Tlapitzalli
/t͡ɬa.piˈt͡sa.lːi/noun
A traditional Nahuatl flute or wind instrument, especially one used in pre-Columbian and Indigenous Mexican music.
Did you know?Tlapitzalli were used in ceremonial, martial, and funerary contexts, and some surviving examples are designed with animal or human-like forms that produce eerie voices when played.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Uto-Aztecan period
Uto-Aztecan
*pitsa-
“Reconstructed verbal root associated with blowing or producing air sounds; the reconstruction is less certain than the later Nahuatl forms.”
Classical Nahuatl
Nahuatl
tlapitzā
“To blow, especially to blow a wind instrument.”
Classical Nahuatl
Nahuatl
-lli
“A noun-forming suffix used to create an instrument or resulting object from an action.”
16th Century
Colonial Nahuatl
tlapitzalli
“A flute, pipe, or other blown musical instrument; recorded in early colonial Nahuatl dictionaries.”
Modern English
English
tlapitzalli
“A Nahuatl flute or traditional Mexican wind instrument, used as a specialized ethnomusicological loanword.”
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