Indian Languages Database
Record Details
Historia D.N.J.C. in linguā pacasā, diocesis urbis de La Paz in Americā meridionali, Peru. Descripsit D.B. de Merian.
S.n.: S.l., [1825]
Physical Description: [1], 66 leaves ; 37 cm. (fol.)
Call number: Codex / Ind / 29 2-SIZE
Accession number: 04876
Notes: Ms. codex. Place of publication is conjectured as France in the JCB bibliographical file due to the "Blauw Rives" watermarks in the paper. This firm's location cannot be identified by any reference source. Dates of publication can be identified as between 1800, due to the paper, to up until 1825 when Bolivia was no longer considered to be part of Peru. The language name of "Pacasa" cannot be identified as a separate language or even a dialect. It can, however, be identified as a group of people or place in book 3, chapter 5 of Garcilaso de la Vega's Royal commentaries of the Incas, translated by Harold V. Livermore, Austin, Texas, 1966 gives this: "The Inca, having established his idolatry as usual and set up government over his new vassals, passed on to the province called Pacassa, reducing it's natives to his service unconditionally, and without battle or indeed resistance. All obeyed and venerated the child of the Sun". The "Pacasa" language, as identified on the title page, is, therefore, most probably either a dialect of Aymara or the Aymara language itself. Pacasa probably refers to Picajes, the colonial province in which La Paz was located and the the indigenous people of that province. Title page is entirely in Latin; Pacasa text is written in black ink on alternative ruled lines with the Latin translation underlined in red ink. Text is only on the left side of the leaf and the right side has been left blank. Each Latin word is surmounted by a number correspondingly borne by the Pacasa word it translates. Each section is unnumbered but word enumeration begins anew with each section. John Carter Brown Library copy has erroneous ms. note at bottom of title page leaf reading: "With an interlinear translation into Spanish designating word for word" in the handwriting of the former owner Henry Cruse Murphy. John Carter Brown Library copy has ms. notes on front pastedown reading: "P Bertonio in the year 1599, in Juli, a town of the Aimaraes wrote saying, 'There are many nations of the Aimara Indians, such as the Canchis, Canas, Collas, Collaguas, Lupacas, Pacasas, Carancas, Chanchas and others who differ in their names as they do in their languages - I say that in this grammar is taught the Lupaca dialect, which is not inferior to the Pacasa, which among all the Aimarian languages, has the first place, and is much the most elegant of all these above named, etc.' - Herra, vol. I, p. 242". This note is followed by a ms. note reading: "P. Ludovico Bertonio was the author of a 'Vocabulario en la lengua aymara,' printed in the house of the Company of Jesuits in the pueblo of Juli in the province of Chucuito [?], Peru, in 1612[.] His Arte de la lengua aymara was printed at Rome in 1603 & 8 - see Ludewig & Turner p. 16-17."
Languages: Aymara / Quechua
Genre: Grammar / Vocabulary
Region: Spanish America
