Indian Languages Database
Record Details
America: being an accurate description of the New World; containing the original of the inhabitants... Collected and ... augmented ... by John Ogilby.
London: Thomas Johnson, for the author, 1670 [i.e.,1671]
Physical Description: [8], 674, [2] p., [56] leaves of plates (some folded) : ill., maps, ports ; 41 cm. (fol.)
Call number: F671/ M765a1/ 2-size
Accession number: 30182
Notes: Contains 3 vocabularies. Equivalents for a few English words, including cardinal numbers 1-4, are given in languages spoken by several Amerindian peoples (including “Hurones... Mexicans... inhabitants of New-Netherland... Brasilians... Jaos... Sankikanders... Canadensers... Islanders discover’d by the Spaniards”, and inhabitants of Hispaniola), with phonetic comparison to Hebrew. Refers to Johannes de Laet, Pietro Martire d’Anghiera, “and other writers concerning the West-Indies” (p. 26).
Brief remarks on “The language of the Brasilians”, referring to Joseph Anchieta, are followed by noun and verb lists drawn from Emanuel de Moraes, with English equivalents for approximately 200 terms “of the most usual words of the general language in Brasile”, in alphabetical order of Indian language transcriptions (p. 485-487). Other distinct tribes or divisions of people, each with “its peculiar tongue”, are listed as “Tupinambu, Tabaiaras, Potigi-iguaras, Marhuites, Waimoores, Tomonimenos, Waitaquazes, Wainasses, Topinaques, Pories, Molopaques, Motaias, Biheros, Waianawasons, Tamoies, Tocomans en Cariogs” (p. 487).
"A view of the Chilesian language", drawn from Elias Herkmans, lists several hundred Araucanian [Mapuche] words and phrases with English equivalents (p. 634-639).
Authorship contested.
Translated and adapted, with new material added, from De Nieuwe en onbekende Weereld, first published, Amsterdam, 1671. This English version is basically the same work as the Dutch original, despite claims of "author," John Ogilby, who does not even include Montanus in his “Catalogue of the authors, either mention’d or made use of in this volume” (p. [3]). Attribution to Montanus according to Sabin and Paltsits. In the German translation, published two years later under the title Die unbekante Neue Welt, oder Beschreibung des Welt-Teils Amerika, und des Sud-Landes, Amsterdam, 1673, Olfert Dapper is credited with being the author of the original edition in Dutch.
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Languages: Mapuche / Tupi
Genre: Vocabulary
Region: Brazil / Spanish America
