Nahuatl of Mecayapan and Tatahuicapan of Juárez, Veracruz
(ISO code nhx)

The Nahuatl language of Mecayapan and Tatahuicapan, Veracruz is one of the more divergent variants of Nahuatl. Its nearest neighbor, both geographically and linguistically, is the Pajapan variant. They are located in the northern part of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, and for this reason they have together been known as Isthmus Nahuatl.

The two municipalities had a combined population of about 30,000 according to the census taken in 2000.

The speakers of this language sometimes refer to it as Mejicano 'Mexican', but more often they call it mela'tájtol, which comes historically from melac 'straight, right, true' plus tájtol 'word'. The related verb mela'tajtohua (literally 'talk true') means 'talk Nahuatl'.

This variant of Nahuatl uses t where other variants have tl in word initial and medial positions. Word final t and k become glottal stops. So the word meaning 'man', which is tlacatl in most Nahuatl, is  taga' in this variant.

Vowel length, which is written with an underline, is more noticeable and functional than in most other variants. For instance 'salt' is  ista' and 'white' is  ista'; 's/he/it passed' is  panoj and 's/he/it will pass' is  panoj.

This variant is also unusual in having voiced stops, such as the b in  babasoti', 'disheveled', the d in  dadapoti' 'rough (surface)' or the g in  goxi, '(spinning) top'. [You can clearly hear the final glottal stop on babasoti' when it is pronounced before the suffix -san 'only', in the word  babasoti'san 'only disheveled'. The lack of a final glottal stop is equally clear when -san is added to goxi to form the word  goxisan 'only a top'.]

This seems to be the only variant of Nahuatl which differentiates first person plural inclusive ['you and I (and perhaps others)'] from exclusive ['I and others (but not you)'].  Matiacan means 'let us inclusive go',  maniacan means 'let us exclusive go'. The object prefixes on the verb do not mark plurality. Plurality in such cases is only marked by a suffix, and the suffix is ambiguous as to whether it refers to the subject or the object. Thus  quitamacaquej, with the plural past tense suffix -quej, could mean 's/he/it fed them' or 'they fed them' or 'they fed him/her/it'. Nimitztamacaquej can mean 'I fed you pl.', 'we fed you pl.', or 'we fed you sg.'.

--Christopher L. Hurst

The recorded words were pronounced by Esteban Pérez Ramírez

Publications available on this site:

Linguistics

• Diccionario náhuatl del Mecayapan y Tatahuicapan de Juárez, Veracruz
• Gramática náhuatl (mela'tájtol) de los municipios de Mecayapan y Tatahuicapan de Juárez, Veracruz
• El náhuatl y los préstamos
• Rasgos importantes de esta variante del náhuatl
• Los fonemas del náhuatl de los municipios de Mecayapan y Tatahuicapan de Juárez, Veracruz

Literacy and literature

• Iga Nesi' Sinti (The origin of corn)
• Tadeo (Thaddeus gets married)
• Ni-atzacuica (Trapped by a swollen river)

Other sites with information about:

• The municipalities of Tatahuicapan and Mecayapan