how? in what manner or condition?; how, what; by late period in New Spain, this worked in many ways like the Spanish "como", that (see Karttunen, Molina, Carochi/Lockhart)
quenami (adverb) = as, the same as
Thus a common equivalence in Stage 3 Nahuatl involved quenami, originally meaning something that is in a certain manner, most often used interrogatively (what is it like?), which became the equivalent of Spanish como in the specific sense of as, in a certain capacity. In the Puebla text we find that in an emergency the bishop attired himself quenami se soldado, como un soldado, as soldier (f. 18v)
nehual quenami jues = I as judge (functioning like "como," in the capacity of);
quenami mitlania se pedaso tlali = how–or that–a piece of land is requested
quenamj molli = all kinds of sauce (central Mexico, sixteenth century)
in quenami yntequihu iezqui = how their duties are to be (Tlaxcala, 1547)
Canpa oquitocac ymetoton San quenami Sentecpantli = where he planted his small magueyes, about twenty of them
The meaning here might be "como viente," i.e., about twenty, or possibly it could be as they are in a row. (San Miguel Aticpac, Toluca Valley, 1711)
ca mitlaniliz yn amatlynic mochi motamachihuaz yca in tlalcuahuitl yn quename yc mani = que se le pidan los papeles y se mida con vara de medir tierras cómo está