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The Pipil are an indigenous people who live in western El Salvador. Their language is a dialect of Nahuatl called Nahuat or Pipil. Pipil oral tradition holds that they migrated out of central Mexico. However, in general, their mythology is more closely related to the mythology of the Maya peoples who are their near neighbors. Image File history File links Emblem-important. ... The term indigenous people has no universal, standard or fixed definition, but can be used about any ethnic group who inhabit the geographic region with which they have the earliest historical connection. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... This article is about the contemporary indigenous peoples and cultures who descend from, or remain, speakers of the Mayan languages of southern Mesoamerica. ...

Synonymy and language

The name Pipil is the most commonly encountered term in the anthropological and linguistic literature. This exonym is from the closely related Nahuatl word -pil "son, boy" (Nahuatl is a dialect complex that includes languages and dialects of these such as Classical Nahuatl, Milpa Alta Nahuatl, Tetelcingo nahuatl, Matlapa, Isthmus-Mecayapan Nahuat, among others). An exonym is a name for a place or people that is created by people outside of that place and is different from the name used in the native language. ... Nahuatl ( [1] is a term applied to a group of related languages and dialects of the Aztecan [2] branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family, indigenous to central Mexico. ... Nahuatl dialects and and dialect groupings The Uto Aztecan Nahuatl language can be grouped into two rough dialect continua, labelled the central and the peripheral dialects. ... hello how are you This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ...

The Pipil speak the endangered Uto-Aztecan language Nawat, also known as Pipil in English, and as náhuat in Spanish (the older form nahuate is no longer current). An endangered language is a language with so few surviving speakers that it is in danger of falling out of use. ... Pre-contact distribution of Northern Uto-Aztecan languages (note: this map does not show the distribution in Mexico) Uto-Aztecan (also Uto-Aztekan) is a Native American language family. ... Pipil or Nawat is the language originally spoken by the Pipils of western El Salvador and still remembered by some of them, mostly elderly. ...

Nahuatl -pil is cognate with Nawat pi:pil "boy". The autonym in the Nawat language is simply Nawat which is related to the Classical Nahuatl word nauatl. An ethnonym (Gk. ...

For most authors the term Pipil (Nawat) is used to refer to the language in only Central America (i.e. excluding Mexico). However, the term (along with the synonymous Eastern Nahuatl) has also been used to refer to Nahuatl lects in the southern Veracruz, Tabasco, and Chiapas that like Pipil have reduced the earlier /tl/ sound to a /t/. The varieties in these three areas do share greater similarities with Nawat than the other Nahuatl varieties do (suggesting a closer connection); however, Campbell (1985) considers Nawat distinct enough to be considered a language separate from the Nahuatl complex, thus rejecting an Eastern Nahuatl subgrouping that includes Nawat. This page is a candidate to be moved to Wiktionary. ... Location within Mexico Country Capital Municipalities 212 Largest City Veracruz Government  - Governor Fidel Herrera Beltrán (PRI)  - Federal Deputies PRI: 6 PAN: 11 PRD: 2 Convergencia: 2  - Federal Senators PRD: 1 PAN: 1 Convergencia: 1 Area Ranked 11th  - Total 71,699 km² (27,683. ... This article is about the Mexican state of Tabasco. ... Location within Mexico Country  Mexico Capital Tuxtla Gutiérrez Municipalities 118 Largest City Tuxtla Gutiérrez Government  - Governor Juan José Sabines Guerrero ( PRD)  - Federal Deputies PRI: 7 PRD: 5  - Federal Senators PRI: 1 PRD: 1 PVEM: 1 Area Ranked 8th  - State 74,211 km²  (28,653 sq mi) Population (2005...

Finally, for other authors the term Aztec is used to refer to all closely languages in this region as a single language, not distinguishing Nawat from Nahuatl (and sometimes not even separating out Pochutec). The classification of Nahuan that Campbell argues for (1985, 1997)has been susperceded by newer and more detailed classifications. And currently the widely accepted classifications by Lastra de Suarez(1986) and Canger (1988), see Pipil as a nahuan dialect of the eastern periphery. Pochutec is an extinct Uto-Aztecan language of the Aztecan branch which was spoken in around the town of Pochutla on the pacific coast of Oaxaca, Mexico. ...

• Uto-Aztecan 5000 BP^*
  • Shoshonean (Northern Uto-Aztecan)
  • Sonoran^**
  • Aztecan 2000 BP (a.k.a. Nahuan)
    • Pochutec — Coast of Oaxaca
    • General Aztec (Nahuatl)
      • Western periphery
      • Eastern Periphery
        • Pipil
        • Sierra de Puebla
        • Isthmus-Mecayapan
      • Huasteca
      • Central dialects

Dialects of Pipil include the following^{[citation needed]}:

• Ataco
• Tacuba
• Santa Catarina Mazaguat
• Santo Domigo de Guzmán
• Nahuizalco
• Izalco
• Teotepeque
• Jicalapa
• Comazagua
• Chiltiupan
• Cuisnahuat

Today Nawat is seldom used and only by a few elderly speakers in Sonsonate and Ahuachapán departments. Cuisnahuat and Santo Domingo de Guzmán have the highest concentration of speakers. Campbell's 1985 estimate (fieldwork 1970-1976) was 200 remaining speakers although as many as 2000 speakers have been recorded in official Mexican reports. Gordon (2005) reports only 20 speakers (from 1987). The exact number of speakers is difficult to determine because native speakers do not wish to be identified due to local conflict, such as the matanza ("massacre") of 1932 and the laws passed that made speaking Nawat illegal. The varieties of Nawat in Guatemala, Honduras, and Panama are now extinct. Sonsonate is a department of El Salvador in the western part of the country. ... Location Statistics Created (given current status) 1869 Capital Ahuachapán Area    â€¢% 1,240 km²   Ranked 8th Population    â€¢(2006) 377,141   Ranked 7th ISO 3166-2 SV-AH Ahuachapán is a department of El Salvador in the west of the country. ... Cuisnahuat is a municipality in the Sonsonate department of El Salvador. ... An extinct language is a language which no longer has any native speakers, in contrast to a dead language, which is is a language which has stopped changing in grammar, vocabulary, and the complete meaning of a sentence. ...

History

The neutrality and factual accuracy of this section are disputed. Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page.

The prehistoric and modern Pipil are from at least three separate cultural and language groups that were loosely joined by conquest and later by culture^{[citation needed]}. The earliest, a subgroup of a nomadic people known as the Nahua, migrated into Central America about 3000 B.C.^{[citation needed]} The Nahua later came under the influence of Maya culture, perhaps through immigration and conquest. Ruins of limestone pyramids built by the Maya between A.D. 100 and 1000 are found in western El Salvador. Maya culture and language dominated this area of Mesoamerica until the ninth century A.D. Nahua/Maya civilization did not achieve the complexity found in the Maya heartland in Mexico and Guatemala, but appears to have been vital on a smaller scale^{[citation needed]}. Image File history File links Emblem-important. ... Image File history File links Unbalanced_scales. ... Communities of nomadic people move from place to place, rather than settling down in one location. ... The Nahua are a group of indigenous peoples of Mexico. ... The Nahua are a group of indigenous peoples of Mexico. ... This article is about the pre-Columbian Maya civilization. ... This article is about the pre-Columbian Maya civilization. ... This article is about the culture area. ...

A third group, designated as the Izalco Pipil, are believed to have migrated into the region late in the tenth century, occupying lands west of the Lempa River during the 1000s^{[citation needed]}. Legend and archaeological research suggest these migrants were refugees from conflict within the Toltec empire to the north^{[citation needed]}. These people were ethnically and culturally related to the Toltecs^{[citation needed]}, as well as to the earlier Nahua and the later Aztecs, and spoke a closely related Aztecan language, today called Nawat. Lempa River (Spanish: ) is a river in southern El Salvador. ... The Atlantes – columns in the form of Toltec warriors in Tula. ... Aztec is a term used to refer to certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who achieved political and military dominance over large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the Late post-Classic...

Most of the migrant Pipil settled in what is now El Salvador. The Pipil's only significant Guatemalan settlement was Escuintla. The Pipil found a population of mostly Maya culture and/or ethnicity, and a country that had many natural resources. The Pipil organized a nation known as Cuzcatlán, with at least two centralized city/states that may have been subdivided into smaller principalities. They enveloped some groups of the Mayan-speaking people, sometimes through conquest, but often through cooperation and trade. Other Mayan-speaking peoples remained independent. The Pipil introduced the cults of Xipe Totec who expected human sacrifice. The Pipil were also competent workers in cotton textiles, and developed a wide ranging trade network for woven goods as well as agricultural products. Xipe Totec ias depicted in the Codex Borgia, notice the bloody weapon and the flayed human skin he wears as a suit with the hands hanging down. ... For other uses, see Cotton (disambiguation). ... This article is about the type of fabric. ...

By the time the Spanish arrived, the Pipil controlled almost all of western El Salvador, and a large portion of the central area up to the banks of the river Lempa. There were four important branches of the Pipil:

• The Cuzcatlecos, who were a leading community in El Salvador, had their capital in Cuzcatlán (now the town of Antiguo Cuscatlán in greater San Salvador)^{[citation needed]}.
• The Izalcos, who were very wealthy due to their great cocoa production^{[citation needed]}.
• The Nonualcos, of the central region, who were renowned for their love of war^{[citation needed]}.
• The Mazuahas, who were dedicated to raising the White Tailed Deer (now nearly extinct)^{[citation needed]}.

Although they were primarily an agricultural people, some Pipil urban centers developed into present-day cities, such as Sonsonate and Ahuachapan. The Pipil communities of Cuzcatlán and Tecpan Izalco in El Salvador were founded in approximately A.D. 1050^{[citation needed]}. The ruins of Cihiuatan, those in Aguilares, and those close to the Guazapa volcano are considered among the most notable remains of Pipil civilization. Sonsonate, the capital of the department of Sonsonate, El Salvador; on the river Sensunapan and the railway from San Salvador to the Pacific port of Acajutla, 13 miles south. ... Ahuachapan is the capitol of the department of Ahuachapan in the the country of El Salvador, central America. ...

Migration and legend

The neutrality and factual accuracy of this section are disputed. Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page.

Pipil may refer to a branch of the pre-Columbian Toltec civilization, which flourished in Central Mexico around the close of the 1st millennium AD^{[citation needed]}. The Toltec capital, Tula^{[citation needed]}, also known as Tollan and located in the present-day state of Hidalgo) is the most significant archaeological site associated with the Toltec. The apogee of Tula's reach post-dates that of the great city of Teotihuacán, which lies further to the southeast and quite close to the modern Mexico City. Tradition, mythology and archaeology^{[citation needed]} strongly suggest these people arrived in El Salvador around the year A.D. 1000 as a result of the collapse of the Tala^{[citation needed]}. The Tala, apparently a Toltec subgroup or family line, gained power or influence in the Toltec civilization at the fall of Teotihuacan^{[citation needed]}. This group was ultimately defeated in a bloody civil war over succession to the throne of the Toltec capital Tula^{[citation needed]}. The defeated group had little choice but to leave Mexico and emigrate to Central America^{[citation needed]}. Tula fell a short time later, circa A.D. 1070, while under the reign of Huemac-Quetzalcoatl^{[citation needed]}. Image File history File links Emblem-important. ... Image File history File links Unbalanced_scales. ... The pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the Americas continent. ... The Atlantes – columns in the form of Toltec warriors in Tula. ... (Redirected from 1st millennium AD) (1st millennium BC – 1st millennium – 2nd millennium – other millennia) Events Beginning of Christianity and Islam London founded by Romans as Londinium Diaspora of the Jews The Olympic Games observed until 393 The Library of Alexandria, largest library in the world, burned Rise... Tula is a town of about 10,000 in Hidalgo State, central Mexico, some 57 miles to the north north-west of Mexico City. ... Tollan or Tolan or Tolán is the name used for the capital city of two empires of Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica; first for Teotihuacan, and later for the Toltec capital of Tula. ... Hidalgo is a state in central Mexico, with an area of 20,502 km². In 2000 the state had a population of some 2,231,000 people. ... An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been investigated using the discipline of archaeology. ... Teotihuacán[1] was, at its height in the first half of the 1st millennium CE, the largest pre-Columbian city in the Americas. ... Mexico City (in Spanish: Ciudad de México, México, D.F. or simply México) is the capital city of Mexico. ... Tula is a town of about 10,000 in Hidalgo State, central Mexico, some 57 miles to the north north-west of Mexico City. ...

The faction that lost the war was led by the celebrated hero Topiltzin, son of Mixcoatl^{[citation needed]}. His followers thought he was a reincarnation of the god Quetzalcoatl, and used the name as a title^{[citation needed]}. According to tradition, Topiltzin Ce Acatl Quetzalcoatl founded a sanctuary to the god Nuictlan in the region of 'Guija Lake'^{[citation needed]}. Later, he arrived at the now ruined Maya site of Copán in Honduras, and subsequently went to the environs of the present Nicaragua where he established the people known as Nicarao^{[citation needed]}. In Aztec mythology, Mixcoatl (Cloud Serpent) was a god of the hunt, the north star and war. ... It has been suggested that this article be split into multiple articles. ... It has been suggested that Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl be merged into this article or section. ... Location of Copán The Pre-Columbian city now known as Copán is a locale in extreme western Honduras, in the Copán Department, near to the Guatemalan border. ... Nicarao is the name of the then-leader and/or the capital city of the most populous indigenous tribe when the Spanish arrived in Nicaragua. ...

Spanish conquest

In the early sixteenth century, the Spanish conquistadores ventured into Central America from Mexico, then known as the Spanish colony of New Spain. Spanish efforts to extend their dominion to the area that would be known as El Salvador were firmly resisted by the Pipil and their remaining Mayan-speaking neighbors. Pedro de Alvarado, a lieutenant of Hernan Cortes, led the first effort by Spanish forces in June 1524. Led by a war leader tradition calls Atlacatl, the indigenous people defeated the Spaniards and forced them to withdraw to Guatemala. Two subsequent expeditions were required --the first in 1525, followed by a smaller group in 1528-- to bring the Pipil under Spanish control. Conquistador (meaning Conqueror in the Spanish language) is the term used to refer to the soldiers, explorers, and adventurers who brought much of the Americas under Spanish rule between the 15th and 17th centuries. ... For other uses, see Central America (disambiguation). ... map of New Spain in red, with territories claimed but not controlled in orange. ... Pedro de Alvarado y Contreras (Badajoz, c. ... Hernán Cortés Hernán(do) Cortés, marqués del Valle de Oaxaca (1485–December 2, 1547) was the conquistador who conquered Mexico for Spain. ... Atlacatl (d. ...

Modern Pipil

The Pipil have had a strong influence on the current culture of El Salvador, with a large portion of the population claiming ancestry from this and other indigenous groups. Ninety percent of today's Salvadorans are mestizos (people of mixed native and European descent), with only nine percent of unmixed European ancestry. About 1% is of pure indigenous ancestry. [1] A few Pipil still speak Nawat and follow traditional ways of life. The traditional groups live mainly in the southwestern highlands near the Guatemalan border.

Bibliography

• Bierhorst, John. The Mythology of Mexico and Central America. William Morrow, New York, NY, 1990. ISBN 0-688-11280-3.
• Carrasco, David, Editor in chief. The Oxford encyclopedia of Mesoamerican cultures: the civilizations of Mexico and Central America, in four volumes. Oxford University Press, New York., 2001. ISBN 0-19-510815-9 (set).
• Campbell, Lyle. (1978). Middle American languages. In L. Campbell & M. Mithun (Eds.), The languages of native America: Historical and comparative assessment (pp. 902-1000). Austin: University of Texas Press.
• Campbell, Lyle. (1985). The Pipil language of El Salvador. Mouton grammar library (No. 1). Berlin: Mouton Publishers.
• Campbell, Lyle. (1997). American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509427-1.
• Chapman, Anne M. (1960). Los nicarao y los chorotega según las fuentes históricas. Publicaciones de la Universidad de Costa Rica, Serie historia y geografía 4. San José: Ciudad Universitaria.
• Clavijero, Francisco Xavier. (1974 [1775]). Historia Antigua de México. Mexico: Editorial Porrúa.
• Fernándezde Oviedo y Valdés, Gonzalo. (1945 [1557]). Historia general y natural de las Indias, Islas y Tierrafirme del mar de Océano. J. Amador de los Ríos (Ed). Asunción, Paraguay: Editorial Guaraní.
• Fowler, William R. (1981). The Pipil-Nicarao of Central America. (Unpublished PhD dissertation, Department of Archaeology, University of Calgary).
• Fowler, William R. (1983). La distribución prehistórica e histórica de los pipiles. Mesoamérica, 6, 348-372.
• de Fuentes y Guzmán, Francisco Antonio. (1932-1933 [1695]). Recordación Florida: Discurso historial y demostración natural, material, militar y política del Reyno de Guatemala. J. A. Villacorta, R. A. Salazar, & S. Aguilar (Eds.). Biblioteca "Goathemala" (Vols. 6-8). Guatemala: Sociedad de Geografía e Historia.
• Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (Ed.). (2005). Ethnologue: Languages of the world (15th ed.). Dallas, TX: SIL International. ISBN 1-55671-159-X. (Online version: www.ethnologue.com).
• Ixtlilxochitl, Don Fernando de Alva. (1952 [1600-1611]). Obras históricas de Don Fernado de Alva Ixtlixochitl, publicadas y anotadas pro Alfredo Chavero. Mexico: Editoria Nacional, S.A.
• Jiménez Moreno, Wigberto. (1959). Síntesis de la historia pretoleca de Mesoamérica. Esplendor del México antiguo (Vol. 2, pp. 1019-1108). Mexico.
• Jiménez Moreno, Wigberto. (1966). Mesoamerica before the Tolteca. In J. Paddock (Ed.), Ancient Oaxaca (pp. 4-82). Stanford: Stanford University Press.
• Lastra de Suarez, Yolanda. 1986. Las áreas dialectales del náhuatl moderno. Mexico: Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
• Lehmann, Walter. (1920). Zentral-Amerika. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.
• León-Portilla, Miguel. (1972). Relgión de los nicaraos: Análisis y comparación de tradiciones culturales nahuas. Mexico: Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
• Stoll. (1958 [1884]). Zur Ethnographie der Republik Guatemala [Etnografía de Guatemala]. Seminaro de Integración Social Guatemalteca, publication 8.
• Thompson, J. Eric S. (1948). An archaeological reconnaissance in the Cotzumalhuapa region, Escuintla, Guatemala. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Contributions of American anthropology and history (44). Cambridge, MA.
• de Torquemada, Fray Juan. (1969 [1615]). Monarquía Indiana. Biblioteca Porrúa (Vols. 41-43). Mexico: Porrúa, S.A.

Fernando de Alva Cortés Ixtlilxochitl (1568?-1648). ... The cover of Monarchia indiana, by Fray Juan de Torquemada. ...

See also

• Pipil language
• Pipil language (typological overview)
• Pipil grammar
• Señorío of Cuzcatlán

Pipil or Nawat is the language originally spoken by the Pipils of western El Salvador and still remembered by some of them, mostly elderly. ... This rather technical article provides a typological sketch of the Nawat or Pipil language. ... This article provides a grammar sketch of the Nawat or Pipil language, an endangered language spoken by the Pipils of western El Salvador, belonging to the Nahua group within the Uto-Aztecan language family. ... Was a pre-Columbian nation of Período Posclásic that extended from the Paz river hazta the Lempa river (that is to say, most of the western and central zone of El Salvador), this was the nation of Pipiles. ...

External links

• Pipil (Nawat)
• Nawat language program
• Salvadoran article (In Spanish)
• World Book.