audiencia.

(a loanword from Spanish)

Headword: 
audiencia.
Principal English Translation: 

high court; or, an audience before officials; in municipal documentation, usually refers to the members of the town council in session (see attestations)

Orthographic Variants: 
audensi, ahudensia, ahuatiensia, aodeçia, laodeçia
Lockhart’s Nahuatl as Written: 

audiēnciah. high court of a large region; also any judicial court in session. Sp.
James Lockhart, Nahuatl as Written: Lessons in Older Written Nahuatl, with Copious Examples and Texts (Stanford: Stanford University Press and UCLA Latin American Studies, 2001), 211.

Attestations from sources in English: 

Injc vme parrapho, itechpa tlatoa in audiençia in tlatoloian in vncan tlatoaia tecutlatoque. = Second paragraph, which telleth of the court, the place of discussion, where spoke the judges. (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 8 -- Kings and Lords, no. 14, Part IX, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble (Santa Fe and Salt Lake City: School of American Research and the University of Utah, 1951), 42.

cenca quinequi yn toyollo çan ompa yez cuauhtemalla audiencia = our hearts greatly desire that the Audiencia be there at Guatemala (Soconusco, 1565)
Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 30, 192–193.

with verb, chihua = to hold audience or session

campa mochivaz audiencia cuix cuauhtemallan cuix noço mexico = where the Audiencia should be held, whether in Guatemala or in Mexico City (San Pedro Huehuetlan, Soconusco, 1565)
Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 30, 192–193.

quitlatzontequilizque yn tecuitlatoque Audiencia Real = the judges of the Royal Audiencia will pass judgment on him (Tlaxcala, 1545)
Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 34, 212–213.

tlanamacoz momoztla oncan audi[enci]a quichivazque yn teilpiloyan caltenco = they will hold an audience there daily at the side of the jailhouse (Tlaxcala, 1547)
Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 22, 120–121.

yn tlatoque ompa yn mexco Audiencia Real = the judges there in the Royal Audiencia in Mexico City (Coyoacan, 1557)
Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 12, 92–93.

[yn] licenciado maldonado viscal te su maddad yn nica tecuhctlatolloya (for audiencia) = Licentiate Maldonado, His Majesty's prosecuting attorney here in the Royal Audiencia [Mexico City (by Coyoacan writer?), 1557)]
Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 35, 214–215.

nican audiencia imixpan Regidorme = here in session before the regidores (Coyoacan, 1557)
Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 12, 92–93.

domingo Ramos escro audiencia = Domingo Ramos, court notary(Coyoacan, 1557)
Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 12, 92–93.

nican audi[enci]a tlxn— = here in council in Tlaxcala (Tlaxcala, 1566)
Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 1, 52–53.

nican tispan ohualla nican audiencia = before us here in council (Coyoacan, 1575)
Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 13, 94–95.

nican toconteyxpantilizque yn audiencia Real = here we will make a statement to the Royal Audiencia (Mexico City, 1587)
Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 32, 202–203.

ante mi Don nicolas pelipe escrivano Real de la audiencia = Before me, Don Nicolás Felipe, royal notary of the council (S. Simón Pochtlan, Azcapotzalco, 1695)
Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 5, 72–73.

Y nican tecpan Audensi = Here in the courthouse in council (Azcapotzalco, 1703)
Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 14, 96–97.

nican ipan tohuahudensia Mexicapan = here in our Mexican council (Azcapotzalco, 1738)
Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 17, 102–103.

ahuatiencia real yntlanahuatiltzin (Cuernavaca, circa 1610)
Frances Karttunen and James Lockhart, Nahuatl in the Middle Years: Language Contact Phenomena in Texts of the Colonial Period, Linguistics 85 (Los Angeles, University of California Publications, 1976), Doc. 4, 101.

auh yn oacico yn huell achto. Audiencia mexico yehuatl ypan xihuitl de 1528 = The very first Audiencia of Mexico arrived in the year 1528 (central Mexico, 1608)
Annals of His Time: Don Domingo de San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin, James Lockhart, Susan Schroeder, and Doris Namala, eds. and transl. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006), 148–9.

yc oncan hualmoquixti, yc niman mocallaquico yn tecpan palacio, ynic oncan yxpantzinco quichiuhque yn ixquich tlamantli, yn tetlahtocatlaliliz. nemanilizmachiyotl. ynic tetlahtocatlallilo, ynic oquimocelilique yn audiencia real tlaca. oydoresme. ynic oncan axcan motlatocatillia = then came back out and entered the palace, when in his presence they performed all the different signs of assuming the rulership, by which he was installed in the rulership and the judges of the Royal Audiencia received him, so that he is ruler there today (central Mexico, 1611)
Annals of His Time: Don Domingo de San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin, James Lockhart, Susan Schroeder, and Doris Namala, eds. and transl. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006), 186–7.

Av in ascan. nican. siuitl. oticchiuhque Apelar. nican Audiençia. omaquiza. yeuantin. motoliniani. yvan yeuantin. telpupuchtin Ayamo namique. yvan veuetzitzin (Dakin ed. 1996: 16). = Now here in this year we made an appeal to the Audiencia court here: those who are afflicted and the young boys who are not married yet, and the elders, from here on are to be exempt [from tribute]. [annals (AHT, AJB), petition (M 4, M 7, PCC), will (TMT); time range: 1564–1612]
Loans in Colonial and Modern Nahuatl, eds. Agnieszka Brylak, Julia Madajczak, Justyna Olko, and John Sullivan, Trends in Linguistics Documentation 35 (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020), 90.

Attestations from sources in Spanish: 

yniz catqui nezqui ypeticion nican mopouh audiencia Tlaxcallan = aqui esta la peticion que se presento, que aqui se leyo en la audiencia de Tlaxcala (Tlaxcala, 1568)
Catálogo de documentos escritos en náhuatl, siglo XVI, vol. I (Tlaxcala: Gobierno del Estado de Tlaxcala y el Archivo Histórico del Estado de Tlaxcala, 2013), 123.

oncan yn audiencia teuctlatoloyan = en la audiencia a donde se juntan los señores (Xochimilco, 1582)
Vidas y bienes olvidados: Testamentos indígenas novohispanos, vol. 2, Testamentos en náhuatl y castellano del siglo XVI, eds., Teresa Rojas Rabiela, Elsa Leticia Rea López, Constantino Medina Lima (Mexico: Consejo Nacional de Ciencias Tecnología, 1999), 248–49.

yn axcan audiencia oticaquitiloque ce tlacatl mococohua quitlali ytestamento = estando en audiencia fuimos informados como un vecino que estaba enfermo queria ordenar su testamento (Ciudad de México, 1566)
Luis Reyes García, Eustaquio Celestino Solís, Armando Valencia Ríos, et al, Documentos nauas de la Ciudad de México del siglo XVI (México: Centro de Investigación y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social y Archivo General de la Nación, 1996), 182.

real laodeçia = Real Audiencia (Tlaxcala, 1662–1692)
Juan Buenaventura Zapata y Mendoza, Historia cronológica de la Noble Ciudad de Tlaxcala, transcripción paleográfica, traducción, presentación y notas por Luis Reyes García y Andrea Martínez Baracs (Tlaxcala y México: Universidad Autónoma de Tlaxcala, Secretaría de Extensión Universitaria y Difusión Cultural, y Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social, 1995), 280–281.

yquac netlapacholloc in teylpiloyan in xitin calli huel quitlamito callacohuaya[n] catca huel ce[n]tlacol yn xitin calnepanolli catca ycpac teuhctlatoloya[n] uncan mochilhuaya' audi[enci]a = entonces se aplastó la gente en la cárcel, se derrumbó el edificio hasta lo que era la entrada, se derrumbó totalmente una parte de la casa de dos pisos, encima estaba el juzgado [teuhctlatoloyan] allí se hacía audiencia (ca. 1582, México)
Luis Reyes García, ¿Como te confundes? ¿Acaso no somos conquistados? Anales de Juan Bautista (Mexico: Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social, Biblioteca Lorenzo Boturini Insigne y Nacional Basílica de Guadalupe, 2001), 144–145.

ce[n]tlacol yn xitin calnepanolli catca ycpac teuhctlatoloya]n] uncan mochihuaya’ audi[enci]a = una parte de la casa de dos pisos, encima estaba el juzgado [tecuhtlatoloyan] allí se hacía audiencia. (ca. 1582, México)
Luis Reyes García, ¿Como te confundes? ¿Acaso no somos conquistados? Anales de Juan Bautista (Mexico: Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social, Biblioteca Lorenzo Boturini Insigne y Nacional Basílica de Guadalupe, 2001), 144.