⚠ Site currently under repair ⚠

Search Issues: Update 2026-08-06

Some of our more complex, multi-field searches (such as the search field on our homepage and Search All Fields) are currently under repair and may not work as expected.

Thank you to all our users who emailed to alert us to the problem! We hope to have it repaired soon.

Meanwhile, elements of the Advanced Search are working and the Alphabetical Listings are working, too.

montli.

Headword: 
montli.
Principal English Translation: 

son-in-law (see Karttunen)

IPAspelling: 
moːntɬi
Alonso de Molina: 

montli. yerno. marido de hija, o ratonera
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 059v. col. 1. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen: 

MŌN-TLI son-in-law / yerno, marido de hija |M) In general, MŌN carries the sense of ‘related by marriage.’ CIHUĀMŌN-TLI is ‘daughter-in-law,’ MŌNNĀN-TLI ‘mother-in-law,’ and MŌNTAH-TLI ‘father-in-law.’ T has the reflex of a short vowel in this item, but in C and Z it is long. M provides an additional gloss 'mousetrap/ which probably belongs to a different lexical item which is not attested in the sources for this dictionary.
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 153.

Attestations from sources in English: 

auh mo chintin ynín móhuan yoltoneuhtícatca, caçecen quinequia tlatoca-tíz = Auh mochi:nti:n in i:nmo:huan yolto:ne:uhti catca cah cecen quinequia tlahtohca:tiz = And all of their sons-in-law were mutinous, because each one wanted to rule.
Anónimo mexicano, ed. Richley H. Crapo and Bonnie Glass-Coffin (Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2005), 52.

auh ynic yeï Ymon ytoca Tzontecomatl, quimacac ynpilotl tlatocayotl CoatlYchan; tetzcôco = And so to his third son-in-law, Tzontecomatl, he gave the nobility and rulership of Coatlichan and Tetzcoco
Anónimo mexicano, ed. Richley H. Crapo and Bonnie Glass-Coffin (Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2005), 16.

nomontzi Cayetano Salvador = my son-in-law Cayetano Salvador (Metepec, 1795)
Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 6, 76–77.

montli = son-in-law; cihuamontli (cioamontli) = daughter-in-law; montatli miccamontatli = father-in-law, father-in-law of a deceased person; monnantli, miccamonnantli = mother-in-law, mother-in-law of a deceased person; monculli (moncolli) = father of the parents-in-law; moncitli = mother of the parents-in-law (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 10 -- The People, No. 14, Part 11, 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, 1961), 7–8.

nomon (or) nomo = my son-in-law (the final "n" is sometimes omitted inadvertently)
Robert Haskett and Stephanie Wood's notes from Nahuatl sessions with James Lockhart and subsequent research.

auh in yehuatl omoteneuh Maria xucoatolnamacac cenca quintzatzatzillitihuia amo huel mihtoz motenehuaz yn ixquich acualli ayectli tencuicuitlatlahtolli yc quimahuatihuia cenca quinmahuizpollotihuia canel cihuatl, auh amo ҫan icel ynin cihuatl yhuan ymon yn moteylhuiq̃ = And the said María, seller of bitter atole, went along shouting loudly at them; all the bad and filthy language with which she went scolding at them cannot be said or told. She showed great disrespect for them, for she is a woman. But it was not this woman alone; her son-in-law made the complaint along with her (central Mexico, 1613)
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), 252–3.

Attestations from sources in Spanish: 

Se montli (The Phantom Lover: el amante fantasma). "Un muchacho cree ver a su novia y la sigue. Lo lleva hasta la orilla de la barranca pero él no la quiere seguir. Era la Llorona." (Escuchado en Benito Juárez, Pue. Barlow, 1945, 34.)
Fernando Horcasitas, "La narrativa oral náhuatl (1920–1975)," Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 13 (1978), 177–209, ver 190.

Juan Podiler espanol tomon = Juan Polidei, español, nuestro yerno (Xochimilco, 1577)
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), 212–213.

ynomontzin ytoca Ximeo = mi yerno que se llama Simeo (Santa Bárbara)
Vidas y bienes olvidados: Testamentos indígenas novohispanos, vol. 1, Testamentos en castellano del siglo XVI y en náhuatl y castellano de Ocotelulco de los siglos XVI y XVII, eds. Teresa Rojas Rabiela, Elsa Leticia Rea López, y Constantino Medina Lima (Mexico: CIESAS, 1999), 240–241.

auh ca za nicel oncan montli atle ymatica oquitlalli in tepantli = el solo fue yerno ninguna cosa por sus manos puso pared (Ciudad de Mexico, 1578)
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), 149.

IDIEZ morfema: 
mōntli.
IDIEZ traduc. inglés: 
s.o.ʻs son-in-law.
IDIEZ def. náhuatl: 
no. Macehualli iichpocauh itetah. “Ernesto imontli yalhuaya tequitic huanya notatah huan tequiti tlahuel chicahuac; naman zampa quitlaneuhqui ma tlamehuati imillah. ”
IDIEZ gramática: 
tlat.
themes: 
Family, Kinship, Descent