The people generally known as the Aztecs called themselves “Mexica” (méxìcâ). “Aztec” means ‘from Aztlān’, the mythical starting point of the Mexica's migration to the south. Their language was called nāhuatl or nāhuatlàtōlli ‘clear speech’ or even méxìcatlàtōlli ‘Mexica speech’.

The century that followed the Spanish conquest saw the death of a great part of the native population, the dismantling of their social system and the irrevocable alteration of their culture. This historic catastrophe – one of the greatest in human history – was partially attenuated thanks to the efforts of some enlightened friars and certain native notabilities, who gathered or composed all sorts of texts in Nahuatl: legends, discourses, historical chronicles, compilations of traditional knowledge.

This textbook is an introduction to this language. It aims to satisfy the interest in Nahuatl that has arisen in recent years. In various universities and institutions, historians, ethnographers and linguists have offered students and investigators of very diverse origins courses and seminars relating to the Aztec sphere. I hope that this work will be of some utility to them and that it will receive a favorable welcome.

I imagine that it will be of equal interest to linguists, who may not particularly deepen the study of indigenous Mexican history and culture, but who seek to expand the field of available linguistic data and so are looking for reliable descriptions of as many languages as possible.