Aztec Sayings

The normal (intransitive) verb would be mahui.
The transitive verb (eg ‘I fear ___’) would be imacaci.

Please see our page ‘Want to LEARN Náhuatl?’ in the r/h menu for our recommendations for books...
There are several words for ‘brave’:-
• yolchicahuac (someone brave of heart)
• ateixco
• ixmatlactic (brave, gallant)
• yollapaltic (courageous and brave)
• yollohuapahuac (spirited, brave).
For ‘warrior’ we recommend yaoquizqui.

Nicitlalin

Thanks, Greg, for your encouragement and interest in our work. We think there are two possible approaches here: a) to use a modern Nahuatl term and/or b) to take the Classical Nahuatl one. Thanks to our friends at Proyecto Hunab Ku in Puebla we suggest the following:-
a) • yolcehuiliz: this focuses on being ‘non-angered’ and includes the word for heart yollotl; ironically it’s based on the notion of the heart being ‘cool’ - ie, at peace, not stirred up and angry; • yolcehcehhuiliztli: this is just a longer version, with all the same elements
b) • paccanemiliztli, ‘living happily or joyously’; • tlamatcanemiliztli, ‘living gently, in peace’; • yocoxca nemiliztli ‘a peaceful life’ (Molina’s 16th century dictionary). On balance we’d probably recommend this last one...

We’re not 100% sure what you mean so would be grateful if you could send us a bit more context to this. Did you invent the phrase or get it from a book? Have you translated it from a different language...? In the meantime, thanks to our friends at the Proyecto Hunab Ku in Puebla, Mexico, here’s their Nahuatl suggestion:-
icihuapil Venus citlatli, icitlal ilhuicatzin.

Thanks for your kind words - ALWAYS appreciated.
A lunar eclipse would be metztli cualo; a solar eclipse tonatiuh cualo (cua(h) meaning ‘to eat something’).
Sunset would be aqui in tonatiuh, with aqu(i) meaning to enter or fit in. We’re trying to find ‘sunrise’ - please help, someone!

Cheers! In fact, we’re told by a native Nahuatl speaker that a rough equivalent of ‘Cheers’ in Nahuatl would be tochteno. Hope this helps...

Well, yes, the Aztecs believed one of their previous worlds was populated by giants (though archaeologists think they meant mammoths), they carried important people on litters, they believed one of the previous ‘Suns’ (worlds) was destroyed by a giant flood, etc. These things may seem similar to Bible stories (indeed of course there are ancient flood myths in many cultures around the world), but most would consider these to be coincidences...

Apologies for being slow with this. We only have a suggestion for your second phrase ‘Know your roots’, thanks to friends at the Hunab Ku project in Puebla, who provided the following:-
’In náhuatl variante centro [Nahuatl as spoken in Puebla], we would say: man xic ixmati monelhuayo. The polite command to tell a second person in singular to know his/her roots. But if we are talking or meant to talk about your ancient culture it would be man xic ixmati momacehualtlacahuapahualiztli. Momacehualtlacahuapahualiztli is a more complex idea that mixes the notion of macehual, indeed another complex idea that goes back to one of the two social classes in mexica times, but now refers to the notion of pueblo in general; and tlacahuapahualiztli, a very complex nahua notion envisaged by our nahua elder teacher but with classical roots, that tries to “emulate” the occidental notion of culture, as “what makes the humans to grow as such”; growing not only in the organic but specially in the spiritual, trascendental sense.’

You’re right, but it’s not the belly button itself that might be a waste of space. Please read Prof James Maffie’s comment on this (scroll down to comment no. 30) - this is a warning against conceit. No-one is above reproach. Thanks for pointing out the ambiguity in this entry!

‘Mountain peak’ is tepeticpac.

We suggest tlacaconemiliztli. This basically means ‘peaceful living or way of life’. If you prefer a verb - ie ‘to live peacefully’ - it would be tlacaconemi.

We recommend using this phrase: i nican titlaca which is something like ‘We [first] people here’

We assume you mean ‘Forever IN my heart’? Our friends Scott Hadley and Camelia García from San Miguel Canoa, Puebla, offer the following: mochipa itech noyollo.

Without a doubt citlali(n) means ‘star’ in Nahuatl. Citlalicue (‘She with the Skirt of Stars’) was the name given to the Milky Way, and there are several other words in Nahuatl with citlal- as the root (names for comet, Venus, the eleventh heaven, Ursa Minor...) Citlalicue has also been associated with the ancient god(dess) of war and hunting Mixcoatl (‘Cloud Serpent’); (s)he ‘may originally have been a legendary hunter and warrior, deified and sanctified...’ (Miller & Taube) - we would suggest that that’s where your gently romanticised interpretation of your name would come from. Your name doesn’t strictly mean ‘rising’ star - it’s much more likely to be an abbreviation of Citlatlicue.
Scott Hadley and Camelia García from San Miguel Canoa, Puebla offer the following translation of ‘Faith moves mountains’: In neltococayotl olinia tepemeh.

Itzcalli could mean ‘house of darkness’ as it combines itztli (obsidian) with calli (house). One dictionary lists the word as meaning ‘side’ or ‘flank’. In either case, nothing to do with beauty! The problem is, in Nahuatl there isn’t a word or term for ‘beauty’ as an abstract concept, you have to go for something that symbolises beauty in an iconic way. The best example we can suggest is Quetzalli/ Quetzaltzin (a bird with stunningly beautiful plumage - sacred throughout ancient Mesoamerica). The following are more examples, provided kindly by Scott Hadley from Puebla; they’re all girls’ surnames, taken from Carlos Montemayor’s book ‘Diccionario del náhuatl en el español de México’. In each case the names are presented giving first ‘normal’ then reverential versions:-
• Citlalcóatl/Citlalcoatzin – Star Snake
• Citlalcueyeh/Citlalcueyehtzin – Star Skirt
• Chalchíhuitl/Chalchihuitzin – Jade
• Macuilxóchitl/Macuilxochitzin - Flower with Five {Petals]
• Huitzilxóchitl/Huitzilxochitzin - Hummingbird Flower
• Huitzitzilin/Huitzitzilin - Hummingbird
• Totoquiáhuitl/Totoquiahuitzin - Rainstorm of Birds
• Tlahuizcalli/Tlahuizcaltzin - Dawn
• Tlanextli/Tlanextzin - Light
• Yóllotl/Yollotzin - Heart
• Yolloxóchitl/Yollocochitzin - Flower of the Heart
• Xiuhtlalli/Xiutlaltzin - Land of Emeralds.

Thanks to you. We’ve come across one or two insults but just at the moment can’t locate them (we’ll add them when we find them...!) However an obvious candidate would be the visual gesture of ‘mooning’, used as a last resort in battle. Please see our article -
https://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/writing/the-bottom-line-in-mexican-codex-writing.
Meanwhile, a Nahuatl expert has told us that one of the worst would be the use of the word cuilonpole; we won’t put the translation here as it’s very rude (think of a swear word beginning with ‘s’...). He adds, interestingly, the following anecdote: ‘When, at night, a Native heard an owl (búho) hooting, this meant he was soon going to die. To exorcise this omen he shouted at it: cuilonpole!
This was directed in fact to Mictlantecuhtli.’

Sorry for the delayed response. Our friends Scott Hadley and Camelia García from San Miguel Canoa, Puebla, offer the following phrase: Techcocoa iyaliztli, which translates as: “His or her absence pains us”. We hope this will suffice.

Thanks for writing in. According to Cecilio Robelo’s great Diccionario de Mitología Nahuatl, Tonanztin means ‘Our dear, revered mother’; to = our, nantli = mother, tzin = ancient expression of love and reverence. It was a name specially reserved for the goddess of life-giving maize, Cinteotl.

Thanks for writing in. Here are our suggestions, thanks to Scott Hadley and Camelia García from San Miguel Canoa, Puebla:-
• Ama tus raíces (Spanish): Ma xictlazotla monelhuayo
• Raíces bellas (Spanish): Cuacualli nelhuayotl
• Raices indígenas (Spanish): Macehualnelhuayotl
• “Your ancerstors gave you your roots” De tus antepasados para tí (Spanish): Moachtontlimeh ocmitzmakaque monelhuayo.

Hello - niltze
Goodbye - a near equivalent would be ‘Be well’: Ma xipactinemi
Thank you - Tlazohcamati
Good day - Cualli tonalli.

There is a word precisely for beloved/rare/precious - tlazohtli; this can refer to any person (or indeed thing) greatly esteemed. It’s gender-neutral.

Our first guess is that Oceloeztli is a straightforward name, Jaguar-Blood, without metaphorical associations.
Nemiliztli is a single word meaning way of life, character, conduct, existence. It’s a noun based on the verb nemi, to live.

Thanks and sorry to be slow replying! As far as we understand, in Classical Nahuatl, to say ‘You have wearied yourself, troubled yourself in coming’ (much the most common when giving a welcome to someone) you would say: ihiyohuia in Náhuatl.

We think it’s Ocelotémoc, made up of ocelo(tl) (jaguar) and témoc (‘that goes down’).

Sorry. not yet! Your question’s still ‘live’ though so fingers crossed...

We think the word you want is teoyeliztli, which means something like ‘divine essence’ - a compound made up of teo(tl) (deity) and yeliztli (blood). Good luck with developing your game!

Dr. Angélica Baena of UNAM in Mexico City has kindly offered the following:-
’I imagine this is taken from an Oasis or George Harrison song, and with that in mind, I think it could be translated as: Tlacuel tla xihuallauh (now come here) or it could be Tla xihualhuia (come now). Or, with both songs in mind, the meaning of the phrase will be closer to “live the moment here and now”. If that’s what you’re looking for, the translation could be more like Axcan xinemi (Live now).
We hope this helps!

Thanks for the positive feedback - really appreciated.
Regarding your motto, it’s difficult to translate this into Nahuatl, but Dr. Angélica Baena of UNAM in Mexico City has kindly offered the following: ‘I can suggest cemmanca cualtiliztli (eternal virtue or virtue is eternal) as an equivalent (based on Molina’s “cemmanca nemiliztli” (eternal life).’
Scott Hadley and Camelia García from San Miguel Canoa, Puebla, offer the following: In yectiliztli tlatlaniz. Yectiliztli means virtue, and tlatlaniz conveys the idea of victory/wiinning.

Dr. Angélica Baena of UNAM in Mexico City has kindly offered the following: ‘Seeker of wisdom or knowledge could be translated in different ways, I think:
Tlamatiliztemoani - from tlamatiliz (tli) (knowledge) and (tla)temoani (one who looks for something). This is a neologism that I think could work. Also, the traditional tlamatini (wise person) could work because it implies that he/she has sought knowledge or wisdom.’

Thanks Natalie for your kind words. They keep us going...!
We’re sorry to hear of your brother’s death and admire your commitment to keeping his spirit alive. Scott Hadley and Camelia García from San Miguel Canoa, Puebla, offer the following phrase in Nahuatl: Xnemi noitech, which would literally translate as “Live inside of me”. Prepositions are sometimes tricky in Nahuatl and don’t correspond well with Spanish or English ones.
We do hope this helps.

Thanks for the positive feedback, and apologies for the slow response. Actually the noun for ‘love’ is to be found further down this page, in several of the entries. It’s tlazohtlaliztli, sometimes written tetlazohtlaliztli.

Many thanks for your kind words! Scott Hadley and Camelia García from San Miguel Canoa, Puebla, offer the following:-
If by ‘head in the clouds’ you mean distracted, three Nahuatl words come close: ualnopiloa, amotlatini or ixkuapali.
Artist would be tlacuilo
Romantic love: tlazohtlaliztli
Spirit: ihiyotl (also means breath)
Altar: mumuztli
Rain: quiahuitl
Mother earth: totlalnantzin (literally “Our dear mother earth” coined by the Mexican poet Natalio Hernández)
Forever: Mochipan.

Scott Hadley and Camelia García from San Miguel Canoa, Puebla suggest the answer would be amo nica atle tehuatl.

Yes and no! Check out our latest saying, above, about the heavens, which you won’t have seen before writing to us. Also, a nice visual representation of the stars could be the Voladores ceremony, in which the circular movement of the ‘flyers’ was intended to reinforce the gyratory movement of the stars in the sky - and so maintain life on earth. Here’s our article on the Voladores:-
https://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/home/the-voladores-ceremony

Thanks to Scott Hadley and Dr. Angélica Baena of UNAM for both providing the answer: achto no mecayo.

Camelia García from San Miguel Canoa, Puebla, gives this as the answer: Ni mítz tlazotlas ta ma míqui in tonalzin.

Camelia García from San Miguel Canoa, Puebla, tells us it means something like ‘Lead me now’ or ‘Show me the way now.’

The answers here have kindly been supplied by Dr. Angélica Baena of UNAM in Mexico City:-
Ma cualli tonalli (Good day/Good Morning)
Cualli - Good
Tonalli - Day, heat, sun.
Another option could be:-
Ma cualli tlaneci (Good morning)
Tlaneci -To dawn, sunrise.
Ma cualli teotlac (Good afternoon)
Teotlac - Afternoon
Ma cualli yohualli (Good night)
Yohualli - Night.

José Luis Chavez Martínez, lecturer in Classical Nahuatl language and culture at ENAH in Mexico City has kindly provided this answer:- intla ticnequi topacca xiyaotlali.

We’d love to, but, disappointingly, there aren’t any! The few we’ve found are serious and sad, evoking the terrors of smallpox and other plagues to hit Mesoamerica in the 16th century. Chapter 29 (Book XII) of the Florentine Codex relates the terrible smallpox epidemic of 1520: ‘There was much perishing... There was death from hunger... this plague prevailed indeed sixty days... when there was reviving, the plague was already going toward Chalco... At that time the Mexicans, the brave warriors were able to recover from the pestilence.’ Not exactly uplifting stuff!
HOWEVER, it’s worth recalling that the very act of creating the last two books of the Codex is a tribute to the resilience and determination of the Nahua artists/scribes, led by Sahagún, to record their native history, whilst death and pestilence raged around them (Mexico was hit by a further deadly epidemic in 1576, just when the compilation of the Codex was in its final stages...) Please read our special article on this in the Spanish Invasion section - https://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/spanish-invasion/epidemic-self-isolation-dedication-and-the-preservation-of-memory

Dr. Angélica Baena of UNAM in Mexico City has kindly offered these options in Classical Nahuatl:-
Onihuitza, onitlachix, onitepeuh or
Onihualla, onitlachix, onitepeuh
Onihuitza - o - (past) ni - I
huitza - (past of huitz, to come).
It would indicate that I came but I already left.
Onitlachix - o - (past) ni - I
Tla - something (indefinite prefix for transitive verbs)
Chix - (past of chiya - to see)
I saw (something)
Onitepeuh - o - (past) ni - I
Te - someone (indefinite prefix for transitive verbs)
Peuh - (past of pehua - to conquer)
I conquered (someone)
Another option could be using Onihualla
o - (past) ni - I
Hualla - (past of Huallauh - to come)
It would indicate that I came and I am still here.

The answer has kindly been given us by Dr. Angélica Baena of UNAM, Mexico City:-
Ma Tlaloc huel ximitzmocuitlahuitzino
Ma - introductory particle for clauses expressing wishes, commands, admonitions
Huel - intensifier
Xi-mitz-mo-cuitlahui-tzino: Xi (imperative)
Mitz - personal pronoun You
Mo - reflexive
Cuitlahui (a) - to protect, to take care of
Tzino - reverential.

Thanks for writing. Just now - middle of busy teaching term - we can only give you an answer to one of these, your second point. Oquichtzin would be something like ‘dear chap’ or ‘esteemed fellow’. If you add the suffix -tli it gives it a sense of affection by way of a diminutive (much like our ‘Granny’ instead of Grandmother): hence Oquichtzintli would be roughly ‘dear little fellow/chappie’.
Will try to get answers to your other questions...!

This isn’t the sort of phrase that would be spoken by a Nahuatl speaker, so it’s very hard to translate!

We think it comes from tlatehuia - to engage in combat.

Here’s your answer, thanks to Professor Stephanie Wood of Oregon University: atl nemoani; this roughly translates as ‘water is that which gives one life’.
Actually, we’ve just received an extension to this answer, kindly given us by Dr. Angélica Baena from UNAM:-
’”Water is life” could have different translations:-
Atl yolihuani or yolihuani atl (yolihua-ni) The giver of life, the water. Yolihuani atl appears in Molina and Siméon. Molina translated it as “fuente de vida, agua viva”. Kartunnen translated yolihuani as “something that sustains life”. So it would be “agua dadora (sustentadora) de vida” - water that sustains life.
’It could work as well with nemoani (impersonal form of verb nemi, that could be translated as “who gives life or life’s giver”) as atl nemoani (water that gives life).
’The difrasismo in atl, in tlacualli could be translated as “sustenance”. “The water, the food, sustenance”.’

Thanks for your interest and support. We’ve answered your question, just above...

You’re welcome!

This one really stumped us! With the help of José Luis Chavez Martínez, lecturer in Classical Nahuatl language and culture at ENAH in Mexico City, we can at last offer something. He thinks there’s a typing error in what you’ve sent, and that the Nahuatl phrase should read ahmo cateh chicahualiztli ocachi Axolotl quen yeh tlazohtlaliztli. Our attempt at translating would go something like: ‘Love is the partner of strength as the axolotl is the companion of water.’

Sorry to take so long to answer this one! Here’s the answer, kindly given us by Dr. Angélica Baena of UNAM, Mexico City:-
Nopaquiliz
No - possessive first person (my)
Paquiliztli (Happiness, joy). The word loses tli when you use the possessive noun.

José Luis Chavez Martínez, lecturer in Classical Nahuatl language and culture at ENAH in Mexico City has kindly provided this answer:- ixquichca miquiztli.

José Luis Chavez Martínez, lecturer in Classical Nahuatl language and culture at ENAH in Mexico City has kindly provided this answer:- zazo campa mah ye maxca itlanequiliz in moyollo noihqui yez.

This has been answered fully above, in entry no. 70, from March 6th. 2019.

• noxocoyotl strictly means ‘my (youngest) child’
• conetl is the word for a child - generally younger than 9 or 10
• to specify son or daughter you must add a specifying word: so cihuaconetl is daughter and oquichconetl is son
• by using pilli instead of conetl you can refer to an older child, and at the same time add the association with ‘noble’. In Nahuatl it would be culturally more valid to add an honorific suffix (-tzin) only to an older son or daughter, so for instance oquichpiltzintli would be ‘honoured son’ (to make it ‘my honoured son’, just add no- as a prefix, so ‘my honoured [older] daughter’ would be nocihuapiltzintli).
We’re aware that there are complications though when specifying ‘my...’ in the singular, and we’re getting out of our depth here, so this can only be a guide, and we need a native speaker to answer all your questions!

We’ll give this a go, though we’re not experts!
• -tzin is a reverential suffix
• -huan is a plural possessive suffix
• pilli means ‘noble’, but when you add the reverential -tzin it always means (honoured) children
• the plural of -tzin is -tzitzin
• xocoyotl means (literally ‘youngest’) child
• the plural would be xocoyomeh (youngest) children.
One way to write ‘(They are) my (honoured) children’ would be nopiltzitzinhuan
If you want to use xocoyotl, we reckon it should be noxocoyomehtzitzinhuan. But we would go for the first option - shorter and probably more classic(al)!
We’re afraid we have no knowledge of the International Phonetic Alphabet so can’t help on that one...

José Luis Chavez Martínez, lecturer in Classical Nahuatl language and culture at ENAH in Mexico City has kindly provided this answer:- mah ximotlazohtla.

Camelia García from San Miguel Canoa, nr. Puebla, offers the following: Xictemo huan ticahciz.

Scott Hadley, from San Miguel Canoa offers this: yohyolitzin, roughly equivalent to ‘little by little’.

Excellent and intriguing point. It’s worth pointing out that, though most Náhuatl dictionaries translate xictli as ‘navel’, Thelma D. Sullivan (‘one of the foremost Nahuatl scholars of the twentieth century’) in ‘A Scattering of Jades’ translates the whole phrase as ‘No-one on earth is an umbilical cord’ - ie, something that is thrown away. She also points to a play on words, with xictli as ‘umbilical cord’ and xictia as ‘to look down upon someone’.

See below, Crystal...

Dr. Patrick Johansson recommends as the best translation of ‘power’ or ‘strength’ chicahualot(tl).

Dr. Patrick Johansson tells us that there’s isn’t a term in Nahuatl for ‘weather’ as a concept: Nahuatl speakers simply make every-day statements such as tlahuel tonal (‘It’s hot’) and tlahuel cehua (‘It’s cold’). Makes sense really!

Dr. Patrick Johansson provides this answer: nochicahualo tonelhuayo itech quiza, which means ‘My strength comes [from] our root’.

Dr. Patrick Johansson provides this answer for ‘everything happens for a reason’: nochi mochihua ipampa ce tlamantli nozo occe. Sorry, we forgot to ask about the other bit!

Scott Hadley from San Miguel Canoa, nr. Puebla, offers the following: tetlazotlaliztli noyecnemiliz ca. Thanks for your kind comments!

Whilst we can’t answer your question directly, we picked up this gem recently at a Nahuatl workhop in London (thanks to Dr. Patrick Johansson): the Nahuas apparently referred to the language of the Spanish invaders as coyoltlahtolli - ‘the language of coyotes’!

Scott Hadley from San Miguel Canoa, nr Puebla offers this:-
icuauh nemiliztli.

Anna, please see answer no. 50 above...

Scott Hadley from San Miguel Canoa, nr Puebla offers this:-
itztic chichiualayotl (a typical Nahuatl compound literally meaning “frozen milk”).

Many thanks, David, for your help again!

Cheers, David, thank you for your help!

David Bowles has kindly provided an answer (above)...

Wish we could help here - haven’t yet found any! It does occur to us that as your tattoos match, and as the Aztecs placed a particularly high (even sacred) value on the idea of twins (see, eg, the double-headed serpent mosaic in the British Museum), you might consider using the name Quetzalcóatl (‘Precious Twin’); as you probably know, cóatl has morphed today into the iconic Mexican word cuate (partner or buddy). Just an idea...

Prof. John Sullivan of IDIEZ, Zacatecas tells us that the phrase to use (for ‘I am Aztec’) would simply be niaztecatl. Dr. Patrick Johansson adds the following: to stress ‘I am Mexica’, you would say nehuetl ni mexica. Or ‘We are Mexica’ timexicatlacah. Hope this helps...

José Luis Chavez Martínez, lecturer in Classical Nahuatl language and culture at ENAH in Mexico City has kindly provided this answer:- iyaoyo in netlazohtlahqueh ca iizcal in tlazohtiliztli.

We like this one, from the Cantares Mexicanos:-
I have come, oh our friends,
with necklaces I gird you,
with macaw feathers I adorn you...
With gold I paint,
with quivering quetzal feathers,
I surround friendship...
With a circle of songs,
I give myself up to the community.
- Lovely and poetic, it encapsulates the ideals of Mexica education. Our source for this - and there are plenty more where this came from! - is ‘The Aztec Image of Self and Society’ by Miguel León-Portilla (University of Utah Press, 1992)

Please see David Bowles’s reply above (comment no. 44)

José Luis Chavez Martínez, lecturer in Classical Nahuatl language and culture at ENAH in Mexico City has kindly provided this answer:- miquiztli achto axmahuiztli.

Raúl Macuil Martínez provides the following answer: nochipa nochi in xiuitl (‘Forever, every year’). Sorry this is late in coming!

This may or may not be suitable for you but it emphasizes the transitory nature of life in the Mexica worldview:-
By chance does one truly live on earth?
Not forever on earth: here only briefly.
Although it may be jade, it breaks,
although it may be gold, it wears out,
although it may be quetzal plumage, it tears apart,
not forever on earth; only briefly are we here.
(‘Cantares Mexicanos’, fol. 17r)

Dr. Patrick Johansson provides this answer:-
Tetlazotlaliztli zan tetepitzin tetzahuitl. This last word means miracle or mystery.

José Luis Chavez Martínez, lecturer in Classical Nahuatl language and culture at ENAH in Mexico City has kindly provided this answer:- ye tlahtlachia in tonatiuh.

Raúl Macuil Martínez provides the following: Notlazoueytatli ica in iluicatl. Sorry this is so late in coming!

Thank you, Professor Maffie, for adding this extra layer of meaning to the original phrase...

Raúl Macuil Martínez provides the following: Teuatzin san ce. Sorry this is very late in coming!

Raúl Macuil Martínez provides the following: tinech tlazotla ica cualli (‘Amame por lo bueno’ in Spanish). Sorry this is very late in coming!

Great question! These seemingly simple slogans carry cultural baggage with them: for starters, there is no term for ‘liberty’ in Náhuatl; and many Nahua women spent/spend many hours in the day working on their knees (at the grinding stone, etc.). So our hunch would be that they wouldn’t have had straightforward Náhuatl translations at all...
Further info: our good friend Pablo Rogelio Navarrete, who lives and teaches near Puebla, has written: ‘Historians say that Tierra Y Libertad appears only in documents issued by the Flores Magón brothers and in the declarations that Zapata issued in Náhuatl he signed Tierra Libertad y Justicia in Spanish; ie, he never used the slogan Tierra y Libertad and never in Náhuatl...’

Dr. Patrick Johansson provides this answer:-
Amitla quipanahuia tetlazotlaliztli itechpa chicahuac.

Thanks, Edward. We consulted another Náhuatl expert, John Bierhorst, on this one. He told us -
in = the
otin = roads
ihuan = and
in = the
tonaltin = days
nican = here
tzonquica = end
’Here end the roads and the days.’

José Abraham Méndez Hernández, a historian and native Náhuatl speaker from Puebla has kindly provided this translation:-
ni mitz tlazohtla huan nicpia noyolo (I love you and I have you in my heart).

José Abraham Méndez Hernández, a historian and native Náhuatl speaker from Puebla has kindly provided these translations:-
• ocachi nimotlazohtla (I love myself more)
• amo Nicon nechnamiqui (Don’t disrespect me, or similar: the word ‘respect’ is hard to translate, so this is the equivalent of the Mexican Spanish phrase no me encares)
• chicahualiztli (strength).
Sorry for the delay in getting these translated!

Good question, José - this intrigues us too. But remember, the world age of Nahui Ollin HASN’T finished: we’re still living in it today! It’s the fifth, last but still current one, and, according to the Mexica, if we (get it into and) keep it in balance (!) it need never end...

Dr. Patrick Johansson gives the following translation for ‘I’ll always love you’ -
Nochipa nimitztlazotlaz.

John Sullivan of IDIEZ writes: ‘In modern Huastecan Náhuatl there are 3 possibilities:-
1. Timomelahuazceh is used only between men, and it means something like, “Nos vemos después”
2. Teipanyoc (the “n” isn’t pronounced) means, “Hasta luego”
3. Moztlayoc, “Hasta mañana”.’

Dr. Patrick Johansson provides this answer:-
In yoliztli ca ce temictli, zan miquizpantiízah.

(Please see answer no. 77 above)

Dr. Patrick Johansson provides this answer:-
Toteouh ihuen(tzin).

John Sullivan of IDIEZ writes: ‘In Modern Huastecan [Náhuatl] you could say, Tlazcamati pampa cualli intlacaquih.’

Feel free! None of us have actually studied Náhuatl! Ian learned his very basic conversational Náhuatl living as a volunteer in the village of San Isidro Buensuceso, near Puebla - a village with one of the highest rates of native speakers of Náhuatl in the country.

According to our experts at IDIEZ, ‘This isn’t the kind of thing the Aztecs would have said’. Sorry we can’t help on this one!

John Sullivan of IDIEZ explains: ‘Tlazohtla is the verb for love in older Nahuatl and it can refer to love of people, animals or things. But you can‘t say it is comparable to the reverential form of older English. In Nahuatl you could say Nimitznotlazohtlalia. That would be, I love you, in the reverential form. But Nahuatl reverentials don‘t show reverence or respect to specific people, rather they elevate to tone of a conversation to that of reverentiality or respect.’
A big thank-you to John for all his help here.

The closest in Náhuatl would be: ‘You wounded me but you didn’t beat me’ - Tinechcocoh huan axcanah tinechtlanqui.

John Sullivan of IDIEZ writes: tlazohtla is not used in Modern Huastecan Nahuatl. A shortened form, tlaztla, is used but it means, celar a alguien. So nimitznequi is what you want for “I love you.” Remember ni- and mitz- are prefixes, so you would never write “ni mitz nequi.” There is another verb, icnelia, “to have strong feelings for a person or an animal; or to be overprotective of someone or something.” I guess you could translate it as “to care very much for someone.” Niquicnelia nochocho, “I care very much for my younger sibling.”

Sorry for the delay in responding to these!
• ’Please do not worry yourself’ would be Axcanah ximocuezo. John Sullivan of IDIEZ adds: ‘cuezoa is the word in Modern Nahuatl for “to sadden or worry someone.” So “Don’t be worried” would be Axcanah ximocuezo. The Classical Nahuatl word for “worry” was tequipachoa, but this is not used with the same sense in Modern Huastecan Nahuatl.
• ‘I want to thank you for this meal you have given me’ is Nicnequi nimitztlazcamatiliz ica ni tlacualiztli tlen tinechmacac.

A few more (José Abraham Méndez Hernández, a historian and native Náhuatl speaker from Puebla has kindly provided these translations:-)
• nechmaca chicahualiztli (Give me strength)
• tiahue cuitihue in tlacual (Let’s get some food)
• huelica, huelicazquini (both = should)
• occaquini tenimicelia (You should listen to me)
• ¿cano yazquia? (Where should I go?)
• ¿tlen nicchihuaz? (What will I do?)
• nochtin cate motecoztoque (ti tlatoltitoque) (We’re all connected, linked together)
• xitlachia ocachine in ompa tezcatlipoca (Look beyond the smoking mirror)
• xinechecana axan (Guide me today)
• mahuiztic motlahtol, ni nen paqui tlenon nechtlapoih (Your words are wonderful, I’m happy you told me them).

‘I love you’ in (classical) Náhuatl is Nimitztlazohtla. Hope this helps...
But see note above from IDIEZ!

Sorry for the delay, José! Here’s your answer:-
Zan ta tihueliz ticpatla monemiliz

Yohual(li) is certainly darkness. Tlahuil(li) I think means (flash)light or torch - perhaps not what you had in mind? Of course ‘tonatiuh’ (sun) also means day in modern Náhuatl; perhaps this comes closer to your idea?

Well, we asked Dr. Frances Karttunen (on our Panel of Experts) for advice on this, and she wrote back with the following caution:-

’One might think “light and dark” is universal, but from the point of view of Nahuatl, one needs to know whether one is thinking in terms of colors or of night and day, and if the latter, then with respect to each of them the time. For instance, one would most likely pair dawn/first light with the darkness of night. Also, X and Y constructions are un-Nahuatl., but leaving out the conjunction, one is left with X,Y. In this kind of difrasismo, it would be odd for the two elements to be opposites. Instead they should be either close synonyms or two characteristic aspects of an entity to which one is referring.’

Clearly Náhuatl has a totally different set of cultural reference points...

In principle, yes, if we can! It may take a while as we will need to consult experts higher up than us...

One of our Panel of Experts, Frances Karttunen, replies: The answer is easy. There is no different form. The Nahuatl phrase xotla cueponi does not have a personal subject: no “they” or “she”. The phrase means that blooming happens and compares the process to shining, burning, exploding. A very intense image.
The ‘x’ is pronounced ‘sh’, and the ‘cue’ is pronounced ‘kwe’. Hope this helps, and good luck with the tattoo! Why not send us a photo when it’s done...?

Many thanks, Arturo.