How would the Aztecs translate the names of Old World countries?

Let's say the Aztec Triple Alliance/Aztec Empire survived with Nahuatl as its primary language, establishing widespread diplomatic relations across the world.

What would Nahuatl names be for most modern day and past countries -- without the Spanish influence that has affected Nahuatl?

Alternatively, the Mexica are still conquered by Spain and become Mexico, but somehow Spanish is replaced with Nahuatl. Or Mexico is both more prosperous and has really autonomous states, and a purist Nahuatl is later reformed like Katharevousa or modern Turkish by one of the state governments.
 
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Barring a few key exceptions, Classical Nahuatl vocabulary for Old World countries were usually written according to Spanish convention. Chimalpahin's Nahuatl-language annals writes "China" as China, "Emperor of Japan" as Emperador Jabon (or Japon or Jabun), France as Francia, Italy as Italia, and so on. There are some exceptions, like one 1740 document that writes "Florencia" (the Italian city of Florence) as Tlorencion, but in general Spanish orthography is respected.

Nahuatl didn't actually have phonemes like /f/ or /r/, but this didn't matter because Nahuatl speakers educated enough to know about the existence of Japan and France were bound to speak some level of Spanish anyways.

The main exception to just using whatever Spanish word there is is the early Nahuatl word for "Spain," Caxtillān. This is the Spanish word "Castilla" made to fit Nahuatl morphology; Caxtillān means "Place of Caxtil," using the —(t)lān suffix you also find in native Nahuatl place names like Tlaxcallān (Tlaxcala) and Cuauhtēmallān (Guatemala). In the sixteenth century, caxtil was often used as the word for European chickens, the most obvious thing that came from Caxtillān (which could now be retro-analyzed as "Place of Chickens"). But it's the exception that proves the rule, really, and Caxtillān increasingly yields to España as the colonial period progresses.

In a TL where Nahuatl becomes the official language of Mexico following a protracted period of Spanish rule, I don't think this situation would change barring a extremist nationalist movement trying to "purify" the language by forcibly purging the language of Castillian vocabulary—and even then it would be tough and ugly, like trying to purge the English language of all Romance loanwords.

In a TL where Nahuatl-speaking states survive, you'd probably still see Spanish place names being adopted, just as many African languages use whatever English names there are for European countries. But with less direct colonial influence, Spanish phonology is less likely to be emulated, and at some point a spelling reform to make the orthography shallower could result in names like (given what we know of how colonial Nahuas pronounced and occasionally wrote Spanish loanwords):
  • France: Palānciah or Tlānciah (from Sp. Francia)
  • England: Incalatēlah or Calatēlah (from Sp. Inglaterra)
  • Portugal: Polotocāl or Potocāl (from Sp. Portugal)
    • Alternately, a Nahuatl speaker might also analyze Spanish Portugal as Poto-calli, with the Nahuatl suffix —calli meaning "house." Then Portugal could be understood as the "House of Poto," just as Castilla was analyzed as "Place of Caxtil," and a new word for "Poto" could be found to refer to whatever is characteristic of Portugal
  • Constantinople: Contantinōplah or Coztantinōplah (from Sp. Constantinopla)
  • Jerusalem: Xelozallān (from Sp. Jerusalén)
    • Again, an interpretation of Spanish Jerusalén as Xelozal-lān, the "Place of Xelozal." It's up to the Nahuatl speaker/TL writer to decide what Xelozal might mean.
 
Barring a few key exceptions, Classical Nahuatl vocabulary for Old World countries were usually written according to Spanish convention. Chimalpahin's Nahuatl-language annals writes "China" as China, "Emperor of Japan" as Emperador Jabon (or Japon or Jabun), France as Francia, Italy as Italia, and so on. There are some exceptions, like one 1740 document that writes "Florencia" (the Italian city of Florence) as Tlorencion, but in general Spanish orthography is respected.

Nahuatl didn't actually have phonemes like /f/ or /r/, but this didn't matter because Nahuatl speakers educated enough to know about the existence of Japan and France were bound to speak some level of Spanish anyways.

The main exception to just using whatever Spanish word there is is the early Nahuatl word for "Spain," Caxtillān. This is the Spanish word "Castilla" made to fit Nahuatl morphology; Caxtillān means "Place of Caxtil," using the —(t)lān suffix you also find in native Nahuatl place names like Tlaxcallān (Tlaxcala) and Cuauhtēmallān (Guatemala). In the sixteenth century, caxtil was often used as the word for European chickens, the most obvious thing that came from Caxtillān (which could now be retro-analyzed as "Place of Chickens"). But it's the exception that proves the rule, really, and Caxtillān increasingly yields to España as the colonial period progresses.

In a TL where Nahuatl becomes the official language of Mexico following a protracted period of Spanish rule, I don't think this situation would change barring a extremist nationalist movement trying to "purify" the language by forcibly purging the language of Castillian vocabulary—and even then it would be tough and ugly, like trying to purge the English language of all Romance loanwords.

In a TL where Nahuatl-speaking states survive, you'd probably still see Spanish place names being adopted, just as many African languages use whatever English names there are for European countries. But with less direct colonial influence, Spanish phonology is less likely to be emulated, and at some point a spelling reform to make the orthography shallower could result in names like (given what we know of how colonial Nahuas pronounced and occasionally wrote Spanish loanwords):
  • France: Palānciah or Tlānciah (from Sp. Francia)
  • England: Incalatēlah or Calatēlah (from Sp. Inglaterra)
  • Portugal: Polotocāl or Potocāl (from Sp. Portugal)
    • Alternately, a Nahuatl speaker might also analyze Spanish Portugal as Poto-calli, with the Nahuatl suffix —calli meaning "house." Then Portugal could be understood as the "House of Poto," just as Castilla was analyzed as "Place of Caxtil," and a new word for "Poto" could be found to refer to whatever is characteristic of Portugal
  • Constantinople: Contantinōplah or Coztantinōplah (from Sp. Constantinopla)
  • Jerusalem: Xelozallān (from Sp. Jerusalén)
    • Again, an interpretation of Spanish Jerusalén as Xelozal-lān, the "Place of Xelozal." It's up to the Nahuatl speaker/TL writer to decide what Xelozal might mean.
Awesome post. The proposed Nahuatlization kind of reminds me of the way Japanese transliterates foreign words into its phonological standards as well.

Is the back-formation of the word Caxtil from Caxtillan something that occurred frequently in Nahuatl?

I wonder if Aztecs would borrow political terms such as Republic, Empire, Sultanate, Tawantinsuyu from other areas or project their existing political terms onto existing states.
 
Is the back-formation of the word Caxtil from Caxtillan something that occurred frequently in Nahuatl?
No. As mentioned, Spanish-derived toponyms were usually perceived as a single foreign morpheme with only some minor alterations to fit Nahuatl phonology, like replacing /f/ with /p/. No back-formation. Caxtil is exceptional.

Toponyms taken from other Mesoamerican languages were more commonly calqued (translated) instead of being transliterated:
  • Mixtec toponym: "Yuta Tnoho," meaning "River of Words"
    • Nahuatl toponym: "Āpōhuallān," meaning "Water-Reading Place," i.e. "Water of Reading," i.e. "River of Words"
  • Mixtec toponym: "Añute," meaning "Sand Place"
    • Nahuatl toponym: "Xaltepēc," meaning "At Sand-Mountain" (a lot of Nahuatl toponyms translate literally to "At X" instead of just "X").
  • Maya toponym: "B'oko'," meaning "Shield"
    • Nahuatl toponym: "Chīmaltenanco," meaning "At Shield-Fortress"
Sometimes the Nahuatl toponyms don't appear to have any relation to the local name:
  • Maya toponym: "Xelajub'," meaning "At the Foot of (the mountain)"
    • Nahuatl toponym: "Quetzaltenanco," meaning "At Feather-Fortress"
  • Tarascan toponym: "Tzintzuntzan," meaning "Hummingbird Place"
    • Nahuatl toponym: "Michhuahcān," meaning "Fishermen Place"
Calquing foreign toponyms was fairly common in Mesoamerica for some reason beyond just Nahuatl, BTW.
 
Every Grass in Java’s post is extremely comprehensive and the calquing of local places is something I’ve also read about and it features in my Mesoamerican TL during the Nahuatlization of the The Zapotec lands.

But one thing I remember is that apparently around 1574 when English privateering was at its height the first Nahua speaking sailors returning to Mexico referred to England as ‘Quechollan’ or the ‘Flamingo Land’ due to one of them learning about the extensive swan flocks of the English monarchs.
 
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