A Linguistic Analysis of Old Omagua Ecclesiastical Texts

Description

This monograph presents a detailed philological study of the oldest known texts written in Omagua, a Tupí-Guaraní language of western Amazonia. Produced in the 17th and/or 18th centuries by Jesuit missionaries as a central component of their evangelical work in the Gobierno de Maynas, these texts include: 1 ) a version of the Lord's Prayer (Pater Noster); 2) a short fragment of a longer catechism; 3) a second complete catechism; and 4) a Profession of Faith. In addition, we present an analysis of brief Omagua passages found in the diary of Manuel Uriarte, a Jesuit missionary active among the Omaguas during the mid-18th century. Each text is presented in a detailed interlinear format that allows the reader to follow, from the original lines of each text, analytical decisions regarding the successive steps of resegmentation of word boundaries, phonemicization, morphological segmentation and glossing, and generation of free translations. Each text is footnoted extensively with bibliographic and interpretive annotations. In addition to philological analyses of each text, we present a substantial grammatical sketch of Old Omagua (i.e., 17th- and/or 18th-century Omagua) as attested in these texts, drawing comparisons where helpful with modern Omagua, its sister language Kokama, ProtoOmagua-Kokama, and colonial-era Tupinambá, the next most closely related language. This grammatical sketch not only serves as the basis for insights into how Omagua has evolved since the early colonial period, and helps to clarify the relationship of Omagua and Kokama to other Tupí-Guaraní languages (a subject of much controversy), but also allows the reader to critically evaluate the interlinearized and annotated ecclesiastical texts presented in the volume. We conclude by historically contextualizing the production and circulation of Omagua ecclesiastical texts, summarizing Jesuit engagement with the linguistic diversity of the Gobierno de Maynas, and discussing the strategic role played by successively reworked and re-edited ecclesiastical texts in surmounting the evangelical challenges posed by this diversity. We further show how a close examination of the texts themselves yields additional insights into Jesuit linguistic and text development practices. List of Tables List of Figures Acknowledgments Morphemes and Abbreviations Introduction Grammatical Sketch of Old Omagua Phonological Inventory Morphology Person-Marking Paradigms Vowel Hiatus Resolution Nominal Morphology Number Augmentative & Diminutive Nominal Past Tense =pua Nominal Future Tense =a Possession Verbal Morphology Tense-Aspect-Mood Tense Imperfective =ai upa `come to an end, run out' Irrealis =mia Certainty =tina Derivational Morphology Causative -ta Applicative =supe Clausal Nominalizers Container Nominalizer -iu Possessive Nominalizer =yaa Syntax Basic Clause Structure Nominal Modification Demonstratives and Quantifiers Noun-Noun Modification Modification via Nominalization of Stative Verb Adpositional Phrases Negation Clausal Negator oaya Privative =1ma Core Negator -s1ma Prohibitive ename Optative tene Interrogatives Polar Interrogatives Content Interrogative Noun-Phrase Coordination Coordination with weanu Coordination with Comitative =mukui Similative =ya Exact Similative maiamania Clause-Linking Purposive Markers Positive Purpose =senuni Negative Purpose =maka Non-assertive Marker =ai Temporal Relations Temporal Posteriority =sakap11 `after' Temporal Overlap: Point =pupekatu `when' Temporal Overlap: Period =kate `while' Reason Markers =ikua `because (of)' =sep1 `because (of)' Focus Markers Contrastive Focus puai Exclusive Focus =nani Verum Focus =semai Non-Verbal Predication Text Conventions Multilinear Text Format Orthographic Representations Lord's Prayer Bibliographic History and Previous Linguistic Study HervasYPanduro1787a Adelung1813a Rivet1910 Text of the Lord's Prayer Catechism Fragment Bibliographic History and Previous Linguistic Study GonzalezSuarez1904 Rivet1910 Cabral1995 Text of Catechism Fragment Full Catechism Bibliographic History and Previous Linguistic Study EspinosaPerez1935 Uriarte1952b, Uriarte1986 Text of Full Catechism Profession of Faith Omagua Passages in Uriarte's Diaries Part II, Section 71 Part II, Section 82 Part II, Section 105 Part III, Section 13 Part III, Section 28 Part III, Section 50 Part IV, Section 16 Part IV, Section 58 Part IV, Sections 121-122 Isolated Lexical Items Historical Context of Old Omagua Texts Jesuit Interactions with the Omagua in Maynas Language and Evangelization in Maynas Lenguas generales and lenguas particulares in Maynas Jesuit Linguistics in Maynas Practical Language Learning and Reliance on Translators Ecclesiastical Text Development and Use Jesuit Language Use in Old Omagua Ecclesiastical Texts Neologisms in Old Omagua Ecclesiastical Texts Calques in Old Omagua Ecclesiastical texts Comitative =mukui in Manner Adverbial Constructions Functional Extension of =sui ablative Extensions of =ai diffuse locative Semantic Extension of Lexical Items Linguistic Comparison of Catechism Texts Text History Conclusion