Principal English Translation:
to say something about someone (reverential of "itoa," to say) (see Karttunen)
Frances Karttunen:
IHTALHUIĀ vt to say something about someone / decir algo de alguno (C) In TLAHTALHUIĀ ‘to speak for someone, etc.,’ the prefix TLA- has been absorbed into the stem with the loss of initial I, but in B and C it is not lost when preceded by reflexive prefixes. It is lost, however, in T, where initial I deletion is more widespread. applic. (I)HTOĀ
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 99.
Lockhart’s Nahuatl as Written:
nic. applicative of ihtoa, used mainly as part of the reverential and not meaning to tell or say to someone, which is ilhuia. 221
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), 221.
Attestations from sources in Spanish:
Yehica ca yehuatzin oquimihtalhui, oquimoyocolili, oquimoyecalhui inic otiyol, inic otitlacat = Puesto que Él lo dijo, lo pensó, lo determinó, por esto tú has vivido, por esto tú has nacido
Huehuehtlahtolli. Testimonios de la antigua palabra, ed. Librado Silva Galeana y un estudio introductorio por Miguel León-Portilla (México: Secretaría de Educación Pública, Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1991), 50–51.