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.