Nonsymmetric Macdonald polynomials and matrix coefficients for unramified principal series

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.