(mis)understanding of the concept the Spaniards were trying to translate, or it may have been due to the absence of a single Mixtec word correlating to the Spanish term in question. For example, the Spanish entry 'contar historias' provides no less than five Mixtec definitional phrases, each providing a slightly different understanding of what the ‘telling of stories’ would involve:

yondaanuutnuhundi: to write on [of] lineage
yonandasininondi yaa tnuhu: to recount the song of lineage
yonacanindi tnuhu: to order/establish lineage
yonatnayndi tnuhu: to arrange/address lineage
yonacahuindi tnuhu: to read or speak of lineage (6)

In other cases, the Mixtecs seem to have provided a literal translation of an 
unfamiliar concept for which the Spaniards requested a definition. A “Roman 
nose” ('naris roma'), for example, is defined as dziitni tnama--literally 
translated as “wide nose.” A clock ('reloj') is descriptively defined as caa 
cánda maa-- “iron which divides into sections from the middle.”(7)