3,000 Nahuatl Phrases: A First English Translation of Pedro de Arenas’s 1611 Nahuatl to Spanish Phrasebook

The Vocabulario Manual de las Lenguas Castellana y Mexicana written by Pedro de Arenas is an extraordinary book that was published in the early 1600s. The book was so valuable that it went through 11 editions in 220 years. Not much is known about de Arenas however his work shows that he was likely fluent in both Spanish and Nahuatl, or if not fluent in Nahuatl, he had close contact with Nahuatl speakers and likely communicated with them regularly. At the very least, Arenas had an advanced knowledge of Nahuatl orthography and his writing is unusually consistent, a huge accomplishment for his time. This book is a reminder that after the Spanish conquest, Indigenous people were still the majority and their languages dominated for a long period of time afterwards. Spaniards in the 17th century would have used this book to communicate with Nahuatl speakers in their daily lives. Unlike the Spanish friars who utilized Nahuatl for mostly religious conversion purposes, these Spaniards were interacting with Indigenous people for daily tasks such as traveling, working, buying, and selling. This book thus gives us a rare glimpse into the conversational language of the Nahuatl speaking population. This book can be used by Nahuatl language learners who want to learn how to say common phrases and analyze grammatical constructions and by researchers who want to learn more about 17th century Mesoamerican society. Remarkably, the phrases in this book have remained stable over time and are intelligible (and used frequently) today in most modern Nahuatl variants. When greeting someone, one might say quen tinemi? “how goes it with you?” or cualli inic onimitzittac “good to see you.” When seeking a person of the house, one might say tlen quichihua? “what is he doing?” Or campa huel niquittaz? “where will I find him?” When asking someone for directions, one might say cuix onca occe ohtli cualli? “is there a better road?” or nimitztlaxtlahuiz cualli “I will pay you well.” Read more