Principal English Translation:
because, since, why (explanation to follow); that (he said that); surely, certainly; for
Alonso de Molina:
ca. ni. (pret. onicatca.) estar, o ser.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 10r. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.
ca. porque. conjunction para dar razon de algo.
Alonso de Molina, Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana, 1571, part 2, Nahuatl to Spanish, f. 10r. col. 2. Thanks to Joe Campbell for providing the transcription.
Horacio Carochi / English:
ca = introductory, emphatic, and causal particle
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), 68-69, 405 n7, 498.
Attestations from sources in English:
ye ica ca = because, for
Robert Haskett and Stephanie Wood's notes from Nahuatl sessions with James Lockhart and subsequent research.
o ca = behold
Beyond the Codices, 36n12.
Attestations from sources in Spanish:
ka neli nimococoa = que es verdad que estoy enfermo (Tecamachalco, Puebla, "1548", transl. 1717)
Vidas y bienes olvidados: Testamentos indígenas novohispanos, vol. 2, Testamentos en náhuatl y castellano del siglo XVI, eds., Teresa Rojas Rabiela, Elsa Leticia Rea López, Constantino Medina Lima (Mexico: Consejo Nacional de Ciencias Tecnología, 1999), 82–83.