draft manuscript - Linguistics - University of California, Berkeley
draft manuscript - Linguistics - University of California, Berkeley
draft manuscript - Linguistics - University of California, Berkeley
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9.2.3 Practical Language Learning and Reliance on Translators<br />
As indicated in the previous section, Maynas Jesuits made use <strong>of</strong> descriptive linguistic materials<br />
when available, but there were no doubt many cases in which materials were not available. In either<br />
case, the commitment to learning lenguas particulares appears to have been significant. Uriarte, for<br />
example, identifies practical language learning as his most important task upon taking up his post<br />
at San Joaquín de Omaguas:<br />
Dejada por Dios la sosegada vida, que tenía entre mis sanregis, hube de mudar rumbo<br />
y aplicarme a las diversas ocupaciones que incumbían a este pueblo y <strong>of</strong>icio, de cuidar<br />
de otros nuestros, pues fuera de la primera obligación de doctrinar y aplicarme<br />
a diversas lenguas, aunque predominaba la omagua (mas para adultos era precisa<br />
noticia de mayoruna, masamaes), era preciso atender al abasto de toda la Misión baja<br />
y de Napo...<br />
(Uriarte [1776]1986:225, emphasis ours) 349<br />
The degree to which individual Jesuits became gained fluency in lenguas particulares appears<br />
to have varied significantly, and some, like the Italian Jesuit Ignacio Maria Franciscis, who worked<br />
briefly in San Joaquín de Omaguas, were singled out for their language learning ability. Franciscis 350<br />
(b. 1705 Palermo – d. 1777 Palermo) 351 spent four months with Uriarte in San Joaquín de Omaguas<br />
in order to oversee the mission annex <strong>of</strong> San Fernando de Mayorunas, 352 and both Juan de Velasco<br />
(b. 1727 Riobamba – d. 1792 Faenza), an Ecuadorean Jesuit, and Uriarte commented on Franciscis’<br />
talent for language learning. De Velasco ([1789]1981:517-518, emphasis ours) comments:<br />
I am still in Quito slaving over learning these diverse native languages, which are entirely foreign<br />
to a European missionary. A priest as experienced as Father Johannes Baptist Julian, from Upper<br />
Germany, wrote to us that upon arriving at his mission settlement he hadn’t been able to speak even<br />
one word with the Indians, let alone understand them.<br />
349 Translation (ours):<br />
God having abandoned the peaceful life that I had led among my sanregis [i.e., the residents <strong>of</strong> San<br />
Regis], I was compelled to change course and apply myself to the various affairs that are incumbent<br />
upon this community [San Joaquín] and <strong>of</strong>fice, watching over our other concerns, since apart from<br />
the first obligation to proselytize and apply myself to the various languages, even though<br />
Omagua predominated (save for the adults for whom the gospel was also needed in Mayoruna and<br />
Masamae [a Yameo dialect]), it was necessary to attend to the supply <strong>of</strong> the entire lower Mission and<br />
that <strong>of</strong> the Napo...<br />
350 Franciscis’ work in the New World began when he arrived in the Darién region <strong>of</strong> the Reino de Tierra Firme<br />
(modern-day Panama) in 1741 (Pacheco (1959:300), cited in Gallup-Díaz (2001:549)), where he wrote a grammar,<br />
vocabulary and catechism in lengua dariela (Hervás y Panduro 1800:280), a Chocoan language (Constenla Umaña<br />
2004). He subsequently worked in Guayaquil and Quito before coming to Maynas in 1748 (Uriarte ([1776]1986:288),<br />
de Velasco ([1789]1981:513)). He was made missionary at Pebas and then later transferred to San José de Pinches<br />
(a mission on the Pastaza founded in 1698 by Nicolás Lanzamani (de Velasco [1789]1981:510)), where he seems<br />
to have spent several years (Uriarte [1776]1986:289). Following his four-month stay in San Joaquín (see above),<br />
he was ordered back to Pinches, and then to Guayaquil, where he resided at the time <strong>of</strong> the expulsion (Uriarte<br />
[1776]1986:290).<br />
351 See footnote 150.<br />
352 San Fernando de Mayorunas, a Panoan settlement on the opposite bank <strong>of</strong> the Amazon river from San Joaquín de<br />
Omaguas, was <strong>of</strong>ficially christened in January 1757 (Uriarte [1776]1986:249), but had been extant at least since<br />
1754 (Uriarte [1754]1942:76).<br />
129