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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la dirección de varios de dichos misioneros he formado algunas gramáticas y otros me han<br />
favorecido formándolas. Estos manuscritos, y las muchas cartas con que los misioneros<br />
han respondidio a mis preguntas y dudas sobre las lenguas y naciones que las hablan,<br />
forman parte preciosa de mi pequeña librería poliglota: y en esta obra cito los nombres<br />
de los principales misioneros que me han dado las noticias que en ella pongo sobre las<br />
lenguas bárbaras que ellos entendían, y sobre las naciones de que eran misioneros, o que<br />
con ellas confinaban.<br />
(Hervás y Panduro (1800:73-74), cited in Fúrlong Cárdiff (1955:61-62)) 120<br />
Despite Hervás y Panduro’s proclaimed intent in the above-cited passage to indicate the source<br />
<strong>of</strong> indigenous language texts in the Saggio pratico delle lingue, he fails to do so for the Omagua<br />
Lord’s Prayer (Hervás y Panduro 1787a:98-99). It is likely that Hervás y Panduro obtained the<br />
Omagua Lord’s Prayer from Joaquín Camaño Bazán (b. 1737 La Rioja – d. 1820 Valencia), 121 an<br />
Argentine Jesuit with whom he correspondend intensely regarding South American languages, but<br />
that Camaño Bazán was not the ultimate source <strong>of</strong> the text. This correspondence, part <strong>of</strong> which<br />
is preserved in the Vatican Archives, reveals that Camaño Bazán provided Hervás y Panduro with<br />
considerable lexical and grammatical data on Omagua (Clark (1937), Fúrlong Cárdiff (1955:48-87,<br />
138-182)). 122 However, he had no direct experience with Omagua himself, since his missionary<br />
activities were confined to the Gran Chaco <strong>of</strong> modern-day Bolivia, Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil,<br />
a region in which Omagua was not spoken. It is clear from his correspondence with Hervás y<br />
Panduro, however, that Camaño Bazán had accumulated information on a wide range <strong>of</strong> South<br />
American languages, and it is likely that he obtained the Omagua Lord’s Prayer as part <strong>of</strong> this<br />
process, subsequently passing it on to Hervás y Panduro. From whom Camaño Bazán obtained the<br />
120 Translation (ours):<br />
I, then, have attempted to read and even purchase (without fear <strong>of</strong> the inconvenience to which the<br />
narrowness <strong>of</strong> my very limited means exposed me), grammars <strong>of</strong> as many languages as I have heard<br />
<strong>of</strong>. This made me aware <strong>of</strong> the fact that only a small number <strong>of</strong> these were books in print, and as<br />
such that I should supplement these by consulting those individuals who spoke or understood the<br />
many languages on which nothing has been printed. For this my present circumstances have provided<br />
the most advantageous position that there has in the world been up until now, and that will again<br />
only be realized with great difficulty in the coming centuries. This position has been and is that <strong>of</strong><br />
finding myself in Italy amid crowds <strong>of</strong> wise Jesuits, previously dispersed across nearly the entire face<br />
<strong>of</strong> the Earth to spread the holy gospel, even to the most remote and barbarous <strong>of</strong> nations, and now<br />
companions <strong>of</strong> mine embroiled in the same disgrace which, tearing us away from the breast <strong>of</strong> our<br />
homeland, has cast us out to the beaches <strong>of</strong> Italy.<br />
In this [undertaking], surrounded by ardent and wise missionaries from nearly all the nations known in<br />
the world, I have been able to easily consult, some by word <strong>of</strong> mouth, and others by letter, requesting<br />
from each one the words that from the language <strong>of</strong> the nation <strong>of</strong> their mission I place in my multilingual<br />
vocabulary and in other volumes, and some indication <strong>of</strong> their grammar. With the guidance <strong>of</strong> several<br />
<strong>of</strong> said missionaries I have formed grammars, and yet others have assisted me in forming them. These<br />
<strong>manuscript</strong>s, and the many letters with which the missionaries responded to my questions and doubts<br />
about the languages and nations that speak them, form an indispensable part <strong>of</strong> my small multilingual<br />
library: and in this work I cite the names <strong>of</strong> the principal missionaries who have provided me the<br />
information I put in it regarding the barbarous languages that they understand, and regarding the<br />
nations <strong>of</strong> which they were missionaries or with whom they confined themselves.<br />
121 For more biographical details see Fúrlong Cárdiff (1955:7-37).<br />
122 The correspondence served, among other things, as the basis <strong>of</strong> an unpublished seven-page grammatical sketch<br />
<strong>of</strong> Omagua that Hervás y Panduro produced. Our knowledge <strong>of</strong> this sketch stems from the fact that the German<br />
linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt employed it in preparing his own sketch <strong>of</strong> Omagua at some point in the early<br />
19th century (see introductory comments by Wolf Dietrich in von Humboldt (2011:417)).<br />
61