Phonological Changes in Nahuatl: The Tense/Aspect/Number Systems

Presented are hypotheses on the effects of sound change rules on the development of one part of the P-Nahuatl V inflectional system. The changes described exemplify how the morphology of modern & classical Nahautl dialects has developed through laws of regular sound changes controlled by the str...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of American linguistics 1979-01, Vol.45 (1), p.48-71
Main Author: Dakin, Karen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Consonants
Dialects
Linguistics
Locative case
Morphemes
Nouns
Priests
Suffixes
Verbs
Vowels
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Summary:Presented are hypotheses on the effects of sound change rules on the development of one part of the P-Nahuatl V inflectional system. The changes described exemplify how the morphology of modern & classical Nahautl dialects has developed through laws of regular sound changes controlled by the structural forces of grammatical & semantic functions. Because of the different types of sound changes, it is argued that Nahuatl affix systems must have developed through clitics layering at successive historical points from P-Uto-Aztecan to modern dialects. P-forms based on comparative evidence from several Nahuatl dialects & on internal alternations within given dialects, are posited for the morphemes of the tense/aspect/number systems of P-Nahuatl with discussion of the change that they have undergone. Observations presented are relevant to understanding the synchronic phonological systems of various dialects. In many cases the forms that can be reconstructed for P-Nahuatl are no longer concretely realized in the modern systems because of the change succession. 13 Tables. HA
ISSN:0020-7071
1545-7001
DOI:10.1086/465573