The Nahuat language
Nahuat is one of the indigenous languages of El Salvador. This project exists to make it learnable — with a dictionary, texts and lessons — and to keep what can still be recorded.
The language
Its name is Nahuat; many of its speakers and teachers write it Nawat, and the linguistic literature calls it Pipil.
It is a Uto-Aztecan language, a close relative of other Nahua languages of Mesoamerica, with its own history, its own sound and its own ways of saying things.
Is it the same as Nahuatl?
No. Nahuat and the Nahuatl of Mexico are close relatives — both are Nahua languages, and many words are recognizable from one to the other — but they are separate languages, centuries apart. Where Nahuatl says tl, Nahuat says t: water is atl in Nahuatl and at in Nahuat.
Where it is spoken
In the west of the country, above all in Sonsonate: Nahuizalco, Izalco, Cuisnahuat and Santo Domingo de Guzmán. The older records also find it in Ataco and Tacuba, in Ahuachapán, and in towns of La Libertad and San Salvador. Each place has its variants, and the dictionary shows them side by side.
How it sounds
It is written as it is said. The elders, as the linguist Lyle Campbell describes them, say y as in English, never as in Spanish; make the l at the end of a word voiceless, as in tunal, "sun"; close a word that ends in a vowel with a slight catch in the voice; and keep long and short vowels apart.
Every word in the dictionary says how it is pronounced, and many have a recording by an elder or a speaker.
First words
Yek tunal! means "good morning!" It is how the first lesson begins — open to everyone, no account needed.
Why it is endangered
Fewer than 200 native speakers remain, nearly all of them elders.
Through the twentieth century, and above all after the repression of 1932, speaking Nahuat became dangerous, and many families stopped teaching it to their children.
Today there are people and communities working to bring it back.
This project
Nahuat is an interactive dictionary and learning companion, free and open. It brings together in one place what has been written about the language, from the earliest studies to today's dictionaries. Its editor is not a linguist or a native speaker, which is why every word says where it comes from.
It adds the recordings that elders of Santo Domingo de Guzmán made on Lingua Libre. Every editorial decision is written down, with its reason, so it can be reviewed and discussed.
It has short lessons in order, flashcards to review a few minutes a day, texts with their translations, and listening games.
How it is written
The dictionary uses the IRIN orthography, the one taught today: k, w, sh, tz. In that orthography the language’s name is written Nawat; this site calls it Nahuat, the name most people know.
On this site
- DictionaryThe words of Nahuat, what they mean and how each town says them — and, word by word, recordings of speakers.Go to the dictionary →
- TextsTexts written in Nahuat: search a word and read it in context.Read the texts →
- LearnShort lessons in order, with dialogues and speakers’ voices, and flashcards that bring back the words you save, a few minutes a day.Start learning →
- ToolsGames for practice: hear a speaker and choose the word they said, or solve a crossword on the page or on paper.See the tools →
The words come from the works and the speakers named on the Sources page.