  We show how a certain limit of the nonsymmetric Macdonald polynomials appears
in the representation theory of semisimple groups over p--adic fields as matrix
coefficients for the unramified principal series representations. The result is
the nonsymmetric counterpart of a classical result relating the same limit of
the symmetric Macdonald polynomials to zonal spherical functions on groups of
p--adic type.
