America's First Linguists: Their Objectives and Methods

Grass, Roland

doi:10.2307/336398

Cited by 5 publications

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“…By 1524, he was sent on Cortés's request to live with the Franciscans, and in 1528 he became a member of the Franciscan order. 28 Molina went on to become a prolific missionary author whose work for the evangelization was indispensable. He composed the first printed grammar in Nahuatl, the Arte de la lengua mexicana y castellana (1571) and worked in close collaboration with the Nahuas, in particular with the Texcocan Ribas, one of the attendees of the Colegio de la Santa Cruz, who was exceptionally fluent in Latin and who helped Molina write the Arte y vocabulario mexicano.…”

Section: Literacy Language Dissemination and Cultural Contactmentioning

confidence: 99%

Primer for a New World

Vincke¹

2020

The Americas

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The Cartilla para enseñar a leer (1569), attributed to Flemish Franciscan Pedro de Gante, was one of the most important primers from the early years of the viceroyalty of New Spain. Nevertheless, the primer's importance during the process of cultural contact has been largely ignored. As did other primers of the period, the Cartilla contained the most important prayers, but what sets the Cartilla aside is that its selection of prayers is presented in a trilingual version, in Castilian, Latin, and Nahuatl. The content of the Cartilla invites the question as to why Gante, a missionary focused on writing doctrinal works in Nahuatl, would compose a primer that is trilingual, but raises another that is perhaps more perplexing: Why were most of the prayers in Castilian? In this article, I intend to shed a light on Gante's decision to create a complex tool that could be employed by a mixed audience of Castilian, creole, mestizo and Nahua children. By doing this, Gante unwittingly started a process of cultural contact in which language played a pivotal role. The Cartilla thus presents itself as a multifaceted tool that helped shaped the culture of the Basin of Mexico during the early years of the viceroyalty.

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Section: Literacy Language Dissemination and Cultural Contactmentioning

confidence: 99%

Primer for a New World

Vincke¹

2020

The Americas

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La alfabetización de la lengua nahuatl

Rubio¹,

Bustamante²

1984

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Summary The alphabetization of the Nahuatl language represents the first European experiment in the transformation of an American language into a literary language, an experiment realized in a fashion parallel to the first studies of the European vernaculars. This alphabetization was realized in a long process from the earliest contacts to the middle of the 17th century. It is possible to discern at least three stages. The first corresponds to the period which immediately folows the conquest (1523–1547). All efforts were concentrated at the time on the learning of the language, a learning without precedent, resulting in its being cast in the Procrustian bed of the orthographic conventions of Castillian. The goal was not proper alphabetization. The second stage (1547–1595) corresponds to a period in the deepening of the knowledge of Nahuatl, a process reflected in the first ‘artes’ or treatises and vocabularies. This improved knowledge of the language led to the realization that a more appropriate orthography was required. The third and final stage in the alphabetization of Nahuatl (1595–1673) is characterized by linguistic research which no doubt has its antecedents in the investigation of other ‘exotic’ languages and which is aimed at an improved analysis of this language of Mexico. The orthographic endeavours are now directed toward a reform of the writing system which includes the introduction of new characters in an attempt to capture the phonological particularities of Nahuatl. From this history of the long process of alphabetization, it is evident that a detailed analysis of the phonological descriptions and the orthographic principles conserved in the treatises until 1673 not only allows us to appreciate the achievements of these early linguists but also provides us with valuable information about the phonological system of classical Nahuatl as well as of Castillian of the period.

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Aprendizaje de lenguas indígenas por parte de españoles en Nueva España en los primeros cien años después de la conquista

Brain

2010

Colonial Latin American Review

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America's First Linguists: Their Objectives and Methods

Cited by 5 publications

References 0 publications

Primer for a New World

Primer for a New World

La alfabetización de la lengua nahuatl

Aprendizaje de lenguas indígenas por parte de españoles en Nueva España en los primeros cien años después de la conquista

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