is repeated exactly or with a slight change....
.
Many nouns are invariable for state, since -ti (cf. Classical -tli, the absolute suffix after consonants) is rarely added to polysyllabic noun stems, while the Classical postconsonantal construct suffix, -wi, is altogether unknown in Pipil: thus sin-ti 'maize' : nu-sin 'my maize', uj-ti 'way' : nu-uj 'my way', mistun 'cat' : nu-mistun 'my cat'.
An important number of nouns lack absolute forms and only occur inalienably
Possession (linguistics)
Possession, in the context of linguistics, is an asymmetric relationship between two constituents, the referent of one of which possesses the referent of the other ....
possessed, e.g. nu-mey 'my hand' (but not *mey or *mey-ti), nu-nan 'my mother' (but not *nan or *nan-ti), thus further reducing the number of absolute-construct oppositions and the incidence of absolute -ti in comparison to Classical Nahuatl.
Postpositions have been eliminated from the Pipil grammatical system, and some monosyllabic prepositions originating from relational
Relational
Relational may refer to:*Relational *Relational aggression*Relational algebra*Relational art*Relational database*Relational calculus*Relational operator*Relational model*Relational theory*Relational philosophy*Relational psychoanalysis...
s have become grammaticalized.
Verbs
| Nahuatl | Pipil | Pipil example | |
|---|---|---|---|
| inflection | more complex | less complex; analytic substitutes | kuchi nemi katka 'used to stay and sleep' |
| past prefix o- | found in Classical + some dialects | no | ki-neki-k 'he wanted it' ni-kuch-ki 'I slept' |
| subtractive past formation | common in Classical + some dialects | limited | |
| past in -ki | no | yes | |
| perfect in -tuk | no | yes | ni-kuch-tuk 'I have slept' |
| imperfect | -ya | -tuya (stative) | ni-weli-tuya 'I could' |
| -skia, -tuskia conditionals | no | yes | ni-takwika-(tu)-skia 'I would sing/I would have sung' |
| initial prefixes /_V | lose i | mostly retain i | niajsi 'I arrive', kielkawa 'he forgets it' |
To form the past tense
Past tense
The past tense is a grammatical tense that places an action or situation in the past of the current moment , or prior to some specified time that may be in the speaker's past, present, or future...
, most Pipil verbs add -k (after vowels) or -ki (after consonants, following loss of the final vowel of the present stem), e.g. ki-neki 'he wants it' : ki-neki-k 'he wanted it', ki-mati 'he knows it' : ki-mat-ki 'he knew it'. The mechanism of simply removing the present stem vowel to form past stems, so common in Classical Nahuatl, is limited in Pipil to polysyllabic verb stems such as ki-talia 'he puts it' → ki-tali(j) 'he put it', mu-talua 'he runs' → mu-talu(j) 'he ran', and a handful of other verbs, e.g. ki-tajtani 'he asks him' → ki-tajtan 'he asked him'.
Pipil has a perfect in -tuk (synchronically unanalyzable), plural -tiwit. Another tense suffix, -tuya, functions both as a pluperfect (k-itz-tuya ne takat 'he had seen the man') and as an imperfect of stative verbs (inte weli-tuya 'he couldn't'), in the latter case having supplanted the -ya imperfect found in Mexican dialects.
Pipil has two conditional
Conditional
Conditional may refer to:*Causal conditional, if X then Y, where X is a cause of Y*Conditional mood , a verb form in many languages*Conditional probability, the probability of an event A given that another event B has occurred...
tenses, one in -skia expressing possible conditions and possible results, and one in -tuskia for impossible ones, although the distinction is sometimes blurred in practice. A future tense
Future tense
In grammar, a future tense is a verb form that marks the event described by the verb as not having happened yet, but expected to happen in the future , or to happen subsequent to some other event, whether that is past, present, or future .-Expressions of future tense:The concept of the future,...
in -s (plural -sket) is attested but rarely used, a periphrastic future being preferred, e.g. yawi witz (or yu-witz) 'he will come'.
In serial constructions, the present tense
Present tense
The present tense is a grammatical tense that locates a situation or event in present time. This linguistic definition refers to a concept that indicates a feature of the meaning of a verb...
(really the unmarked
Markedness
Markedness is a specific kind of asymmetry relationship between elements of linguistic or conceptual structure. In a marked-unmarked relation, one term of an opposition is the broader, dominant one...
tense) is generally found except in the first verb, regardless of the tense of the latter, e.g. kineki / kinekik / kinekiskia kikwa 'he wants / wanted / would like to eat it'.
There are also some differences regarding how prefix
Prefix
A prefix is an affix which is placed before the root of a word. Particularly in the study of languages,a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the form of the words to which it is affixed.Examples of prefixes:...
es are attached to verb-initial stems; principally, that in Pipil the prefixes ni-, ti-, shi- and ki- when word-initial retain their i in most cases, e.g. ni-ajsi 'I arrive', ki-elkawa 'he forgets it'.
See also
- Pipil people
- Pipil language (typological overview)Pipil language (typological overview)This rather technical article provides a typological sketch of the Pipil language . Another related article outlines Pipil grammar in fuller detail...
- Pipil grammarPipil grammarThis article provides a grammar sketch of the Nawat or Pipil language, an endangered language spoken by the Pipils of western El Salvador, belonging to the Nahua group within the Uto-Aztecan language family...
- NahuatlNahuatlNahuatl is thought to mean "a good, clear sound" This language name has several spellings, among them náhuatl , Naoatl, Nauatl, Nahuatl, Nawatl. In a back formation from the name of the language, the ethnic group of Nahuatl speakers are called Nahua...
- Señorío of CuzcatlánSeñorío of CuzcatlánThe Señorío of Cuzcatlán, or The Lordship of Cuzcatlán, was a pre-Columbian Nahuat nation of the Post-Classical period that extended from the Paz river to the Lempa river , this was the nation of Pipils. No codices or written accounts survive that shed light on this señorío...
External links
- Ethnologue
- On-line Nawat course
- Nawat Language Recovery Initiative – includes grammar notes, vocabulary, texts and sound recordings
- Iniciativa para la Recuperación del Idioma Náhuat – newer site in Spanish only
- Ne Bibliaj Tik Nawat – Nawat Bible translation project
- Gospel Recordings Network: Nahuat – sound recordings