The Usage of Nahuatl Kinship Terms in Polite Speech

Abstract

Nahuatl kin terms are known to be employed in a vast array of metaphoric meanings, whose cultural point of reference is different than the basis of European metaphors. However, since colonial texts were often written by bilingual natives or Spanish friars, they include both Nahua and Spanish ways of associating meanings. This paper examines the use of several Nahuatl terms for children and grandchildren in speeches and dialogues recorded in colonial written sources. Taking into account both their morphology and contextual occurrences, it suggests that they formed a system, in which particular terms and grammatical forms marked the tone of speech, the amount of reverence and the social distance. It also attempts at separating pre‑Hispanic terminology from Nahuatl honorifics used by preachers, illustrating the difference between the two metaphorical systems.

Keywords

• Nahuatl
• kin terms
• colonial period
• metaphors
• honorific speech