Nahuatl’s Lack of Grammatical Gender

In writing about the term “Latinx” last month, I kept reflecting on how — despite the fact that Aztec society did have clear gender divisions and tended toward patriarchy (though less so than Spain at the time) — Classical Nahuatl had no grammatical gender.

This creates a sort of linguistic inclusiveness that I quite like.

There’s no Nahuatl word like “poetess” or “songstress.” It’s just “cuīcani” for any gender.

For starters, let’s look at nouns. A “mēxihcatl” is a Mexica person of whatever gender. “In Mēxihcah” are “the Mexica,” no gender specified. Compare this to Spanish and its “las mexicanas” (the Mexican women) versus “los mexicanos” (the Mexican men OR the Mexican people).

A person is “tlācatl.” A child is “pilli” and one’s younger sibling is “niccauh,” regardless of gender. To say “physician” or “doctor,” you use “tīcitl” (which can also mean midwife). “Totēucyo” is “our lord/lady/ruler.” It’s pretty fantastic, I think.

Obviously there are nouns that have gender built in. “Cihūatl” is “woman.” “Nonān” is “my mom.” And so on. But the issues Latinx folx face with Spanish gender endings are largely absent from Nahuatl.

Pronouns carry this even further, showing absolutely no grammatical gender at all. Our struggle to choose among he, she, singular they, various new singular non-binary equivalents or even the inhuman it … Nahuatl dispenses with the problem…