draft manuscript - Linguistics - University of California, Berkeley

The first version of an ecclesiastical text created by translation from a Quechua original, it was
then available for improvement by those missionaries with sufficiently sophisticated knowledge of
the lengua particular in question. The process of successive re-translation and editing by multiple
missionaries that some ecclesiastical texts were subject to is nicely captured by the following passage,
which describes a collaborative effort over three years by brother Peter Schooneman (b. 1711
Haarlem, The Netherlands – d. 1778) 363 and P. Uriarte to improve the Iquito catechism:
A poco más de un mes de la despedida, subió el hermano Pedro á Santa Barbara, y
conferenciando con el padre sobre la lengua de los Iquitos, empezaron la grande obra de
corregir el catecismo en que había algunas cosas que enmendar, añadir, quitar y declarar.
Porque, aunque se había traducido de la lengua Inga y por medio de un bien intérprete,
y los misioneros anteriores habían trabajado muy bien en limarle y pulirle y ajustarle,
todavía el hermano Pedro, como más práctico de la lengua en que había formado su
vocabulario, descubría cosas que se debían corregir. Tres años enteros emplearon en
el penoso ejercicio de perfeccionarse bien en la lengua para la corrección, y cada día
encontraban nuevas dificultades, como le sucedió a San Xavier, ya en el ex María Virgine,
ya en el mortuus, porque la única palabra de la lengua significa que no se casó la Virgen,
y la otra significa muerte contra voluntad. Al fin todo se fué enmendando, declarando,
y ajustando.
(Chantre y Herrera 1901:544) 364
It is worth noting that not only did Schooneman and Uriarte work together in improving the
catechism, but it is clear that even the text that they took upon themselves to improve had been
subject to editing and alteration by previous missionaries. One consequence of the evolving nature
of these texts is that it complicates treating them as a stable text with a single author. Rather, it
appears to have been more typical for a text to have been in a continuous state of redaction over
the several decades that most Maynas missions were occupied.
There is clear evidence that the Omagua catechisms that have come down to us were likewise
the product of a process of successive editing and retranslation. For example, even though we do
not have access to the original manuscript, the published versions of the Full Catechism indicate
that portions of the text had been crossed out, and other text inserted in the margins or between
the lines (see (6.17b), (6.21a) and (6.24b)). And as we shall examine in detail in §9.4, the two
versions of the catechism are highly similar, but exhibit minor differences indicative of retranslation
and editing by individuals with different strengths in their understanding of Omagua grammar.
363 (Jouanen 1943:746); also known as Pedro Choneman.
364 Translation (ours):
A little more than a month after saying farewell, brother Pedro went upriver to Santa Barbara, and
talking with the father [there] about the language of the Iquitos, began the huge task of correcting the
catechism, in which there were a few things to fix, add, remove, and clarify, because, although it had
been translated from Quechua, and by means of a good translator, and although previous missionaries
had worked well to refine, polish, and fix it, brother Pedro, as the most versed in the language whose
dictionary he had compiled, discovered things that needed to be corrected. They spent three entire
years in the punishing exercise of perfecting their knowledge of the language into order to correct the
catechism, and each day encountered new difficulties, as happened to Saint Xavier, for example, in
the case of [the terms] ex María Virgine and mortuus, because the only words in the language [to
express these concepts] mean that the Virgin did not marry, and the other means involuntary death.
Eventually they fixed and clarified everything.
133