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formal speech (see attestations)
"The magical-religious speech of the Nahua is one of the ceremonial and esoteric languages described by Zumthor as 'sacred,' 'erudite,' or 'poetic.' Referring to the Mesoamerican context in particular, Alfredo López Austin (1967:1) termed these as 'magical,' whereas Maarten Jansen (1985:3) described them as 'divine languages.' Jansen demonstrates that this type of language, iya, also existed in Mixtec culture and was remarkable for its 'metaphors and elegant expressions' (7-10). At the present time these expressions continue to be used in ritual discourse, for example in the Mixtec sahu (López García 2007; Jansen and Pérez Jiménez 2008:88) and in the yectlatolli, 'formal speech' of the Nahua from Puebla and the State of Mexico (Peralta Ramírez 2004:175)."