Tlahtoa
/t͡ɬaʔˈto.a/noun
To speak or talk in Classical Nahuatl.
Did you know?In Classical Nahuatl, *tlahtoa* belongs to a deeply productive speech-root family, and its sound structure preserves the dramatic glottal stop and affricate patterns that make Nahuatl words feel almost incantatory to many listeners.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Uto-Aztecan
PUA
*tɨɁwa
“likely an ancestral speech/saying root reconstructed for the family”
Proto-Nahuan
PN
*tlaʔtoa
“to speak, say, talk”
Classical Nahuatl
Nahuatl
tlahtoa
“to speak, talk, say something”
16th Century
Nahuatl
tlahtoa
“recorded in colonial-era Nahuatl texts as a common verb for speaking”
Modern English
English
tlahtoa
“used in linguistic and historical writing as the Nahuatl verb ‘to speak’”