Classical Nahuatl Classical Nahuatl Classical Nahuatl (also known simply as Aztec or Nahuatl) is any of the variants of Nahuatl, spoken in the Valley of Mexico and central Mexico as a "lingua franca" at the time of the 16th-century Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. During the subsequent centuries, it was largely displaced by Spanish and evolved into some of the modern Nahuan languages in use today (other modern dialects descend more directly from other 16th-century variants). Although classified as an extinct language, Classical Nahuatl has survived through a multitude of written sources transcribed by Nahua peoples and Spaniards in the Latin
Aztec warfare of payment received from the parents. Thus, sons of high nobility tended to succeed more often in war than those of lower nobility. Broadly, Aztec army ranks were similar to the modern Western rankings of “General” and "Major”, as were the groupings of warriors into categories such as “enlisted men” or “officers”. However, while parallels can be drawn between the organization of Aztec and Western military systems, as each developed from similar functional necessities, the differences between the two are far greater than the similarities. The members of the Aztec army had loyalties to many different people and institutions, and