tatli.

Headword: 
tatli.
Principal English Translation: 

father (this is the form with the absolutive, but it was usually possessed)

Orthographic Variants: 
tahtli
IPAspelling: 
tɑhtɬi
Alonso de Molina: 

tatli. padre.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 91r. col. 1. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.

Frances Karttunen: 

TAH-TLI pl: TAHTIN, TĀTAHTIN father / padre (M) This contrasts with TLAH-TLI 'uncle.' For 'father' T and Z also have TĀTAH, a form widespread in modern Nahuatl. M has tata specifically as the term of address used by a child. TĀTAH See TAH-TLI. TĒTAH See TAH-TLI.
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 214.

Horacio Carochi / English: 

tàtli = father -- the saltillo and vowel length is important here, because tātlî = we drink
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), 27.

Lockhart’s Nahuatl as Written: 

totahtzin, a priest or friar. 232
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), 232.

Attestations from sources in English: 

Tatli, Teta, in teta tlacamecaionelhoaiutl, tlacamecaiopeuhcaiutl, in qualli yiollo teta yiel: tlaceliani, moiolitlacoani, motequipachoani, cuexane, teputze, macoche. = Father- One's Father: One's father [is] the source of lineage, the beginning of lineage. [He is] the sincere one. One's father [is] diligent, solicitous, compassionate, sympathetic; a careful administrator [of his household]. (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), 1.

ymixpa notahua = in the presence of my fathers [officials of the community] (Santiago Apóstol Quaxochtenco, Toluca Valley, 1703)
Caterina Pizzigoni, ed., Testaments of Toluca (Stanford: Stanford University Press and UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 2007), 241.

ymixipaznco notahuan nehual onitlaquilo notoca atonio silberio = I named Antonio Silverio did the writing before my fathers.
At the end of the document, the notary calls the local officials who serve as witnesses notahuan, "my fathers," a rare echo of the polite and elaborate speech more frequent in Nahuatl records of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.
nehual nifiscal de la mader santi yglesia = I am the fiscal of the holy mother church (Santa María de la Asunción, Toluca Valley, 1758)
Caterina Pizzigoni, ed., Testaments of Toluca (Stanford: Stanford University Press and UCLA Latin American Center Publications, 2007), 185.

in nānyōtl in tàyōtl = parenthood (Central Mexico, 1570–80)
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), 198.

in tetaoan quitoa = fathers would say
James Lockhart, We People Here: Nahuatl Accounts of the Conquest of Mexico, Repertorium Columbianum v. 1 (Los Angeles: UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 1993), 86.

totahhuan = 'our fathers' -- In the play, the Holly Fathers in Limbo are "totahhuan."
Louise M. Burkhart, Holy Wednesday: A Nahua Drama from Early Colonial Mexico (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996), 93.
nota, notatzin = my father
Robert Haskett and Stephanie Wood's notes from Nahuatl sessions with James Lockhart and subsequent research.

Nextepeoalli, otlamaxalli nicnonantia, nicnotatia. Inin tlatolli intechpa mitoaya in cioa, anozo oquichti = I have made my mother and father the garbage heap, the crossroads. This was said of women or men who congregated on the roads. Thelma D. Sullivan, "Nahuatl Proverbs, Conundrums, and Metaphors, Collected by Sahagún," Estudios de Cultura Náhuatl 4 (1963), 150–151.

Attestations from sources in Spanish: 

ynotlaçotatzitziuan = mis queridos Padres (Santa Bárbara Maxoxtlan, sin fecha)
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), 216–217.

Ca yehuatzin Dios huel monantzin, mottatzin = Porque Él, Dios, es tu misma madre, tu padre
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.

mochi pipiltzitzinti ayac ynantzin ytatzin omonamaca. = Todos los niños huérfanos se vendieron.
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, 38–39.

yeuantin nemaqueque mochiuhque yn itauan catca = ellos son los mercedados los que eran sus padres (Ciudad de México, 1558)
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), 101.

themes: 
Family, Kinship, Descent