draft manuscript - Linguistics - University of California, Berkeley

El P. Ignacio María Franciscis fue hombre doctísimo y de muy raros talentos, especialmente
para hacerse dueño, en poco tiempo, de los más difíciles idiomas ...
Tenía un don especialísimo para darse a entender y para instruir maravillosamente aun
a los más rudos, don con que podía haber hecho grandes progresos, si no se los hubiera
impedido su esencial insubsistencia... 353
And similarly (ibid.:517):
Llegó a poseer con perfección los idiomas del Perú, de los Encabellados y de los Omaguas,
y con suficiencia los de los Yameos y Mayorunas. 354
The fact that Franciscis was deemed such a prodigy makes it clear that most missionaries
had considerably greater difficulty in mastering the local languages. Especially in multilingual
settlements, there is evidence that different missionaries specialized in different languages. The
following passage, for example, which describes the blessing of a new church in San Joaquín IV in
1755, illustrates the complementary linguistic abilities of the missionaries working in and around
the mission settlement ([1776]1986:214):
Fueron viniendo los Padres para la dedicación o bendición; primero, el P. Joaquín Pietragrasa,
que bendijo la iglesia y cementerio con las ceremonias del ritual, acompañado en
procesión por la gente; el Padre Manuel Santos, portugués, que cantó Misa, y los Padres
Iriarte, Bahamonde y Martínez, con el pueblo. Hubo tres días de funciones; en el primero
dije yo, como pude, un breve panegírico en castellano. El segundo, el P. Vicesuperior,
en lengua omagua, y en el tercero, el P. Bahamonde, en yamea e inga. 355
Despite the efforts of missionaries to learn the relevant lenguas particulares, it is clear that multilingual
indigenous individuals, who served as interpreters, played a crucial role in Jesuit missionary
activity in Maynas. Uriarte, for example, made use of interpreters during his time as missionary, 356
353 Translation (ours):
Father Ignacio Maria Franciscis was a very learned man of unique talents, especially as concerned
mastering the most difficult of languages in little time ... He had a very special gift for making
himself understood and instructing the coarsest of individuals, a gift with which he would have been
able to make great progress, if only his core intransigence had not impeded him.
354 Translation (ours):
He came to possess the languages of Peru perfectly, those of the Encabellado [likely the Secoya (see
Cipolletti (1992)] and the Omagua, and proficiently those of the Yameo and Mayoruna.
355 Translation (ours):
The fathers were coming for the dedication or blessing; first, Father Joaquín Pietragrasa, who blessed
the church and cemetery with the ritual ceremonies, accompanied by the people; Father Manuel Santos,
Portuguese, who sang Mass, and Fathers Iriarte, Bahamonde and Martínez, with the pueblo. There
were three days of rites; on the first, I, as much as I was able, gave a brief panegyric in Spanish.
On the second [day], the Father Vice Superior [Iriarte], in Omagua, and on the third, Father
Bahamonde, in Yameo and Quechua.
356 For his use of Iquito (Zaparoan) translators in the headwaters of the Chambira during his time at San Pablo de
Napeanos, near the modern-day city of Iquitos, see Uriarte ([1776]1986:197-199); for his use of Omagua interpreters
in his early days in San Joaquín, see Uriarte (ibid.:249).
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