Pipil language

Pipil (natively Nawat) is a Uto-Aztecan language which is similar to Nahuatl, and which was spoken in several parts of present-day Central America before the Spanish conquest. Although it has been on the verge of extinction in western El Salvador and has already gone extinct elsewhere in Central America, as of 2012, new second language speakers are starting to appear.

In El Salvador, Nawat was the language of several tribes: Nonualcos, Cuscatlecos, Mazahuas, and Izalcos. The name Pipil for this language is used by the international scholarly community, chiefly to differentiate it more clearly from Nahuatl. In this article the name Nawat will be used whenever there is no risk of ambiguity.

Status

Most authors refer to this language by the names Pipil or Nawat. However, Nawat (along with the synonymous Eastern Nahuatl) has also been used to refer to Nahuatl language varieties in southern Veracruz, Tabasco, and Chiapas, states in the south of Mexico, that like Pipil have reduced the earlier /t͡ɬ/ consonant (a lateral affricate) to a /t/. Those Mexican lects share more similarities with Nawat than do the other Nahuatl varieties.