pohua. | Nahuatl Dictionary

Headword:

pohua.

Principal English Translation:

to count; to read; take note of in a census; to relate; to measure

Orthographic Variants:

poa, popva, puhua, pua

IPAspelling:

poːwɑ

Frances Karttunen:

PŌHU(A) vt to count something, to read something, to recount, relate, or give account of something, to assign something / contar a algunos o encartarlos (M), contar cosa de cuenta o número, o relatar proceso e historia, o leer, o dar cuenta el mayordomo de su mayordomía o cosa semejante (M) There is an apparently lexicalized use of PŌHU(A) with the sense 'to be haughty,’ which appears here as a separate entry. M also has a transitive use meaning 'to sow seed again' which is not attested in the sources for this dictionary. PŌHUALO nonact. PŌHU(A).
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 201.

Horacio Carochi / English:

pōhua = to count, relate, read, etc.
Horacio Carochi, S.J., Grammar of the Mexican language with an explanation of its adverbs (1645), translated and edited with commentary by James Lockhart, UCLA Latin American Studies Volume 89 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 2001), 509.

Lockhart’s Nahuatl as Written:

nic. to count, read, relate, assign. Class 2: ōnicpōuh. -tech pōhua, to assign to. transitive counterpart of pōhui.
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), 230.

Attestations from sources in English:

yhuā in yehuatl franco xallacatl ca in tlaulli ca omoch quitamachiuato oquipouato yhuā yn ixquich metl ca omoch quipohuato yhuan oquicuiloto = And Francisco Xallacatl measured and counted all the shelled corn and counted all the maguey plants and wrote it down. (central Mexico, early seventeenth century)
Codex Chimalpahin: Society and Politics in Mexico Tenochtitlan, Tlatelolco, Culhuacan, and Other Nahuatl Altepetl in Central Mexico; The Nahuatl and Spanish Annals and Accounts Collected and Recorded by don Domingo de San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Susan Schroeder (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), vol. 2, 218–219.

Ynnomocepouh in teocuitlatl chicuenpexo inpa chiquace tomi ipa melio = When totaled, the gold is 8 pesos and 6½ tomines (Coyoacan, mid-sixteenth century)
Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 25, 140–141.

yeuatl oquipouh min tepantemoc algazil = the person who measured it was Martín Tepantemoc, constable (Atenantitlan, 1554)
Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 9, 86–87.

ma yc timotlapouti yn ac tehuatl tixpiano in ticpohuaz = do not be confused by this, you who are Christian and read [this account]
Codex Chimalpahin: Society and Politics in Mexico Tenochtitlan, Tlatelolco, Culhuacan, and Other Nahuatl Altepetl in Central Mexico; The Nahuatl and Spanish Annals and Accounts Collected and Recorded by don Domingo de San Antón Muñón Chimalpahin Quauhtlehuanitzin, eds. and transl. Arthur J. O. Anderson and Susan Schroeder (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997), vol. 2, 32–33.

Attestations from sources in Spanish:

ma mochintin quimatica yn ixquichtin yn quittazque yn quipohuazque ynin amatl = sepan todos los que vean [y] lean este documento
El Libro de Testamentos de Culhuacán: Vida y muerte entre los nahuas del México central, siglo XVI, trans. y ed., Miguel León-Portilla y Sarah Cline, con la colaboración de Juan Carlos Torres López (Ciudad de México: Universidad Iberoamericana, 2023), 45.

mopouh yn itlatlaliltzin totatzin frai Al[ons]o de Molina yehuatl in conffessionario, etc. = se dio lectura a la obra dispuesta por nuestro padre fray Alonso de Molina, el Confesionario, (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), 188.

Aun yn semibreue vme gonpas mopoa can noyuhqui y pavsa = Y la breve, dos pulsos para que se le cuente igual que a la pausa (seventeenth-century Guatemala)
Fernando Horcasitas y Alfred Lemmon, "El Tratado de Santa Eulalia: un manuscrito musical náhuatl," Tlalocan 12 (1997), 110–111.

ynin macuiltetl calli yn huel notech pouhtica = estos cinco aposentos que a mí me pertenecen (Tepotzotlan, 1631)
Vidas y bienes olvidados: Testamentos en náhuatl y castellano del siglo XVII, vol. 3, Teresa Rojas Rabiela, et al, eds. (México: CIESAS, 2002), 174–175.

ynocalecapohua ynocalnahuatlaca = mis circunvecinos y vecinos (San Salvador Tlalnepantla, 1618)
Vidas y bienes olvidados: Testamentos en náhuatl y castellano del siglo XVII, vol. 3, Teresa Rojas Rabiela, et al, eds. (México: CIESAS, 2002), 98–99.

zepa zepa mopovaz tlacat miye teoquit poliviz ypal gomunidad ypampa vel vecavaque Juezex ytic altepet quipova tlacat = Cada vez que se censa a la gente, se pierde mucho oro de la comunidad porque los jueces tardan mucho en el pueblo al censar a las personas.
Nuestro pesar, nuestra aflicción / tunetuliniliz, tucucuca; Memorias en lengua náhuatl enviadas a Felipe II por indígenas del Valle de Guatemala hacia 1572, introduction by Cristopher H. Lutz, paleography and translation by Karen Dakin (México: UNAM and Centro de Investigaciones Regionales de Mesoamérica, 1996, 26-27.

niz tipouhque yntechuan = formamos parte de ellos aquí
Anneliese Monnich, "El Altepeamatl de Ocoyacac, México," Indiana 2 (1974), 168.

themes:

Education