tlatli.

Headword:

tlatli.

Principal English Translation:

uncle, brother of the father or mother

IPAspelling:

tɬɑhtɬi

Alonso de Molina:

tlatli. tio, hermano de padre, o de madre.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 140r. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen:

TLAH-TLI uncle / tío, hermano de padre o de madre (M) [(1)Bf.11v,(4)Cf.2v,83v,125r,(2)Tp.135,(1)Rp.148]. This displays a stem alternation of short vowel and glottal stop TLAH with long vowel TLĀ. The absolutive suffix –TLI implies stem-final H, and the glottal stop is specifically marked with a diacritic in B, C and R. Yet C uses the
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 265. possessed form meaning ‘my uncle’ to illustrate that final syllables ending in a long vowel have low tone. If the only attestation of the long vowel were in C, it might be taken for a mistake, albeit a disturbing one, since it would not be simply an incorrect diacritic, but an ill-chosen example atypical of C. But T also gives two possessed forms, one plural and the other honorific, both with a long vowel rather than a short vowel and glottal stop. In three attestations, however, (one from B and two from C) there is a short vowel and glottal stop in honorific possessed forms. A case might be made for taking the long vowel variant as basic and the vowel-shortening glottal stop as intrusive, as it is in some cases between stem and honorific –TZIN (ACHIHTZIN ‘a bit,’ ĪCIHUĀHUAHTZIN ‘his wife’), but it would not help here, since the glottal stop precedes even the absolutive suffix –TLI, on the one hand, and since –TZIN is preceded by the long vowel variant in one attestation from T on the other. TLAH-TLI ‘uncle’ contrasts with TAH-TLI ‘father’ which is also exceptional in view of the early and general historical change *TA

Lockhart’s Nahuatl as Written:

according to Carochi the possessed form is -tlā. related to
tah(tli).
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), 238.

Attestations from sources in English:

in tetla, ytech necaualoteuani, itech necahualoni, tenice, machice, mamale, naoatile = One's uncle [is] the provider for those who are orphaned, the entrusted one, the tutor, the manager, the provider of support; the one who takes charge, who directs. (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), 3.

niquipialtian ytlahuan = I make guardians her uncles (Coyoacan, 1568)
Beyond the Codices, eds. Arthur J.O. Anderson, Frances Berdan, and James Lockhart (Los Angeles: UCLA Latin American Center, 1976), Doc. 11, 90–91.

notla, notlatzin = my uncle
Robert Haskett and Stephanie Wood's notes from Nahuatl sessions with James Lockhart and subsequent research.

Attestations from sources in Spanish:

chacui chini tanquehue xihuiqui no tlatzin ximotlali ypan ycpalli chitao = [calendrical name] Ven, tío mío, siéntate en la silla. (Quauhtinchan, s. XVI)
Historia Tolteca-Chichimeca, eds. Paul Kirchhoff, Lina Odena Güemes, y Luis Reyes García (México: CISINAH, INAH-SEP, 1976), 131.

themes:

Family, Kinship, Descent

⚠ Site currently under repair ⚠

Search Issues: Update 2026-08-06