SIL Mexico

bescomatl

The Consonants of Mösiehuali̱
(Tetelcingo Nahuatl)

 

 

The Mösiehuali̱ language has the following set of consonants:

  Labials Apicals Palato-alveolars Velars Glottals
Stops p t   k  
Voiced stops (b) (d)   (g)  
Complex stops   ts, tl tš kw  
Fricatives (f) s š   h
Liquids   l, (r)      
Nasals m n      
Semi-consonants (w)   y w  
 

The consonants which appear in red on the chart are those that occur in Nahuatl generally. Those which appear on the chart in gray and between parentheses occur almost exclusively in Spanish loan words.

The orthography used in the Vocabulario mexicano de Tetelcingo represents these consonants with the letters shown in the following chart:

  Labials Apicals Palato-alveolars Velars Glottals
Stops p t   c / qu  
Voiced stops b d   g  
Complex stops   tz, tl ch cu  
Fricatives f s x   j
Liquids   l, r      
Nasals m n      
Semi-consonants b / f   y hu / u  
 

The semi-consonant w is labial when it precedes a front vowel. It is written b in those cases. It is voiceless when it follows a voiceless consonant; the labial variant in this case is written as f. For example bejfeyi̱ = /wehweyI/ big (pl.). When the velar variant hu [w] occurs following a j [h], the combination is written ju, and when w occurs between o and a, it is not written at all. For instance, huajuanoa /wahwano(w)a/ it (a dog) barks.

--David Tuggy

 


See also

In general

An article and book