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119-467: Its name comes from the Nahuatl words "Tetl and apan", which mean "river over stones" or "stone's river". It refers to one of the rivers that crosses the town. The municipal seat is Teapa city, and possess a division constituted by 18 ejidos, 15 ranches, 1 populated, 6 neighborhoods and 1 villa. Its territorial extension is 679.78 square kilometres (262.46 sq mi), which corresponds to 2.76% of

238-493: A pitch accent , such as Nahuatl of Oapan, Guerrero . Many modern dialects have also borrowed phonemes from Spanish, such as /β, d, ɡ, ɸ/ . In many Nahuatl dialects vowel length contrast is vague, and in others it has become lost entirely. The dialect spoken in Tetelcingo (nhg) developed the vowel length into a difference in quality: Most varieties have relatively simple patterns of allophony . In many dialects,

357-675: A canal in this area, calling it Nochistongo, leading waters to the Tula Valley, but the drainage was not sufficient to avoid the Great Flood of 1629 in the city. Another canal, which would be dubbed the "Grand Canal" was built parallel to the Nochistongo one ending in Tequixquiac . The Grand Canal consists of one main canal, which measures 6.5 meters (21 ft) in diameter and 50 km (30 mi) long. The drainage project

476-511: A chronicle of the royal lineage of Tenochtitlan by Fernando Alvarado Tezozómoc ; Cantares Mexicanos , a collection of songs in Nahuatl; a Nahuatl-Spanish/Spanish-Nahuatl dictionary compiled by Alonso de Molina ; and the Huei tlamahuiçoltica , a description in Nahuatl of the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe . Grammars and dictionaries of indigenous languages were composed throughout

595-451: A complex morphology , or system of word formation, characterized by polysynthesis and agglutination . This means that morphemes – words or fragments of words that each contain their own separate meaning – are often strung together to make longer complex words. Through a very long period of development alongside other indigenous Mesoamerican languages , they have absorbed many influences, coming to form part of

714-409: A few hundred people, perhaps only a few dozen". According to the 2000 census by INEGI, Nahuatl is spoken by an estimated 1.45 million people, some 198,000 (14.9%) of whom are monolingual. There are many more female than male monolinguals, and women represent nearly two-thirds of the total number. The states of Guerrero and Hidalgo have the highest rates of monolingual Nahuatl speakers relative to

833-501: A great deal of autonomy in the local administration of indigenous towns during this period, and in many Nahuatl-speaking towns the language was the de facto administrative language both in writing and speech. A large body of Nahuatl literature was composed during this period, including the Florentine Codex , a twelve-volume compendium of Aztec culture compiled by Franciscan Bernardino de Sahagún ; Crónica Mexicayotl ,

952-401: A growing population, increasing industry, and ecosystem degradation in the form of deforestation of the surrounding mountains, more water is leaving the system than is entering. It is estimated that 63 cubic meters per second (1,000,000 US gal/min) of water is needed to support the potable and agricultural irrigation needs of Mexico City's population. The main aquifer is being pumped at

1071-688: A hunter-gatherer existence in favor of agriculture sometime between the end of the Pleistocene epoch and the beginning of the Holocene . The oldest known human settlement in the Valley of Mexico is located in Tlapacoya , located on what was the edge of Lake Chalco in the southeast corner of the valley in contemporary Mexico State. There is reliable archeological evidence to suggest that the site dates as far back as 12,000 BC. After 10,000 BC,

1190-646: A major environmental impact on the Valley of Mexico. Historically, Mexico City's potable water supply came via aqueduct from the mountain springs on the valley sides like that in Chapultepec as most of the water in Lake Texcoco was saline. These were originally built by the Aztecs and were rebuilt by the Spaniards. In the mid-1850s, potable groundwater was found underneath the city itself, which motivated

1309-543: A new 30-mile (50 km) drainage tunnel and repairs to the current 7,400-mile (11,900 km) system of pipes and tunnels to clear blockages and patch leaks. Over-pumping of groundwater in the 20th century has hastened the disappearance of the lakes. The old lake beds are almost all paved except for some canals preserved in Xochimilco, mostly for the benefit of visitors who tour them on brightly painted trajineras , boats similar to gondolas . Desiccation has had

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1428-899: A part of their efforts, missionaries belonging to several religious orders —principally Jesuits , as well as Franciscan and Dominican friars—introduced the Latin alphabet to the Nahuas. Within twenty years of the Spanish arrival, texts in Nahuatl were being written using the Latin script. Simultaneously, schools were founded, such as the Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco in 1536, which taught both indigenous and classical European languages to both Native Americans and priests. Missionaries authored of grammars for indigenous languages for use by priests. The first Nahuatl grammar, written by Andrés de Olmos ,

1547-399: A rate of 55.5 m /s (880,000 US gal/min), but is only being replaced at 28 m /s (440,000 US gal/min), or about half of the extraction rate, leaving a shortfall of 27.5 m /s (436,000 US gal/min). This over-extraction of groundwater from the old clay lake bed has been causing the land upon which the city rests to collapse and sink. This problem began in

1666-593: A spectrum of Nahuan languages are spoken in scattered areas stretching from the northern state of Durango to Tabasco in the southeast. Pipil, the southernmost Nahuan language, is spoken in El Salvador by a small number of speakers. According to IRIN-International, the Nawat Language Recovery Initiative project, there are no reliable figures for the contemporary numbers of speakers of Pipil. Numbers may range anywhere from "perhaps

1785-628: A typical Nahuan language. In some dialects, the /t͡ɬ/ phoneme, which was common in Classical Nahuatl, has changed into either /t/ , as in Isthmus Nahuatl , Mexicanero and Pipil , or into /l/ , as in Michoacán Nahuatl . Many dialects no longer distinguish between short and long vowels . Some have introduced completely new vowel qualities to compensate, as is the case for Tetelcingo Nahuatl . Others have developed

1904-423: A vowel i to prevent consonant clusters and one without it. For example, the absolutive suffix has the variant forms -tli (used after consonants) and -tl (used after vowels). Some modern varieties, however, have formed complex clusters from vowel loss. Others have contracted syllable sequences, causing accents to shift or vowels to become long. Most Nahuatl dialects have stress on the penultimate syllable of

2023-455: A word. In Mexicanero from Durango, many unstressed syllables have disappeared from words, and the placement of syllable stress has become phonemic. The Nahuatl languages are polysynthetic and agglutinative , making extensive use of compounding, incorporation and derivation. Various prefixes and suffixes can be added to a root to form very long words—individual Nahuatl words can constitute an entire sentence.. The following verb shows how

2142-479: Is vulnerable to severe air pollution problems due to its altitude, its being surrounded by mountains and the winds patterns of the area. The altitude, with its low oxygen levels, makes for poor combustion of fossil fuels leading to unsafe levels of nitrogen oxides , hydrocarbons , and carbon monoxide . The valley is surrounded by mountain ranges with one small opening to the north. The surrounding mountains and climate patterns here make it difficult to clear out

2261-476: Is a closed or endorheic basin which geologically divides into three hydrologic zones, the low plain, which is essentially the bed of now-extinct lakes, the piedmont area and the surrounding mountains. The old lakebeds correspond to the lowest elevations of the valley in the south are mostly clay with a high water content and are almost entirely covered by urban development. In the piedmont area, these clays become mixed with silts and sands, and in some areas close to

2380-641: Is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family . Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about 1.7 million Nahuas , most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller populations in the United States . Nahuatl has been spoken in central Mexico since at least the seventh century CE. It was the language of the Mexica , who dominated what

2499-470: Is concern that this tunnel will soon fail. It is continuously filled with water, making it impossible to inspect it for problems. If it fails, it would most likely be during the rainy season when it carries the most water, which would cause extensive flooding in the historic center, the airport and the boroughs on the east side. Because of this, another new drainage project is planned that will cost US$ 1.3 billion. The project includes new pumping stations,

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2618-584: Is debated among linguists. Lyle Campbell (1997) classified Pipil as separate from the Nahuatl branch within general Aztecan, whereas dialectologists such as Una Canger , Karen Dakin, Yolanda Lastra , and Terrence Kaufman have preferred to include Pipil within the General Aztecan branch, citing close historical ties with the eastern peripheral dialects of General Aztec. Current subclassification of Nahuatl rests on research by Canger (1980) , Canger (1988) and Lastra de Suárez (1986) . Canger introduced

2737-797: Is in June from and the lowest average is in December. Tren Interoceánico operates a station for its Line FA in Teapa, which opened on 13 September 2024. 17°32′07″N 92°45′03″W  /  17.53528°N 92.75083°W  / 17.53528; -92.75083 This article about a location in the Mexican state of Tabasco is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Nahuatl Nahuatl ( English: / ˈ n ɑː w ɑː t əl / NAH -wah-təl ; Nahuatl pronunciation: [ˈnaːwat͡ɬ] ), Aztec , or Mexicano

2856-728: Is located in the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt . The valley contains most of the Mexico City Metropolitan Area , as well as parts of the State of Mexico , Hidalgo , Tlaxcala , and Puebla . The Basin of Mexico covers approximately 9,600 km (3,700 sq mi) in the NNE-SSW direction with length to width dimensions of approximately 125 km (78 miles) to 75 km (47 miles) The Valley of Mexico can be subdivided into four basins, but

2975-687: Is now central Mexico during the Late Postclassic period of Mesoamerican history . During the centuries preceding the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire , the Aztecs had expanded to incorporate a large part of central Mexico. Their influence caused the variety of Nahuatl spoken by the residents of Tenochtitlan to become a prestige language in Mesoamerica. Following the Spanish conquest, Spanish colonists and missionaries introduced

3094-665: Is probably derived from the word nāhuatlahtōlli [naːwat͡ɬaʔˈtoːliˀ] ('clear language'). The language was formerly called Aztec because it was spoken by the Central Mexican peoples known as Aztecs ( Nahuatl pronunciation: [asˈteːkaḁ] ). During the period of the Aztec empire centered in Mexico- Tenochtitlan the language came to be identified with the politically dominant mēxihcah [meːˈʃiʔkaḁ] ethnic group, and consequently

3213-599: Is significantly less than what it could carry as late as 1975 because continued sinking of the city (as much as 7 metres or 23 feet) weakens the system of water collectors and pumps. As a result, another tunnel, called the Emisor Central , was built to carry wastewater. Although it is considered the most important pipe in the country, it has been damaged by overuse and wall corrosion of the 20 ft (6 m) diameter pipe. Because of lack of maintenance and gradual decrease in this tunnel's ability to carry water, there

3332-475: Is still common, especially in the summer rainy season, in lower-lying neighborhoods such as Iztapalapa , forcing residents to build miniature dikes in front of their houses to prevent heavily polluted rainwater from entering their homes. Subsidence also causes damage to water and sewer lines, leaving the water distribution system vulnerable to contamination which carries risks to public health. Measures other than drainage have been implemented to contain flooding in

3451-632: Is the only living descendant of the variety of Nahuatl once spoken south of present-day Mexico. During the 7th century, Nahuan speakers rose to power in central Mexico. The people of the Toltec culture of Tula , which was active in central Mexico around the 10th century, are thought to have been Nahuatl speakers. By the 11th century, Nahuatl speakers were dominant in the Valley of Mexico and far beyond, with settlements including Azcapotzalco , Colhuacan and Cholula rising to prominence. Nahua migrations into

3570-603: Is widely accepted as having two divisions: General Aztec and Pochutec. General Aztec encompasses the Nahuatl and Pipil languages. Pochutec is a scantily attested language, which became extinct in the 20th century, and which Campbell and Langacker classify as being outside general Aztec. Other researchers have argued that Pochutec should be considered a divergent variant of the western periphery. Nahuatl denotes at least Classical Nahuatl, together with related modern languages spoken in Mexico. The inclusion of Pipil in this group

3689-479: The Isthmus of Tehuantepec call their language mela'tajtol ('the straight language'). Some speech communities use Nahuatl as the name for their language, although it seems to be a recent innovation. Linguists commonly identify localized dialects of Nahuatl by adding as a qualifier the name of the village or area where that variety is spoken. On the issue of geographic origin, the consensus of linguists during

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3808-633: The Latin script , and Nahuatl became a literary language . Many chronicles , grammars, works of poetry, administrative documents and codices were written in it during the 16th and 17th centuries. This early literary language based on the Tenochtitlan variety has been labeled Classical Nahuatl . It is among the most studied and best-documented Indigenous languages of the Americas . Today, Nahuan languages are spoken in scattered communities, mostly in rural areas throughout central Mexico and along

3927-628: The Mesoamerican language area . Many words from Nahuatl were absorbed into Spanish and, from there, were diffused into hundreds of other languages in the region. Most of these loanwords denote things indigenous to central Mexico, which the Spanish heard mentioned for the first time by their Nahuatl names. English has also absorbed words of Nahuatl origin , including avocado , chayote , chili , chipotle , chocolate , atlatl , coyote , peyote , axolotl and tomato . These words have since been adopted into dozens of languages around

4046-621: The Mexican Plateau , pre-Nahuan groups probably spent a period of time in contact with the Uto-Aztecan Cora and Huichol of northwestern Mexico. The major political and cultural center of Mesoamerica in the Early Classic period was Teotihuacan . The identity of the language(s) spoken by Teotihuacan's founders has long been debated, with the relationship of Nahuatl to Teotihuacan being prominent in that enquiry. It

4165-464: The Spaniards arrived in the Valley of Mexico, it had one of the highest population concentrations in the world with about one million people. After the conquest of the Aztec Empire , the Spaniards rebuilt the largest and most dominant city, Mēxihco Tenōchtitlan , renaming it Ciudad de México ( Mexico City ) and over time began to drain the lakes' waters to control flooding. The Valley of Mexico

4284-656: The Teotihuacan (800 BC to 800 AD) the Toltec Empire (10th to 13th century) and the Aztec Empire (1325 to 1521). Although violence and disease significantly lowered the population of the valley after the Conquest, by 1900 it was again over one million people. The 20th and 21st centuries have seen an explosion of population in the valley along with the growth of industry. Since 1900,

4403-527: The Valley of Mexico are generally more closely related to it than those on the periphery. Under Mexico's General Law of Linguistic Rights of the Indigenous Peoples , promulgated in 2003, Nahuatl and the other 63 indigenous languages of Mexico are recognized as lenguas nacionales ('national languages') in the regions where they are spoken. They are given the same status as Spanish within their respective regions. Nahuan languages exhibit

4522-669: The Zapatista Army of National Liberation and indigenous social movements) led to legislative reforms and the creation of decentralized government agencies like the National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples (CDI) and the Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas (INALI) with responsibilities for the promotion and protection of indigenous communities and languages. In particular,

4641-400: The saline water of the northern lakes from the fresh water of the southern ones. After the destruction of Tenochtitlan in 1521, the Spaniards rebuilt the Aztec dikes but found they did not offer enough flood protection. The arrival of the Spanish and subsequent efforts to drain the area for flood control was a major infrastructure project, called the desagüe , which was pursued throughout

4760-544: The "language group" labeled Nahuatl. The Ethnologue recognizes 28 varieties with separate ISO codes. Sometimes Nahuatl is also applied to the Nawat language of El Salvador and Nicaragua. Regardless of whether Nahuatl is considered to refer to a dialect continuum or a group of separate languages, the varieties form a single branch within the Uto-Aztecan family, descended from a single Proto-Nahuan language . Within Mexico,

4879-519: The 20th century was that the Uto-Aztecan language family originated in the southwestern United States. Evidence from archaeology and ethnohistory supports the thesis of a southward diffusion across the North American continent, specifically that speakers of early Nahuan languages migrated from Aridoamerica into central Mexico in several waves. But recently, the traditional assessment has been challenged by Jane H. Hill , who proposes instead that

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4998-506: The 20th century, Mexican educational policy focused on the Hispanicization of indigenous communities, teaching only Spanish and discouraging the use of indigenous languages. As a result, one scholar estimated in 1983 that there was no group of Nahuatl speakers who had attained general literacy (that is, the ability to read the classical language) in Nahuatl, and Nahuatl speakers' literacy rate in Spanish also remained much lower than

5117-543: The 20th century, the Mexico City portion of the valley contained a series of lakes, with saline lakes to the north near the town of Texcoco and freshwater ones to the south. The five lakes, Zumpango, Xaltoca, Xochimilco, Chalco, and the largest, Texcoco used to cover about 1,500 km (580 sq mi) of the basin floor. Small mountains such as the Sierra de Guadalupe and Mount Chiconaultla partially separated

5236-575: The Central group, while Lastra de Suárez (1986) places them in the Eastern Periphery, which was followed by Kaufman (2001) . The terminology used to describe varieties of spoken Nahuatl is inconsistently applied. Many terms are used with multiple denotations, or a single dialect grouping goes under several names. Sometimes, older terms are substituted with newer ones or with the speakers' own name for their specific variety. The word Nahuatl

5355-662: The Federal District and the adjoining cities in the state of Mexico. While population growth has slowed and even declined in the city proper, the outer limits of the metropolitan area keep growing. Much of this growth has occurred on the mountainsides of the valley, in the form of illegal settlements in ecologically sensitive areas. Overall urban settlement in the valley has expanded from about 90 km (35 sq mi) in 1940 to 1,160 km (450 sq mi) in 1990. The metropolitan area has about 21 million residents and about 6 million cars. Mexico City

5474-500: The Federal District itself, particularly during the construction of the city's Metro lines and in the neighborhoods of Del Valle in the center, Lindavista to the center-north and Coyoacán in the south of the city. The symbol for Line 4's Talisman station of the Mexico City Metro is a mammoth, due to the fact that so many bones were uncovered during its construction. However, the richest site for mammoth remains in

5593-534: The Federal District to the surrounding jurisdictions, especially to the north into the State of Mexico making for the Mexico City Metropolitan area, which fills most of the valley. Today, this metropolitan area accounts for 45 per cent of the country's industrial activity, 38 percent of GNP, and 25 percent of the population. Much of its industry is concentrated in the northern part of

5712-526: The Grand Canal, which before had drained the valley purely with gravity. Along with the pumps, the Grand Canal was expanded with a new tunnel through the low mountains called the Xalpa to take the canal past Tequisquiac . Even so, the city still suffered floods in 1950 and 1951. Despite its age, the Grand Canal can still carry 2,400,000 US gallons per minute (150  m /s ) out of the valley, but this

5831-522: The Maya Kʼicheʼ people . As Tenochtitlan grew to become the largest urban center in Central America and one of the largest in the world at the time, it attracted speakers of Nahuatl from diverse areas giving birth to an urban form of Nahuatl with traits from many dialects. This urbanized variety of Tenochtitlan is what came to be known as Classical Nahuatl as documented in colonial times. With

5950-429: The Nahuatl language was often described as mēxihcacopa [meːʃiʔkaˈkopaˀ] (literally 'in the manner of Mexicas') or mēxihcatlahtolli 'Mexica language'. Now, the term Aztec is rarely used for modern Nahuan languages, but linguists' traditional name of Aztecan for the branch of Uto-Aztecan that comprises Nahuatl, Pipil, and Pochutec is still in use (although some linguists prefer Nahuan ). Since 1978,

6069-503: The New Philology, such that there is a 2001 English translation of Carochi's 1645 grammar by James Lockhart . Through contact with Spanish the Nahuatl language adopted many loan words, and as bilingualism intensified, changes in the grammatical structure of Nahuatl followed. In 1570, King Philip II of Spain decreed that Nahuatl should become the official language of the colonies of New Spain to facilitate communication between

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6188-462: The Spanish and natives of the colonies. This led to Spanish missionaries teaching Nahuatl to Amerindians living as far south as Honduras and El Salvador. During the 16th and 17th centuries, Classical Nahuatl was used as a literary language; a large corpus dating to the period remains extant. They include histories, chronicles, poetry, theatrical works, Christian canonical works, ethnographic descriptions, and administrative documents. The Spanish permitted

6307-481: The Spanish during the colonial period. The largest and most dominant city at the time of the Spanish conquest was Tenochtitlan . It was founded by the Mexica ( Aztecs ) on a small island in the western part of Lake Texcoco in 1325, and was extended with the use of chinampas , human-made extensions of agricultural land into the southern lake system, to increase productive agricultural land, covering about 9,000 hectares (35 sq mi). The inhabitants controlled

6426-522: The Toltecs. None of these cities was completely autonomous or self-sufficient, resulting in a conflictive political situation, and a complex system of agriculture in the valley. These city-states had similar governmental structures based on the need to control flooding and store water for irrigating crops. Many of the institutions created by these hydraulic societies, such as the building and maintenance of chinampas, aqueducts and dikes, were later co-opted by

6545-484: The United States has resulted in the establishment of small Nahuatl speaking communities in the United States , particularly in California, New York, Texas , New Mexico and Arizona . Nahuan languages are defined as a subgroup of Uto-Aztecan by having undergone a number of shared changes from the Uto-Aztecan protolanguage (PUA). The table below shows the phonemic inventory of Classical Nahuatl as an example of

6664-492: The United States, some linguists are warning of impending language death . At present Nahuatl is mostly spoken in rural areas by an impoverished class of indigenous subsistence agriculturists. According to the Mexican National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI), 51% of Nahuatl speakers are involved in the farming sector and 6 in 10 receive no wages or less than the minimum wage. For most of

6783-494: The Uto-Aztecan language family originated in central Mexico and spread northwards at a very early date. This hypothesis and the analyses of data that it rests upon have received serious criticism. The proposed migration of speakers of the Proto-Nahuan language into the Mesoamerican region has been placed at sometime around AD 500, towards the end of the Early Classic period in Mesoamerican chronology . Before reaching

6902-421: The Valley of Mexico was a centre for several pre-Columbian civilizations including Teotihuacan , the Toltec , and the Aztec Empire . The valley used to contain five interconnected lakes called Lake Zumpango , Lake Xaltocan (Nahuatl languages: Xāltocān ), Lake Xochimilco , Lake Chalco and the largest, Lake Texcoco , covering about 1,500 square kilometers (580 sq mi) of the valley floor. When

7021-507: The Valley's one opening, where incidentally most of the region's industry is located. These factors diminish in the summer and the situation is helped by the arrival of the rainy season, but the valley's southern latitude and the abundance of sunlight allows for dangerous levels of ozone and other dangerous compounds. While still considered one of the most polluted places on the planet, the valley's air pollution problems are not as bad as they were several decades ago. One major problem that

7140-511: The area so that the lakes’ waters were shallow at about five meters (16 feet) deep as early as the Tlapacoya culture, around 10,000 BC. During the Aztec Empire, the northern lakes were inaccessible by canoe during the dry season from October to May. For 2000 years, humans have been interfering with and altering the hydraulic conditions of the valley, especially in the lakes region. The Aztecs built dikes for flood control and to separate

7259-604: The arrival of the Spanish in 1519, Nahuatl was displaced as the dominant regional language, but remained important in Nahua communities under Spanish rule. Nahuatl was documented extensively during the colonial period in Tlaxcala , Cuernavaca, Culhuacan, Coyoacan, Toluca and other locations in the Valley of Mexico and beyond. In the 1970s, scholars of Mesoamerican ethnohistory have analyzed local-level texts in Nahuatl and other indigenous languages to gain insight into cultural change in

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7378-411: The beginning of the empire. However, by the time the Spanish arrived in 1519, Tenochtitlan had become the dominant power of the three, causing grievances that the Spaniards were able to exploit. However, despite Tenochtitlan's power outside the valley, it never completely controlled all of the valley itself, with the altepetl of Tlaxcala the most prominent example. By 1520, the estimated population of

7497-441: The ceremonial pyramid was abandoned, the site remained a location to leave offerings up to AD 400, although lava from the nearby Xitle volcano completely covered it. Around 2,000 years ago, the Valley of Mexico became one of the world's most densely populated areas and has remained so since. After the decline of Cuicuilco, the population concentration shifted north, to the city of Teotihuacan and later to Tula , both outside

7616-462: The city and their waters now flow directly into the Grand Canal. No water from these rivers is allowed to sink into the ground to recharge the aquifer. While the rivers and streams that flow down from the mountain peaks still begin the way they always have, their passage through the shantytowns lacking city sanitation schemes that surround Mexico City turns them into open combined sewers . Therefore, their final stages are frequently culverted or added to

7735-552: The city itself. While reduced visibility in the valley was due to sulfur emissions in the past, it is now due to fine particles in the air. The effects on humans living in an enclosed, contaminated environment have been documented, especially by Nobel Prize winner Dr Mario J. Molina . He claims fine particle pollution is the greatest concern because of lung damage. According to him, the city's residents lose about 2.5 million working days every year due to health problems associated with fine particles . The Valley of Mexico

7854-689: The city. In 1950, dikes were built to confine storm runoff. Rivers that run through the city were encapsulated in 1950 and 1951. Rivers such as the Consulado River, Churubusco River and the Remedio River are encased in concrete tunnels which take their waters directly to the drainage system to leave the Valley. Two other rivers, the San Javier and the Tlalnepantla, which used to feed the old lake system, are diverted before they reach

7973-582: The city. The old settlement once extended far beyond the boundaries of the current site, but it is buried under lava from one of the volcanic eruptions that led to its demise, and much of the modern city is built over this lava. The settlement was located where an old river delta used to form in the valley with waters from Mount Zacatépetl located in what is now the Tlalpan Forest. Cuicuilco was believed to have reached city status by 1200 BC and began to decline around 100 BC - AD 150. However, even though

8092-451: The coastline. A smaller number of speakers exists in immigrant communities in the United States. There are considerable differences among varieties, and some are not mutually intelligible . Huasteca Nahuatl , with over one million speakers, is the most-spoken variety. All varieties have been subject to varying degrees of influence from Spanish. No modern Nahuan languages are identical to Classical Nahuatl, but those spoken in and around

8211-586: The colonial era via linguistic changes, known at present as the New Philology . Several of these texts have been translated and published either in part or in their entirety. The types of documentation include censuses, especially one early set from the Cuernavaca region, town council records from Tlaxcala, as well as the testimony of Nahua individuals. As the Spanish had made alliances with Nahuatl-speaking peoples—initially from Tlaxcala , and later

8330-447: The colonial period, but their quality was highest in the initial period. The friars found that learning all the indigenous languages was impossible in practice, so they concentrated on Nahuatl. For a time, the linguistic situation in Mesoamerica remained relatively stable, but in 1696, Charles II of Spain issued a decree banning the use of any language other than Spanish throughout the Spanish Empire . In 1770, another decree, calling for

8449-493: The concept of a city-state based on the Toltec model. By the end of the 13th century, some fifty small urban units, semi-autonomous and with their own religious centers, had sprung up around the lakeshores of the valley. These remained intact with a population of about 10,000 each under Aztec rule and survived into the colonial period. All of these city-states, including the largest and most powerful, Tenochtitlan , with more than 150,000 inhabitants, claimed descent from

8568-437: The conquered Mexica of Tenochtitlan—Nahuatl continued spreading throughout Mesoamerica in the decades after the conquest. Spanish expeditions with thousands of Nahua soldiers marched north and south to conquer new territories. Jesuit missions in what is now northern Mexico and the southwestern United States often included a barrio of Tlaxcaltec soldiers who remained to guard the mission. For example, some fourteen years after

8687-429: The early 20th century as a consequence of the drainage of the valley for flood control. Since the beginning of the 20th century, some areas of Mexico City have sunk nine meters (30 feet). In 1900, the bottom of the lake was three meters (9.8 feet) lower than the median level of the city center. By 1974, the lake bottom was two meters (6.6 feet) higher than the city. The first signs of dropping ground water levels

8806-476: The elimination of the indigenous languages, did away with Classical Nahuatl as a literary language. Until the end of the Mexican War of Independence in 1821, the Spanish courts admitted Nahuatl testimony and documentation as evidence in lawsuits, with court translators rendering it in Spanish. Throughout the modern period the situation of indigenous languages has grown increasingly precarious in Mexico, and

8925-585: The entire colonial period. The idea of opening drainage canals first came about after a flood of the colonial city in 1555. The first canal was begun in 1605 to drain the waters of Lake Zumpango north through Huehuetoca which would also divert waters from the Cuautitlán River away from the lakes and toward the Tula River . This project was undertaken by Enrico Martínez and he devoted 25 years of his life to it. He did succeed in building

9044-405: The fact that the federal government has favored development of the metropolitan area over other areas of the country. This has spurred investment in infrastructure for the city, such as electricity , other power sources, water supply and drainage . These have attracted businesses which in turn have attracted more population. Since the 1950s, urbanization has spread out from beyond the bounds of

9163-635: The federal Ley General de Derechos Lingüísticos de los Pueblos Indígenas ['General Law on the Language Rights of the Indigenous Peoples', promulgated 13 March 2003] recognizes all the country's indigenous languages, including Nahuatl, as national languages and gives indigenous people the right to use them in all spheres of public and private life. In Article 11, it grants access to compulsory intercultural bilingual education . Nonetheless, progress towards institutionalizing Nahuatl and securing linguistic rights for its speakers has been slow. Today,

9282-510: The lake with a sophisticated system of dikes , canals and sluices . Much of the surrounding land in the valley was terraced and farmed as well, with a network of aqueducts channeling fresh water from springs in the mountainsides into the city itself. Despite being the dominant power, the need to rely on resources from other parts of the valley led to the Aztec Triple Alliance between Tenochtitlan, Texcoco and Tlacopan at

9401-411: The lake's region of the valley. Teotihuacan became an organized village around 800 BC but it was around 200 BC that it began to reach its height. When it did, the city had approximately 125,000 inhabitants and covered 20 square kilometers (8 sq mi) of territory. It was dedicated primarily to the obsidian trade and at its peak was an important religious center and pilgrimage for

9520-540: The lakes from each other. All the other lakes flowed toward the lower Lake Texcoco, which was saline due to evaporation. The lakes were fed by a number of rivers such as the San Joaquin, San Antonio Abad, Tacubaya, Becerra, Mixcoac and Magdalena Contreras, carrying runoff and snowmelt from the mountains. Long before the arrival of the Spanish, the lake system had been shrinking due to climate change. Warmer temperatures had increased evaporation and reduced rainfall in

9639-431: The large-scale drilling of wells. Today, 70% of Mexico City's water still comes from five principal aquifers in the valley. These aquifers are fed by water from natural springs and runoff from precipitation. It was only when the population reached about six million that Mexico City started to need to appropriate water from outside the valley. Today, Mexico City faces a serious water deficit. Because of increased demand from

9758-429: The largest and most-studied is the area that contains Mexico City . This section of the valley in particular is colloquially referred to as the "Valley of Mexico". The valley has a minimum elevation of 2,200 meters (7,200 ft) above sea level and is surrounded by mountains and volcanoes that reach elevations of over 5,000 meters (16,000 ft). It is an enclosed valley with no natural outlet for water to flow to

9877-597: The modern-day town of the same name in the Mexican Federal District . It was one of the first significant population centers to arise in the valley, flourishing on the western shore of Lake Texcoco during the Middle Pre-Classic period , between 1200 BC and 200 BC. It was originally classified as a necropolis when it was first excavated, but it was determined that the many burials there were under houses of which nothing remains. It

9996-576: The most dangerous, exceed levels recommended by the World Health Organization . In the 1940s, before large-scale burning of fossil fuels in the area, the visibility of the valley was about 100 km (60 mi), allowing for daily viewing of the mountain ranges that surround the valley, including the snow-capped volcanoes of Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl. Since that time, the average visibility has come down to about 1.5 km (5,000 ft). Mountain peaks are now rarely visible from

10115-591: The mountains, the piedmont is largely composed of basalt from old lava flows. The valley is enclosed completely by mountain ranges, from which flow rain and melting snow into the valley's hydraulic system. This groundwater flow produces a number of springs in the foothills and upwellings in the valley floor. This underground flow is the source of the five aquifers that provide much of the drinking water to Mexico City located in Soltepec, Apan , Texcoco , Chalco - Amecameca and underneath Mexico City itself. Before

10234-788: The mountainsides that collect the precipitation that eventually flows to the lake area. These last two are found in all four of the sub-basins of the valley. Today, the Valley drains through a series of artificial canals to the Tula River , and eventually the Páruco River and the Gulf of Mexico . Seismic activity is frequent here, and the valley is an earthquake-prone zone. The valley has been inhabited for at least 12,000 years, attracting humans with its mild climate (average temperatures between 12 and 15 °C, or 54 and 59 °F), abundant game and ability to support large-scale agriculture. Civilizations that have arisen in this area include

10353-555: The national average. Nahuatl is spoken by over 1 million people, with approximately 10% of speakers being monolingual . As a whole, Nahuatl is not considered to be an endangered language; however, during the late 20th century several Nahuatl dialects became extinct. The 1990s saw radical changes in Mexican policy concerning indigenous and linguistic rights. Developments of accords in the international rights arena combined with domestic pressures (such as social and political agitation by

10472-408: The native peoples, but after that, the population grew all through the colonial period and in the century after independence . By the early 20th century, the population of Mexico City alone had risen to over one million people. A population explosion began early in the 20th century, with the population of the city itself doubling approximately every 15 years since 1900, partly attributed to

10591-442: The northeastern city of Saltillo was founded in 1577, a Tlaxcaltec community was resettled in a separate nearby village, San Esteban de Nueva Tlaxcala , to cultivate the land and aid colonization efforts that had stalled in the face of local hostility to the Spanish settlement. Pedro de Alvarado conquered Guatemala with the help of tens of thousands of Tlaxcaltec allies, who then settled outside of modern Antigua Guatemala . As

10710-538: The number of artifacts found increases significantly. There are also other early sites such as those in Tepexpan, Los Reyes Acozac, San Bartolo Atepehuacan , Chimalhuacán and Los Reyes La Paz but they remain undated. Human remains and artifacts such as obsidian blades have been found at the Tlapacoya site that has been dated as far back as 20,000 BC, when the valley was semi-arid and contained species like camels , bison and horses that could be hunted by man. However,

10829-429: The numbers of speakers of virtually all indigenous languages have dwindled. While the total number of Nahuatl speakers increased over the 20th century, indigenous populations have become increasingly marginalized in Mexican society. In 1895, Nahuatl was spoken by over 5% of the population. By 2000, this figure had fallen to 1.49%. Given the process of marginalization combined with the trend of migration to urban areas and to

10948-453: The place of articulation of a following consonant. The voiceless alveolar lateral affricate [t͡ɬ] is assimilated after /l/ and pronounced [l] . Classical Nahuatl and most of the modern varieties have fairly simple phonological systems. They allow only syllables with maximally one initial and one final consonant. Consonant clusters occur only word-medially and over syllable boundaries. Some morphemes have two alternating forms: one with

11067-498: The population has doubled every fifteen years. Today, around 21 million people live in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area which extends throughout almost all of the valley into the states of Mexico and Hidalgo. The growth of a major urban industrial centre in an enclosed basin has created significant air and water quality issues for the valley. Wind patterns and thermal inversions trap contaminants in

11186-575: The possibility that other Mesoamerican languages were borrowing vocabulary from Proto-Nahuan much earlier than previously thought. In Mesoamerica the Mayan , Oto-Manguean and Mixe–Zoque languages had coexisted for millennia. This had given rise to the Mesoamerican language area . After the Nahuas migrated into the Mesoamerican cultural zone, their language likely adopted various areal traits, which included relational nouns and calques added to

11305-601: The precise dating of these artifacts has been disputed. Giant Columbian mammoths once populated the area, and the valley contains the most extensive mammoth kill sites in Mexico. Most of the sites are located on what were the shores of Lake Texcoco in the north of the Federal District and the adjacent municipalities of Mexico State such as in Santa Isabel Ixtapan , Los Reyes Acozac , Tepexpan and Tlanepantla . Mammoth bones are still occasionally found in farmland here. They have been discovered in many parts of

11424-469: The question of whether to consider individual varieties to be languages or dialects of a single language is highly political. In the past, the branch of Uto-Aztecan to which Nahuatl belongs has been called Aztecan . From the 1990s onward, the alternative designation Nahuan has been frequently used instead, especially in Spanish-language publications. The Nahuan (Aztecan) branch of Uto-Aztecan

11543-571: The region from the north continued into the Postclassic period . The Mexica were among the latest groups to arrive in the Valley of Mexico; they settled on an island in the Lake Texcoco , subjugated the surrounding tribes, and ultimately an empire named Tenochtitlan . Mexica political and linguistic influence ultimately extended into Central America, and Nahuatl became a lingua franca among merchants and elites in Mesoamerica, such as with

11662-662: The scheme of a Central grouping and two Peripheral groups, and Lastra confirmed this notion, differing in some details. Canger & Dakin (1985) demonstrated a basic split between Eastern and Western branches of Nahuan, considered to reflect the oldest division of the proto-Nahuan speech community. Canger originally considered the central dialect area to be an innovative subarea within the Western branch, but in 2011, she suggested that it arose as an urban koiné language with features from both Western and Eastern dialect areas. Canger (1988) tentatively included dialects of La Huasteca in

11781-427: The sea although there is a gap to the north where there is a high mesa but no high mountain peaks. Within this vulnerable watershed all the native fishes were extinct by the end of the 20th century. Hydrologically, the valley has three features. The first feature is the lakebeds of five now-extinct lakes, which are located in the southernmost and largest of the four sub-basins. The other two features are piedmont , and

11900-444: The smog produced. The valley has internal wind patterns which circulate around the valley without a prevailing wind to push contaminants in a single direction. The most significant climatic phenomena here is "thermal inversion," which is prevalent in the winter months when the cooler air of the valley is trapped by relatively warmer air above. Adding to this is that prevailing winds outside the valley move from north to south, in through

12019-506: The state total; this places the municipality 16th in territorial extension. There is a border to the north with the municipalities of Centro and Jalapa; and in the south, east and west with the state of Chiapas. According to the results presented for the 2nd population and home count from 2005, the municipality has a population of 49,262 people. The weather is warm and humid with rain all year round; it has an annual average temperature of 27.8 °C (82.0 °F). The monthly highest average

12138-619: The states of Puebla , Veracruz , Hidalgo , San Luis Potosí , and Guerrero . Significant populations are also found in the State of Mexico , Morelos , and the Federal District , with smaller communities in Michoacán and Durango . Nahuatl became extinct in the states of Jalisco and Colima during the 20th century. As a result of internal migration within the country, Nahuatl speaking communities exist in all states in Mexico. The modern influx of Mexican workers and families into

12257-755: The term General Aztec has been adopted by linguists to refer to the languages of the Aztecan branch excluding the Pochutec language . Speakers of Nahuatl generally refer to their language as either Mexicano or with a cognate derived from mācēhualli , the Nahuatl word for 'commoner'. One example of the latter is the Nahuatl spoken in Tetelcingo , Morelos, whose speakers call their language mösiehuali . The Pipil people of El Salvador refer to their language as Nāwat . The Nahuas of Durango call their language Mexicanero . Speakers of Nahuatl of

12376-464: The total Nahuatl speaking population, at 24.2% and 22.6%, respectively. For most other states the percentage of monolinguals among the speakers is less than 5%. This means that in most states more than 95% of the Nahuatl speaking population are bilingual in Spanish. According to one study, how often Nahuatl is used is linked to community well-being, partly because it is tied to positive emotions. The largest concentrations of Nahuatl speakers are found in

12495-621: The valley is at the Paleontological Museum in Tocuila , a 45-hectare (110-acre) site located near the town of Texcoco in Mexico State. Although there is some evidence around the old lakeshores that the first populations here survived by hunting, gathering, and possibly by scavenging, evidence from this time period is scarce. Tlatilco was a large pre-Columbian village and culture in the Valley of Mexico situated near

12614-404: The valley was over 1,000,000 people. After the Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire in 1521, the Spanish rebuilt and renamed Tenochtitlan as Mexico City. They started with essentially the same size and layout as the Aztec city but as the centuries progressed, the city grew as the lakes shrank. Just after the conquest, disease and violence had decreased the population in the valley, especially of

12733-477: The valley. In the early 8th century, with the rise of the Toltec empire, Teotihuacan ceased to be a major urban centre and the population shifted to Tollan or Tula on the northern front of the Valley of Mexico. After the end of the Toltec empire in the 13th century and the decline of the city of Tula, the population shifted once again, this time to the lakes region of the valley. With this migration came

12852-524: The valley. Over-extraction of groundwater has caused new flooding problems for the city as it sinks below the historic lake floor. This causes stress on the valley's drainage system, requiring new tunnels and canals to be built. The Valley of Mexico attracted prehistoric humans because the region was rich in biodiversity and had the capacity of growing substantial crops. Generally speaking, humans in Mesoamerica , including central Mexico, began to leave

12971-528: The verb is marked for subject , patient , object , and indirect object: ni- I- mits- you- teː- someone- tla- something- makiː give Valley of Mexico The Valley of Mexico ( Spanish : Valle de México ; Nahuatl languages : Anahuac , lit.   'Land Between the Waters'; ), sometimes also called Basin of Mexico , is a highlands plateau in central Mexico. Surrounded by mountains and volcanoes ,

13090-523: The vocabulary, and a distinctly Mesoamerican grammatical construction for indicating possession. A language which was the ancestor of Pochutec split from Proto-Nahuan (or Proto-Aztecan) possibly as early as AD 400, arriving in Mesoamerica a few centuries earlier than the bulk of Nahuan speakers. Some Nahuan groups migrated south along the Central American isthmus, reaching as far as Nicaragua. The critically endangered Pipil language of El Salvador

13209-516: The voiced consonants are devoiced in word-final position and in consonant clusters: /j/ devoices to a palato-alveolar sibilant /ʃ/ , /w/ devoices to a glottal fricative [h] or to a labialized velar approximant [ʍ] , and /l/ devoices to a fricative [ɬ] . In some dialects, the first consonant in almost any consonant cluster becomes [h] . Some dialects have productive lenition of voiceless consonants into their voiced counterparts between vowels. The nasals are normally assimilated to

13328-473: The world. The names of several countries, Mexico, Guatemala and possibly Nicaragua , derive from Nahuatl. As a language label, the term Nahuatl encompasses a group of closely related languages or divergent dialects within the Nahuan branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family. The Mexican Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas (Indigenous Languages Institute) recognizes 30 individual varieties within

13447-466: Was brought under control was the lead contamination in the air with the introduction of unleaded gasoline . Two other contaminants that have been brought under control are carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide . The contamination problems that remain are primarily with ozone and fine particles ( soot ) (between 2.5  micrometers and 10 micrometers). Thirty to fifty percent of the time, Mexico City's levels of fine particles of ten micrometers,

13566-478: Was built in 1910, anchored by a foundation deep beneath what was the surface of the street at that time. However, because the street has sunk around it, steps have been added to allow access to the statue's base. Subsidence of the valley floor beneath has caused flooding problems as now much of the city has sunk below the natural lake floor. Currently, pumps need to work 24 hours a day all year round to keep control of runoff and wastewater. Despite this, flooding

13685-475: Was continued after independence, with three secondary canals, built between 1856 and 1867. During the presidency of Porfirio Díaz (r. 1876–1911) drainage again became a priority. Díaz completed it officially in 1894, although work continued thereafter. Despite the Grand Canal's drainage capacity, it did not solve the problem of flooding in the city. From the beginning of the 20th century, Mexico City began to sink rapidly and pumps needed to be installed in

13804-452: Was presumed by scholars during the 19th and early 20th centuries that Teotihuacan had been founded by Nahuatl-speakers of, but later linguistic and archaeological research tended to disconfirm this view. Instead, the timing of the Nahuatl influx was seen to coincide more closely with Teotihuacan's fall than its rise, and other candidates such as Totonacan identified as more likely. In the late 20th century, epigraphical evidence has suggested

13923-548: Was published in 1547—3 years before the first grammar in French, and 39 years before the first one in English. By 1645, four more had been published, authored respectively by Alonso de Molina (1571), Antonio del Rincón (1595), Diego de Galdo Guzmán (1642), and Horacio Carochi (1645). Carochi's is today considered the most important colonial-era grammar of Nahuatl. Carochi has been particularly important for scholars working in

14042-431: Was the drying up of natural springs in the 1930s, which coincides with the beginning of intensive exploitation of the aquifer system through wells between 100 and 200 meters (330 and 660 ft) deep. Today, Mexico City is sinking between five and forty centimeters (0.2 and 1.3 ft) per year, and its effects are visible. El Ángel de la Independencia ("The Angel of Independence") statue, located on Paseo de la Reforma

14161-544: Was then classified as a major chiefdom center. The Tlatilcans were an agricultural people growing beans, amaranth , squash and chili peppers , reaching their peak from 1000 to 700 BC. The next-oldest confirmed civilization is in the far south of the valley and is called Cuicuilco . This archaeological site is located where Avenida Insurgentes Sur crosses the Anillo Periférico in the Tlalpan borough of

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