draft manuscript - Linguistics - University of California, Berkeley

The above example is the only attestation in the ecclesiastical texts of the applicative function
of =supe, which elsewhere functions as a postposition that attaches to nouns and licenses oblique arguments
denoting a goal. It is not attested synchronically. However, an applicative -tsupe has been
described for Kokama-Kokamilla (Vallejos Yopán 2010a:380-382), and we assume it to be reconstructable
to Proto-Omagua-Kokama (see §2.2.3.2.2). 288 With regard to its form, note that Uriarte
writes , with an initial unexpected affricate. 289 We assume this to be an idiosyncratic
orthographic representation, and not evidence for the alternative hypothesis that the applicative
and oblique-licensing postposition reconstruct to distinct morphemes in Proto-Omagua-Kokama.
8.6 Part III, Section 50
At the beginning of 1764, when Uriarte was about to end his seven-year period as the missionary
among the Omagua in San Joaquín, he attempted to hand over a set of wax tablets to the incoming
priest, on which were recorded the debts owed by community residents to the mission for borrowing
tools to carry out various tasks. However, the incoming priest, apparently overwhelmed at the
thought of remaining alone in San Joaquín, refused responsibility for the tablets, telling Uriarte
that he should turn them over to a secular official named Ponce. Uriarte refused, and instead
pardoned all of the residents’ debts.
The Omaguas of San Joaquín were apparently unsatisfied with this turn of events, since they
subsequently complained to Ponce that they did not receive payment for wax that they had collected.
One infers that Uriarte took the cancellation of their debts to the mission as having relieved him of
the obligation to pay them, but that the Omaguas understood the situation differently, as evident
from the utterance in (8.7), which was relayed to him via Ponce.
(8.7) a. Visanipura tenepeta mura: roaya yene zagauite marai, Mapa zupe Patiri zui.
b. Visanipura tenepeta mura: roaya yenezagauite marai, Mapazupe Patirizui.
c. wiSanipuRa tenepeta muRa. Roaya yenesawaiti maRai mapasupe patiRisui.
288 Espinosa appears to agree with the interpretation of =supe as an applicative. The following passage contains his
initials and appears as footnote (12) in Uriarte ([1776]1986:329).
A la letra: No mezquinar para Andrés; yo muerto después llevar Padre casa a (Enane ucacra chupi
andres ta-umanu zacapuare, erusu Padre uca cati). No para mezquinar a Andrés, expresión enfática
equivalente a éstas: No has de mezquinar, no mezquines a Andrés. Mezquinar: modismo regional
equivalente a escatimar. Traducción completa: No escatimes a Andrés; yo, después que muera, (lo)
llevarás a casa del Padre.
Translation (ours):
Literally: Not be stingy for Andrés; I dead after take Father house to (Enane ucacra chupi andres
ta-umanu zacapuare, erusu Padre uca cati). Not to be stingy with Andrés, an emphatic expression
equivalent to the following: You must not be stingy with, don’t be stingy with Andrés. Mezquinar,
a regionalism equivalent to escatimar. The complete translation: Don’t skimp with Andrés; after I
die, take (him) to the house of the Father.
Note that Espinosa’s representation of this section of the manuscript (included parenthetically in the quote above)
differs from Bayle’s. Both contain features that are divergent from the proper phonemic representation of the
Omagua, such that it is impossible to know which more faithfully reflects the manuscript. However, we should note
that, in general, Espinosa appears to have taken more liberty in his transcription of the manuscript, presumably
because of his own personal knowledge of Omagua.
289 Additionally, note that, although the final vowel appears to follow Uriarte’s typical pattern of representing
Old Omagua final /e/ as , he in fact represents the final vowel of this morpheme as in (8.7).
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