Conditional Clauses

A conditional sentence is one in which a possibility is posited in a subordinate clause and the consequences that would result from the realization of this possibility are laid out in the main clause. The clause that lays out the posited condition is introduced in English with ‘if’ and in Nahuatl with in tlā (which can also be written as one word; this is the same tlā that we have already met with the optative, 9.5), and the two elements of such a sentence are called the “if-clause” and the “then-clause”. When the subordinate clause contains a negative (‘unless’ or ‘if…not’), intlācamo is used in Nahuatl instead of **in tlā àmo (cf. mācamo for **mā àmo). If there is a negative pronoun or adverb, a compound with tlā is again used: intlācayāc ‘if no one…’ (or ‘if…no one’), intlācàtle ‘if nothing…’ (or ‘if…nothing’), intlācaīc ‘if…never’), etc.

In tlā has virtually the same range of meaning as ‘if’. It is necessary to distinguish between two broad categories of conditional sentences. Here we will look at true hypotheses. In such sentences, the ‘if’ of English and the in tlā of Nahuatl mean ‘under the hypothesis that…’, ‘in the case where…’, ‘given that…’. Nahuatl has four basic sub-varieties for these sorts of conditions. English more or less shares the same categories, but has a number of alternative ways to express some. We will look at the four Nahuatl sub-varieties and consider the English correspondences.