Spanish Hesitations in Náhuatl

This study examines a key feature of oral discourse: lexical hesitation markers. As defined by Reitbrecht (2017: 17), hesitation phenomena are elements such as words, phrases, pauses, repetitions, false starts, and self-corrections that emerge due to interruptions or repairs in speech production. While these elements are universal and play a crucial role in planning speech, their form and frequency vary across languages. This study investigates how Spanish hesitation markers are used within spontaneous contemporary Náhuatl discourse, highlighting contact-induced change.

Náhuatl is spoken in a predominantly Spanish-speaking environment, where it has increasingly incorporated Spanish elements, including hesitation markers. This process may be seen as the borrowing of a lexical-pragmatic class. Our study focuses on how these borrowed markers function within the Náhuatl discourse of Spanish-Náhuatl bilingual speakers.

The data come from a corpus of video-recorded one-on-one sessions conducted in Náhuatl with four adult Náhuatl–Spanish balanced bilinguals. During each session, participants were shown 22 images illustrating three generations of an Indigenous family experiencing language shift and loss. The images were presented in random order, and participants were asked to arrange them chronologically and describe the events. The total recording time was 3 hours and 44 minutes. All sessions were transcribed and annotated for hesitation phenomena.

Table 1 summarizes participant demographics and session details:

Hesitation markers were identified following Reitbrecht’s (2017) typology, and transcription conventions from Quesada Nieto (2020). The annotation covered lexical hesitations, repetitions, incomplete words or phrases, vocalic fillers, pauses, and lengthenings. Only items functioning as hesitations in context were tagged.

Our analysis reveals consistent use of Spanish-derived hesitation markers—especially este (‘um’), pues (‘well’), and o sea (‘I mean/like’)—within spontaneous Náhuatl discourse. Examples include:

(1) Achtohui, pues, niquittac itztoya ce eeh, ce ichpocatl tlen itoca::: Mixtli. 

First, pues, I saw there was a eeh, a young woman, whose name wa:::s Mixtli. 

(2) Cualli tlaxtlahuah, todo, o sea como, nopa tlamantli

They pay well, o sea como, those things.

(3) Quena huacca este ti- ticnequi este ma monamictican. 

Yes, then este, you, you want este that we get married. 
 

These examples show how Spanish hesitation markers are embedded in Náhuatl’s syntactic and prosodic structures. Their use reflects not only speech processing but also the influence of long-term contact with Spanish. These markers function as tools for managing planning and reformulation and indicate the broader process of hispanization in Náhuatl.

The study aims to answer the following research question: Which lexical hesitation markers appear in the corpus? Which are derived from Náhuatl, which from Spanish, and what explains this distribution?

Our hypothesis is that most hesitation markers in contemporary Náhuatl derive from Spanish lexical and semantic material. This pattern reflects an ongoing language shift and marks a stage in the displacement of Náhuatl—an endangered language which, according to INEGI, is still spoken by approximately 1,651,958 people but is mainly confined to familial and folkloric contexts and is increasingly being replaced by Spanish.

In conclusion, hesitation markers are not merely signs of cognitive load but serve communicative functions. In a sociolinguistic context marked by language endangerment, their use reveals the tension between preserving a threatened linguistic identity and adapting to a dominant linguistic environment. This study offers insight into the dynamics of Spanish-Náhuatl bilingual speech. It also contributes to research in multilingualism and endangered language documentation.