Nahuatl – The Aztec Language

My seemingly endless struggle to learn enough Spanish to string a few coherent sentences together continues. But it’s not the only language spoken here in Mexico. There are quite a number of indigenous languages and dialects still being spoken, the most famous of which is Nahuatl. It’s the tongue of the Aztecs, and there are 1.5 million native speakers still keeping it going. Not that it will die out entirely – it’s lent Spanish a ton of words. And English too…

Tomato, avacao, chilli, coyote and chocolate were words all born in Mexico. One thing you will notice in Mexico City are the number of place names with ‘tl’ in them. It took me a while to get that sound out naturally! Fancy learning the lingo? No, me neither. I need to still to Spanish for now. But if the urge takes you, there are resources.