Nahuatl and the Copula

What do AAVE (African American Vernacular English, ASL (American Sign Language), and Nahuatl all have in common?

Well, it’s what they lack. A copula for the present tense.

A copula is a word that links subject to predicate, like the various forms of the verb “be” in English.

Zero copula languages (which also include Arabic and Russian, among others) don’t say, for example, “you’re beautiful.” Instead, they say something along the lines of “you beautiful” (which, indeed, is perfectly lovely AAVE).

In Nahuatl, we don’t just “drop” the copula. Instead, we treat the noun/adjective in question as a verb, adding a subject prefix to it.

“Beautiful” is “cualtzin,” “cualnēzqui” or “quetzaltic,” to be a little more poetic.

“You are beautiful” is “ticualtzin,” “ticualnēzqui” or “tiquetzaltic.”

That syllable “ti-” is a subject prefix. Here are all of them, if you’re wondering:

• ni- (I)
• ti- (we … if the noun/adj./verb is plural)
• ti- (you … if the noun/adj./verb is singular)
• am- / an- (y’all)

There’s no subject prefix for third person (she, he, it, they). Instead, “cualtzin” can also be “she’s pretty” and “cualtzintin” can mean “they’re pretty.”

Here are all the possible forms with “cualtzin.”