draft manuscript - Linguistics - University of California, Berkeley

Chapter 5
Catechism Fragment
5.1 Bibliographic History and Previous Linguistic Study
5.1.1 González Suárez (1904)
The catechism fragment that we analyze in this chapter was first published in 1904 by Federico
González Suárez (b. 1844 Quito – d. 1917 Quito), then Bishop of Ibarra, 147 as an appendix to his
Prehistoria ecuatoriana, which sought to clarify the pre-Colombian history of the region that would
later become the nation of Ecuador. 148 Other appendices to this work include ecclesiastical texts
and wordlists in Quechua and a number of other lowland languages (González Suárez 1904:43-75).
González Suárez simply presents the texts, without word-by-word translations or other linguistic
treatment.
Regarding the provenance of the manuscript on which the catechism fragment is based, González
Suárez remarks:
El manuscrito de donde hemos tomado estas piezas de la doctrina en los idiomas de
las tribus salvajes del Oriente perteneció, indudablemente, a algún misionero jesuita del
siglo décimo octavo: creemos, sin peligro ninguno de equivocarnos, que fue del Padre
De Franciscis, siciliano, que estaba en Mainas, cuando los jesuitas fueron
expulsados de las misiones por orden de Carlos tercero en 1767, pues de ese Padre
poseemos algunos manuscritos, con los cuales tiene mucha semejanza.
Conociendo en Quito nuestra afición a recoger papeles antiguos, nos fue obsequiado este
manuscrito, diciéndonos: “Quizá esto le servirá a Ud.: es cosa vieja, y parece que sólo a
Ud. le servirá”.
(González Suárez 1904:75, emphasis ours) 149
147 Ibarra was an Ecuadorean diocese within the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of Quito.
148 González Suárez was Archbishop of Quito from 1905 onwards. For more biographical details, see Saville (1918).
149 Translation (ours):
The manuscript from which we have taken these pieces of doctrine in the languages of the savage tribes
of the East belonged, undoubtedly, to some Jesuit missionary of the 18th century: we believe, without
danger of being in error, that it was from Father de Franciscis, a Sicilian, who was in Mainas
when the Jesuits were expelled from the missions by order of Carlos III in 1767, since from
that Father we possess some manuscripts with which it shares a striking resemblance.
Our habit of collecting old documents being known in Quito, this manuscript was turned over to us,
it being said: “Perhaps this may be of use to you: it’s an old thing, and it seems that it will only be
of use to you”.
67