Principal English Translation:
just, only, merely,=; but çan no: just
e.g. amo tlatla, zan quintocaya = they were not burning them, but they were burying them (in the sense of sino, in Spanish)
Robert Haskett and Stephanie Wood's notes from Nahuatl sessions with James Lockhart and subsequent research.
Orthographic Variants:
çanjust, only, merely, but
Alonso de Molina:
zan. solamente. (aduerbio.)
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 14r. col. 1. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.
çan. mas, o empero, coniunction aduersatiua.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, f. 14r.
Frances Karttunen:
ZAN only / solamente (M). See ZĀ.
Frances Karttunen, An Analytical Dictionary of Nahuatl (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 346.
Horacio Carochi / English:
çan = just, only
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), 499.
Andrés de Olmos:
Çan, vel çanio. -- Quierem dezir solamente. Ex. : çan, vel çanio mochiuaz y, solamente se hara esto. Otras vezes esta en lugar de pronombre, y entonces quiere dezir quel solo, apartando el çan. Otras vezes el çan esta en lugar de mas, o denota afirmacion, o se pone por ornato.
Andrés de Olmos, Arte para aprender la lengua Mexicana, ed. Rémi Siméon, facsimile edition ed. Miguel León-Portilla (Guadalajara: Edmundo Aviña Levy, 1972), 181.
Lockhart’s Nahuatl as Written:
particle. only, just merely, but. when niman intensifies it yet more, çan iuh, as it is, without improvement or change. çan īxquich, only. çan nō, likewise. çan ye nō (also çan ye nō ihui) indicates sameness. see çaniyoh.
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), 213.
Attestations from sources in English:
çan no: just
e.g. amo tlatla, zan quintocaya = they were not burning them, but they were burying them (in the sense of sino, in Spanish)
Robert Haskett and Stephanie Wood's notes from Nahuatl sessions with James Lockhart and subsequent research.
IDIEZ def. náhuatl:
1. Quimanextia macehualli, tecuani, tlapiyalli, tlamantli zo tlachihualiztli tlen quiixcahuiltihtoqueh. “Zan niyaz millah huan teipan nitequitiz mohuanya. ” 2. Quemmanticah quiyolchicahua ceyoc tlahtolli. Yeca, NIMĀN, “Ontlami ce tlamantli teipan pan ce tlatoctzin mochihua ceyoc” eli ZANNIMĀN, “Zan ontlami ce tlamantli teipan pan ce tlatoctzin mochihua ceyoc. ”
Audio for Examples in Context:
audio_acquiya_quichiuhqui:
speaker:
Eastern Huastecan Nahuatl speaker, spring 2012
audio_transcription:
Nouhquiya axcanah zan, zan niccuamachilia zan tlen tlatectli.
audio_translation_SPN:
Tampoco lo entiendo como algo que solamente tenga que ver con los recortes.