Words into whose composition the possessive pronoun enters, whether primitive or derivative, have for the plural van or huan;—noichcahuan, my sheep; noichcatotonhuan, my little sheep. The words tlcatl, man, ciuatl, woman, and those which imply an official or professional position, form the plural simply by leaving off the last letters, as;—mexicatl, plural, mexicá; in which case, however, the ultimate syllable is accented. Some words, to form the plural, double the first syllable, and also use terminals, as;—teotl, God; teteo, gods; zolin, quail; zozoltin, quails; zitli, hare; ziziltin, hares. Telpochtli and ichpochtli, double the syllable po.
Some adjectives have several plurals, as;—miec, much; plural, miectin, miecintin, or miecin. Gender is expressed by adding the words oquichtli or ciuatl, male and female, except in such words as in themselves indicate the gender. A father speaking of his son says, nopiltzin, and a mother of her daughter, noconeuh.
AZTEC GRAMMAR.
There are no regular declensions; in the vocative case, an e is added to the nominative, or words ending in tli or li, change the i into e. Those ending in tzin may change to tze or add an e, but the latter is only used by males. The genitive is denoted by the possessive pronoun or by the juxtaposition of the words, as;—teotl, God; tenahuatilli, emanating; teotenahuatilli, precept of God. The dative is indicated by verbs called applicatives; the accusative, by certain particles which accompany the verb, or by juxtaposition; as;—chihua, to have; tlaxcalli, bread; nitlaxcalchihua, I have bread. The ablative is indicated by certain particles and prepositions. Diminutives are formed by the terminals tontli and ton, as;—chichi, dog; chichiton, small dog; calli, house; cacontli, small house. Augmentatives take the syllable pol. The terminals tla, and la, serve as collectives;—xochitl, flower; xochitla, flower-bed. Words ending with otl are abstracts, as;—qualli, good; qualotl, goodness. Those ending with va (hua) and e indicate possession;—ilhuicatl, heaven; ilhuicahua, master of heaven, (applied to God). Comparatives and superlatives have no particular terminations, but their place is supplied by adverbs, as;—achi, ocachi, etc., which mean 'more.' Pedro is better than Juan, ocachiqualli in Pedro ihuan amo Juan; here the adverb is connected with quallo, good. Words derived from active, neuter, passive, reflective and impersonal verbs, having various significations, terminate in ni, oni, ya, ia, yan, can, yau, ian, tli, li, liztli, oca, ca, o, tl; as;—cochini, he who sleeps; tlaxcalchihuani, he who has bread; motlaloani, he who runs; chihualoni, practicable; neitoniloni, something producing perspiration; notlachiuaya, my instrument; amotlanequia, our will; tlacualoyan, eater; micoayan, place to sleep; itepatiayan, hospital; tlachihualli, created, produced; tetlazotlatiztli, love; nachihualoka, creation.
Personal pronouns are;—nehuatl, nehua, ne, I; tehuatl, tehua, te, thou; yehuatl, yehua, ye, he or somebody; tehuantin, tehua, we; amehuantin, amehuan, you; yehuantin, yehuan, they. Possessives;—no, mine; mo, thine; i, his; to, ours; amo, yours; in or im, theirs; te, belonging to others.
The above-mentioned possessives are used in compounded words, and change the final syllable of the word to which they are joined;—teotl, God; noteuh, my God; huehuetl, old man; amohuehuetcauh, our old man.
The verb has indicative, imperative, optative, and subjunctive moods—present, imperfect, perfect, pluperfect, and future tenses.
CONJUGATION OF THE VERB TEMICTIA, TO KILL.
| PRESENT INDICATIVE. | |||
| I kill, | nitemictia | We kill, | titemictiâ |
| Thou killest, | titemictia | You kill, | antemictiâ |
| He kills, | temictia | They kill, | temictiâ |
| IMPERFECT. | PERFECT. | ||
| I killed, | nitemictiaya | I have killed, | onitemicti |
| We have killed, | otitemictiquê | ||
| PLUPERFECT. | |||
| I had killed, | onitemictica | ||
| FIRST FUTURE. | SECOND FUTURE. | ||
| I shall kill, | nitemictiz | I shall have killed, | yeonitemictli |
| We shall kill, | titemictizquê | ||
| IMPERATIVE. | |||
| Kill thou, | maxictemicti | Kill you, | maxitemictican |
| OPTATIVE. | |||
| Would that I might kill, | manitemictiani | ||
| PASSIVE FORMS. | |||
| I am killed, | nimictilo | ||
| I was killed, | onimictiloya | ||
| PASSIVE FORMS. | |||
| I have been killed, | onimictiloc | ||
| I had been killed, | onimitiloca | ||
| I shall be killed, | nimictiloz | ||
| I shall have been killed, | ye onimictiloc | ||
| O that I may be killed, | manimictilo | ||
| O that I had been killed, | manimictiloni | ||
| I ought to be killed, | nimictilozquia | ||
| He who is killed, | inmictilo | ||
| OTHER FORMS. | |||
| If I had killed, | intlaonitcmictiani | ||
| If I had not killed, | intlacamo onitemictiani | ||
| If I should kill, | intlanitemictiz | ||
| He who kills, | intemictia | ||
| I come to kill, | onitemictico | ||
| I will come to kill, | nitemictiquiuh | ||
| May I come to kill, | manitemictiqui | ||
| I went to kill, | onitemictito | ||
| I will go to kill, | nitemictiuh | ||
| May I go to kill, | manitemiciti | ||