Whether the languages of the ancient American peoples were used for
expressing abstract universal concepts can be clearly answered in the case of
Nahuatl. Nahuatl, like Greek and German, is a language that allows the
formation of extensive compounds. By the combination of radicals or semantic
elements, single compound words can express complex conceptual relations, often
of an abstract universal character.
The tlamatinime (“those who know”)
were able to use this rich stock of abstract terms to express the nuances of
their thought. They also availed themselves of other forms of expression with
metaphorical meaning, some probably original, some derived from Toltec
coinages. Of these forms the most characteristic in Nahuatl is the
juxtaposition of two words that, because they are synonyms, associated terms,
or even contraries, complement each other to evoke one single idea. Used as
metaphor, the juxtaposed terms connote specific or essential traits of the
being they refer to, introducing a mode of poetry as an almost habitual form of
expression.
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