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nanyotl.

Headword: 
nanyotl.
Principal English Translation: 

maternity (see Lockhart); motherhood, the responsibilities of motherhood (see Karttunen)

Orthographic Variants: 
naiotl, naniotl
IPAspelling: 
nɑːnyoːtɬ
Alonso de Molina: 

nanyotl. matriz, generalmente.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 063r. col. 1. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen: 

NĀNYŌ-TL motherhood, the responsibilities of motherhood / matriz generalmente (M), maternitas, oficio de madre (C) [(2)Cf.53r|. See NĀN-TLI, -YŌ.
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 160.

Lockhart’s Nahuatl as Written: 

often in phrase in nānyōtl in tahyōtl, parenthood. nān(tli), -yōtl. 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), 226.

Attestations from sources in English: 

a ca njcan onqujҫa, in naiotl, in taiotl: manoҫo ontlantie in amonaiotzin, in amotaiotzin = motherhood, fatherhood are exercised here. Consummate your motherhood, your fatherhood (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 6 -- Rhetoric and Moral Philosophy, No. 14, Part 7, 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), 144.

in njqujlochtia, in amonaniotzin, in amotaiotzin: ma tlaltech ximaxitican, ma amechmotlamatcatlalili in totecujo = I reply to your motherhood, to your fatherhood. Find repose. May our lord rest you in peace (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
Fr. Bernardino de Sahagún, Florentine Codex: General History of the Things of New Spain; Book 6 -- Rhetoric and Moral Philosophy, No. 14, Part 7, 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), 182.