The Nawat or Pipil language is an endangered language spoken by the Pipils of western El Salvador and Nicarao people of Nicaragua. It belongs to the Nahua group within the Uto-Aztecan language family. Its typology includes VSO word order, head-marking, and a relatively small phoneme inventory.
Sounds Basic phonemes and word stress + Basic vowels Front Back High iu Mid e Lowa
Realizations of the back vowel range between and , but the higher vowel allophones predominate. Historically there was phonemic vowel length in Nawat, that is, words could have different meanings depending on whether each vowel in them was long or short. This distinction may be extinct for present-day speakers.
+ Basic consonants Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Labiovelar Glottal Plosives p t k , , kw Affricates tz ch Fricatives s sh j Nasals m n , , , Liquids l Semivowels y w [()]
The voiced allophones of /k/, and , are common but their distribution is subject to both dialect variation and phonological rules (and their exceptions).
The /n/ phoneme has various allophones, as follows:
When followed by a vowel it is usually alveolar. naja 'I, me', ini 'this', nunan 'my mother' When followed by a plosive or affricate consonant its place of articulation assimilates.senpa 'once, again', Ken tinemi? 'How are you?' , inchan 'at their house', tenkal 'door, patio' Preceding other consonants or a pause, the pronunciation of n is most often velar .Kan nemi? 'Where is (he/she/it)?', anyawit 'you (pl.) are going';
Ini ne apan 'This is the river', Shimutalikan! 'Sit down!' In word-final position preceding a vowel, it is also velar .Ken ajsik? 'How did he/she arrive?', wan ini 'and this' Velar occurs intervocalically in some words; this may be represented in writing by nh.nemanha 'later, straight away', kinhita 'sees them', tenhat 'river bank'
Most words are stressed on the second to last syllable. Some are stressed on the last syllable: these include a few lexical compounds such as tenkal 'door, patio' (from ten 'mouth' and kal 'house'), certain prefixed or reduplicated monosyllables such as (optionally) kajkal 'houses', and many diminutives in -tzin or -chin. There are also words in these categories with regular penultimate stress.
Phonotactics Syllables can have any of the shapes permitted by the formula (C)V(C), and words may have any number of such syllables.kal 'house', at 'water', ne 'there', nu-ish 'my eye', a-pan 'river', mis-tun 'cat', kat-ka 'was', uj-ti 'path', kwa-wit 'tree, wood, stick', nu-kwaj-kwach 'my clothes', metz-ti 'moon', nech-kwa 'he/she/it is eating me', tzak-tuk 'closed', shik-tzuj-tzun-ta-mej-ti-kan 'sharpen the ends! (pl.)' Most Nawat consonants can occur in any position, but m and kw do not occur at the end of a syllable (or word), and there are no words ending in p either. Where morphological processes would place them in syllable-final position, m changes to n (for the pronunciation of which see above), and kw changes to k.tekuma-t 'gourd' but nu-tekun 'my gourd', ki-tzakwa 'he closes it' but tzak-tuk 'closed' J has a limited distribution: it never follows another consonant and normally cannot begin a word either. J at the end of words is pronounced weakly and often disappears altogether.naja 'I, me', ujti 'path', nikwaj 'I ate it', shushukna(j) 'green'
Secondary semivowels When one vowel phoneme immediately follows another within a word a (the y sound) is often inserted between them ( if the first vowel is u). This is common when the first of the two vowels is stressed. miak 'many' → *shikwa + -a → shikwaya 'eat it already!' se-uk (from *se + -uk) 'other' → nu-ika-w 'my younger brother' → In other cases, /i/ or /e/ preceding another vowel is often replaced by . ki-pia-ya 'he already has it' → seujti (from *se + ujti) 'once' → But this is commonly dropped following sh or ch. shiawa! (for *shi-yaw-a) 'go already!' → shi-k-chia-kan! 'wait! (pl.)' → Following alveolar n or /k/ = , often combines to yield (like Spanish ñ) or /y/ respectively. niajki (for *ni-yaj-ki) 'I went' → kielkawa 'he forgets' →
Reduplication Reduplication is a morphological process employed in several parts of the grammatical system, which is characterized in phonological terms. Nawat reduplication takes the form of repetition of a word's first syllable (actually only the (C)V part thereof). So for example, a reduplication of kunet 'child' is ku-kunet 'children', and a derivative of the root petz- 'smooth' is pe-petz-ka 'a kind of small, silvery fish', local Spanish pepesca.
Another more productive variety of reduplication involves adding a j after the reduplication, e.g., ku-j-kunet 'children', pe-j-petz-naj plural of petz-naj 'smooth, naked'. Generalizing, plain reduplication (without j) is governed by lexical criteria. J-reduplication, on the contrary, is used by grammatical rules that:
generate noun or adjective plurals from singularstamal 'tortilla' → taj-tamal 'tortillas'
mistun 'cat' → mij-mistun 'cats'
kal 'house' → kaj-kal 'houses'
apan 'river' → aj-apan 'rivers' produce iteratives from non-iterative verbstaketza 'he talks' → taj-taketza 'he converses'
nemi 'he is (somewhere)' → nej-nemi 'he walks about'
paki 'he is laughing' → paj-paki 'he is happy'
ki-ajwa 'he scolds him' → ki-aj-ajwa 'he tells him off'
Noun phrase Determiners and quantifiers + Common determiners and quantifiersSome determinersSome quantifiers ne 'the' se 'a(n)' ini 'this' uni 'that' se(j)se 'some, each' miak 'many' ch(i)upi 'few, a few' muchi 'all' se 'one' ume 'two' yey 'three' nawi 'four' makwil 'five' The determiners (except for ne) and quantifiers may be used pronominally, i.e., without a noun head, or preceding the noun they determine or quantify, e.g., ne takat 'the man', ini techan 'this village', miak kal 'many houses', ume siwat 'two women'.
Possession
The prefixes shown below are attached to nouns to express who they 'belong' to, e.g., nu-yak 'my nose', i-eltiw 'his/her sister', tu-mistun 'our cat', mu-techan 'your village'.
+ Possessive indices Singular possessor Plural possessor 1st person nu- 'my' tu- 'our' 2nd person mu- 'your' anmu- 'your' 3rd person i- 'his/her/its' in- 'their'
Some nouns are always 'possessed', so that it is bad Nawat just to say *se yak 'a nose' or *ne eltiw 'the sister': instead one has to say se iyak 'one her-nose', ne nueltiw 'the my-sister', or whatever possessive form fits the context best. These include most nouns expressing either a part of the body or a member of one's family.
Other nouns can occur either with or without a possessor. Some of these have two different forms, one (the absolute form) for use without a possessive prefix and the other (the possessed form) for use with a possessive prefix. These 'states' may be indicated by different suffixes, e.g., ne kune-t 'the child' → ne nu-kune-w 'my child; ne sin-ti 'the maize' → ne nu-sin 'my maize'; ne es-ti 'the blood' → ne nu-es-yu 'my blood'. When both states of the noun are zero-marked (like mistun and techan), the noun is 'invariable'.
+ Absolute and possessed suffixesAbsolutePossessed Singular -t -ti zero -w zero Plural -met -ket zero -wan zero
The possessive indices tell us the person and number of the possessor, which may be specified by a noun phrase following the possessed noun. When that happens, the possessed normally has the third-person index, e.g., ne i-mistun ne piltzin 'the boy's cat' (literally: 'his-cat the boy').
There is an alternative way to express this, if the noun is alienable, using the preposition pal or the relational ipal: ne mistun pal ne piltzin ('the cat of the boy'). Even with an inalienable possession, it is possible to say ne inan pal ne piltzin ('the his-mother of the boy').
The plural Nouns may be made plural by two different procedures:
through reduplication (see above) mistun 'cat' → mij-mistun 'cats'using a plural suffix (-met, -ket) taka-t 'man' → taka-met 'men'
For possessed forms:
There is a special possessed plural suffix, -wan, used with certain nouns denoting family relations and similarly intimate 'possessions'. nu-elti-w 'my sister' → nu-elti-wan 'my sisters' nu-kunpa 'my comrade or friend' → nu-kunpawan 'my comrades or friends' nu-pal 'mine' → nu-pal-wan 'my possessions'Otherwise the reduplicated form of the singular possessed form is used. nu-kune-w 'my child' → nu-kuj-kune-w 'my children' nu-kwach 'my cloth' → nu-kwaj-kwach 'my clothes'Sometimes the possessive prefix is reduplicated instead. nu-ish 'my eye' → nuj-nu-ish 'my eyes' i-kshi 'his foot' → ij-i-kshi 'his feet'
Some word that may accompany a noun in the noun phrase, such as the determiners ne, ini, uni, are invariable for number, e.g., uni mistun 'that cat', uni mijmistun 'those cats'. On the other hand, nouns accompanied by a quantifier that is plural in meaning need not themselves be pluralized morphologically, e.g., ume mistun 'two cats'.
Adjectives
Adjectives used attributively can precede or follow the noun, e.g., se selek iswat or se iswat selek 'a tender leaf' (selek 'tender, fresh, green', iswat 'leaf').
There is considerable variation regarding how to mark plural number in noun phrases containing an adjective. As long as some element or other in the noun phrase marks the phrase as plural, it seems not to matter which one, or even how many elements are (redundantly) pluralized, though there some speakers seem to indicate a preference for (1) marking plurality in the first possible component, and (2) avoiding redundancy, thus chijchiltik tzaput or tzajtzaput chiltik, but ume chiltik tzaput or ume tzaput chiltik.
Pronouns and adverbs No noun phrase is marked for case, and this is just as true of the pronouns, which have each a single form that can perform any function in the sentence.
+ Personal pronounsSingularPlural naja 'I/me'
taja 'you'
yaja 'he/him, she/her, it'tejemet 'we/us'
anmejemet 'you'
yejemet 'they/them'
+ Other pronouns and deictic adverbsPronounsPlace adverbsOther adverbsDemonstrative ini, yajini 'this' uni, yajuni 'that' (remote) yaja ne 'that'nikan 'here' ikuni 'there' (remote) ne 'there'ijkini, kiene 'like this' ijkiuni, kiunij 'like that, so' kiane 'so' ash(k)an 'now, today' kwakuni 'then' nemanha 'later'Interrogative ká 'who?' tey/tay 'what?' katiawel? 'which one?'kan? 'where?'ken? 'how? what like?' keman? 'when?'Indefinite aka 'anybody' inte aka 'nobody' tatka 'anything' inte tatka 'nothing'kanaj 'somewhere else' inte kanaj 'nowhere' nujme 'everywhere'inte keman 'never'
Case, prepositions and relationals
Noun phrases in core grammatical functions are not marked for case. To specify other roles, a preposition or a relational may precede a noun phrase. The main prepositions are:
+ Prepositions ka 'to, at (etc.)' ka tiupan 'to the church' ka tayua 'at night' tik 'in, to, from (etc.)' tik ne techan 'in/to/from the village' tik Nawat 'in Nawat' pak 'on' pak ne metat 'on the grinding stone' tech 'at, by, near, to' tech ne apan 'by the river' tech ne siwat 'to the woman' wan 'with (etc.)' wan ne siwat 'with the woman' chan 'chez' chan ne siwat 'at/to/from the woman's house' pal 'of, for' pal nunan 'for my mother' se siwat pal nutechan 'a woman from my village'
All the above prepositions derive diachronically from relationals. In some cases the preposition merely represents an abbreviation of the relational by omitting the i- prefix.
Relationals are quasi-nouns expressing some relationship (sometimes spatial, but not always) to their possessive complement. For example, nu-jpak, meaning 'on or over me', consists of the relational (i)jpak conveying 'position above' with a first person singular possessor. Some relationals are shown in third-person-singular forms in the following table:
Some relationalsSpatial relationsOther relations ijtik 'in, inside' ijpak 'on, over' itan 'under' ishpan 'in front of' ipan 'behind' itech 'near, alongside' iwan 'with' ichan 'at/to/from the house of'