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 metaphorically, 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.