Nawat language
Nawat, also known as Náhuat and academically referred to as Pipil, is a Nahuan language native to Central America. It is the southernmost extant member of the Uto-Aztecan family. Before Spanish colonization it was spoken in several parts of present-day Central America, most notably El Salvador and Nicaragua, but now is mostly confined to western El Salvador. Nahuat was still spoken in several towns in Pacific Guatemala until at least the late 1700s. It has been on the verge of extinction in El Salvador, and has already gone extinct elsewhere in Central America. In 2012, a large number of new Nawat speakers started to appear. The language is undergoing a revitalization process.
In El Salvador, Nawat was the language of several groups: Nonualcos, Cuscatlecos, Izalcos and is known to be the Nahua variety of migrating Toltec. The name Pipil for this language is mostly used by the international scholarly community to differentiate it more clearly from Nahuatl. In Nicaragua it was spoken by the Nicarao people who split from the Náhuat around 1200 when they migrated south. Nawat became the lingua franca there during the 16th century. A hybrid form of Nahuat-Spanish was spoken by many Nicaraguans up until the 19th century. The Nawat language was also spoken in Chiapas by Toltec settlers who inhabited the region for hundreds of years before migrating further into Central America.
Classification
Most authors refer to this language by the names Nawat, Nahuat, Pipil, or Nicarao. However, Nawat has also been used to refer to Nahuatl language varieties in southern Veracruz, Tabasco, and Chiapas, states in the south of Mexico, that like Nawat have reduced the earlier /t͡ɬ/ consonant to a /t/. Those Mexican lects share more similarities with Nawat than do the other Nahuatl varieties.Nawat specialists generally treat Pipil/Nawat as a separate language, at least in practice. Lastra de Suárez and Canger classify Pipil among "Eastern Periphery" dialects of Nahuatl.File:Pueblos Indigenas antes de la conquista El Salvador.svg|thumb|300px|right|Map of El Salvador's Indigenous Peoples at the time of the Spanish conquest:
1. Náhuat people, 2. Lenca, 3. Kakawira o Cacaopera, 4. Xinca, 5. Maya Ch'orti' people, 6. Maya Poqomam people, 7. Mangue o Chorotega.
- Uto-Aztecan
- *Southern Uto-Aztecan
- **Nahuan
- ***Pochutec
- ***General Aztec
- ****Core Nahua
- ****Nawat
Geographic distribution
Localities where Nawat was reported by Lyle Campbell as spoken in the 1970s include the following:Gordon lists Dolores as a Pipil-speaking area.
Nahuat was also formerly spoken in Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica, though it is now extinct in all of these countries.
Kaufman lists Escuintla and Comapa as former Nawat-speaking areas of Guatemala, and San Agustín Acasaguastlán as a former "Mejicano"-speaking town. The genetic position of San Agustín Acasaguastlán Mejicano is still uncertain, but Nawat may have only been introduced in the post-contact period. Fowler further lists Asunción Mita, Santa María Ixhuatán, Jumaytepeque, and Jalpatagua as Pipil towns in the sixteenth century.
In Honduras, ethnic Nahua populations are present in small numbers in the Olancho Department, in the municipalities of Catacamas, Gualaco, Guata, Jano and Esquipulas del Norte. Fowler wrote of possible Nahua presences in the prehispanic and early colonial periods at Nito, Naco, Chapagua and Papayeca, Olancho Department, Comayagua, and Nacaome, though alongside other ethnic groups such as the Lenca. Toponyms and colonial-era records also attest to a large Nahua presence in the Ocotepeque Department. However, unlike the Nahuas of El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica who fled central and southern Mexico during the post-classical era due to famine, societal collapse, civil wars, and invasions from enemy forces, the Nahuas of Olancho are descended from pochtecas who were sent to Central America by Ahuizotl of Tenochtitlan at the start of the modern era in 1501 CE to establish trade relations with the Indigenous peoples of Central America. Therefore, the Nahuas of Olancho most likely spoke central-Mexican Nahuatl instead of Nawat. There were some Nahua communities in other parts of Honduras in the 16th century, but they have since disappeared.
In Nicaragua, the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs counted 20,000 Nahuas/Nicaraos in 2022. The International Labour Organization also counted 20,000 Nicaraos. However, DNA analysis has proven that the Nahua admixture in the modern Nicaraguan gene pool is high, especially among western Nicaraguans, both whites and Mestizos alike, making the number of Nahua descendants much higher. Fully Indigenous Nahuas can be found all over the western half of Nicaragua. Out of all the Central American dialects of Nawat, the dialect spoken by the Nicarao was found to be the most similar to central-Mexican Nahuatl. Furthermore, both Salvadoran and Nicaraguan Nawat were found to be closely related to Nawat from Chiapas. The Nawat language went extinct in Nicaragua in the late 1800s, and was last spoken on Ometepe Island and in the departments of Rivas and Masaya.
In Costa Rica, a small population of Nahuas inhabit Bagaces and other parts of Guanacaste province. They are Nicaraos who migrated and displaced the Huetares who originally inhabited Bagaces. They spoke the Nawat language before it went extinct in Costa Rica.
An extinct variety of Nahuatl spoken in Huehuetán, Mexico is considered to have been closely related to or perhaps a dialect of Nawat.
Status and usage
As of 2012, extensive are available at the website of linguist Alan R. King, including video lessons and a Facebook group. A video documentation project is also underway, in collaboration with the Living Tongues Institute, focusing on "Pipil culture, such as natural medicines, traditions, traditional games, agricultural practices, and childhood songs," which is intended for language learners.The varieties of Nawat in Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica are now extinct. It was still spoken in Guatemala by almost nine thousand people in 1772.
In El Salvador, Nawat is endangered: it is spoken mostly by a few elderly speakers in the Salvadoran departments of Sonsonate, San Salvador, and Ahuachapán. The towns of Cuisnahuat and Santo Domingo de Guzmán have the highest concentration of speakers. Campbell's 1985 estimate was 200 speakers. Gordon reports only 20 speakers were left in 1987. Official Mexican reports have recorded as many as 2000 speakers.
The exact number of speakers has been difficult to determine because persecution of Nawat speakers throughout the 20th century 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 and 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 as of 2002, the national government had not joined these efforts.
As of 2010, the town of Santo Domingo de Guzmán had a language nest, “Xuchikisa nawat”, where children three to five years of age learned Nawat, run in cooperation with Don Bosco University.
In 2010, Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes awarded the National Culture Prize to linguist Dr. Jorge Ernesto Lemus of Don Bosco University for his work with Nawat.
According to a 2009 report in El Diario de Hoy, Nawat had started to make a comeback as a result of the 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 El Salvador. In the 1980s, Nawat had about 200 speakers. By 2009, 3,000 people were participating in Nawat language learning programs, the vast majority being young people, giving rise to hopes that the language might be pulled back from the brink of extinction.
Phonology
Two salient features of Nawat are found in several Mexican dialects: the change of to and rather than as the predominant allophone of a single basic rounded vowel phoneme. These features are thus characteristic but not diagnostic.However, Nawat corresponds to not only the two Classical Nahuatl sounds and but also a word final saltillo or glottal stop in nominal plural suffixes and verbal plural endings. This fact has been claimed by Campbell to be diagnostic for the position of Nawat in a genetic classification, on the assumption that this is more archaic than the Classical Nahuatl reflex, where the direction change has been > saltillo.
One other characteristic phonological feature is the merger in Nawat of original geminate with single.