Arte de la lengua tarasca

Basalenque, Diego

Domaine	Traditions non-occidentales
Secteur	Grammaires amérindiennes [4647]
Auteur(s)	Basalenque, Diego
	Forme complète: Basalenque, Diego Serrano Cardona de Datation: 1577-1651 Diego [Serrano Cardona de] Basalenque was born in Salamanca, July 25th, 1577. He moved with his parents to Mexico when he was nine years old. He studied first with the Jesuits and later he entered the order of Saint Augustin (O.S.A.). He worked in several missions, such as San Luis, Valladolid and Charo. He taught Grammar, Philosophy, Theology, and indigenous languages. He learned Greek and Hebrew from Bishop Gonzalo de Hermosillo of Guadiana (1560-1631) (Eguiara y Eguren 2010 [1755-1763], p. 814). He was appointed as lector in philosophy in Yurirapándaro and Valladolid and taught theology in Zacatecas He started learning Matlatzinca in 1637 when he was 60 years old. He knew – apart from Matlatzinca and Purépecha – Italian, Spanish, Latin, Greek and Hebrew, Nahuatl and Pirinda, in total four indigenous languages, belonging to three completely distinct families. In 1612 he became “secretario de la provincia” and he wrote grammars of Matlaltzinca and P'urhépecha and one of his main historical works is his Historia de la provincia de San Nicolás Tolentino Michoacán, del orden de san Agustín (1673), reprints in 1886 (México, Tipografía Barbedillo y compañía, edición de la “voz de México”) and in 1963. For more biographical details, see Salguero (1664) and Warren (2007, p. 177-188).
Adaptateur(s)	Quijas, Nicolás de
	Variantes: Nicolás de Qvixas Datation: fl. first part of 18th Century Unknown.
Titre de l'ouvrage	Arte de la lengua tarasca, dispuesto con nuevo estilo, y claridad
Titre traduit	Grammar of the Tarascan language, arranged with new style, and clarity
Titre court	Arte de la lengua tarasca
Remarques sur le titre	Complete title: Arte de la lengua tarasca, dispuesto con nuevo estilo, y claridad, por el R.P. M. Fr. Diego Basalenque, del Orden de N.P.S. Augustin, Provincial que fue de la Provincia de Michoacán, y su Chronista, Sacalo a luz el R.P.M.Fr. Nicolas de Qvixas, Prouincial de dicha Provincia. Y lo dedica a la Serenissima Maria Santissima, Reyna de los Angeles.
Période	\|17e s.\|
Type de l'ouvrage	Complete grammar covering phonology, morphology. Descriptive grammar. Didactic/pedagogic grammar for learners of P'urhépecha (Tarascan).
Type indexé	Grammaire descriptive \| Grammaire didactique \| Grammaire élémentaire \| Dictionnaire \| Texte religieux
Édition originale	Basalenque started studying P'urhépecha, after he finished his studies on Matlatzinca. According to Lastra (2013, p. 31), the manuscript was completed between 1642 and 1644.
Édition utilisée	1714, México: Francisco de Rivera Calderon. John Carter Brown call nr. B714. B554a.
Volumétrie	[32], 110 p.; 15 cm (in-8°). Woodcut t.p. vignette (device of the order of San Augustin), flanked by printer's ornaments, tail-piece with motto: Soli Deo honore et gloria. The same ornament is also found in Pérez's grammar, published by the same publisher.
Nombre de signes	31000
Reproduction moderne	No recent facsimilar editions available of the edition of 1714, but there are reprints of the editions of 1886: Cecilio A. Robelo (éd.), 1962, and Hamburg, Wayasbah, 1992.
Diffusion	1805, México: En la Imprenta de Don Mariano de Zúñiga (reprint). 1886, Antonio Peñafiel (éd.), México, Oficina Tip. de la Secretaría de Fomento (reprint).
Langues cibles	La lengua tarasca (alternative names, not used by Basalenque; lengua de Michuacán, P'urhépecha). Basalenque documented the language as it was spoken in Charo, the less “corrupt” variety, according to Nicolás José de Soria Villaroel, the author of the “Parecer” of Basalenque's Arte. In Charo, Matlatzinca was also spoken and according to the prologue of Basalenque's grammar of Matlatzinca.
Métalangue	Spanish (castellano)
Langue des exemples	Tarascan (P'urhépecha)
Sommaire de l'ouvrage	[Dedicatoria, “A la santísima virgin Maria Señora Nuestra”]. Parecer (Don Nicolas Ioseph de Soria Villaroel); Aprobacion (M.R.P. Francisco de Figueroa); Summa de Licencias. Prólogo (no page numbers). Disposición del Arte (no page numbers). Libro primero. De la cartilla (p. 1-7). Cap. 1: Del número de las letras, y valor de algunas de ellas (1 -3); Cap. 2: Del trueque de unas letras en otras (3-5); Cap. 3: De la ortografía (5); Cap. 4: De la pronunciación (5-7). Libro Segundo. De las ocho partes de la oración (8-71). Cap. 1: Nombre (8-11); Cap. 2: Del nombre adjetivo (11-17); Cap. 3: Pronombre y su Posesivo (17-22); Cap. 4: Verbo activo (22-35); Cap. 5: Verbo pasivo (35-40); Cap. 6: Del verbo sustantivo (41-43); Cap. 7: Del Verbo Impersonal (43); Cap. 8: De algunos verbos particulares (verbos generales, plurales, singulares, comunicativos, deponentes, meditativos, frecuentativos, reiterativos, posesivos, equívocos, reduplicativos, engazados) (44-47); Cap. 9: De los verbos defectivos (47-59); Cap. 10: el Participio (59-63); Cap. 11: De las formaciones de los Verbos, y de los Participios (63-67); Cap. 12: De las cuatro partes últimas de la oración (adverbio, preposición, interjección, conjunción) (67-71). Libro tercero. De los casos de los nombres y verbos. Cap. único: De los casos del nombre, y verbo (71-76). Libro cuarto. De algunas elegancias de esta lengua (76-82). De las elega[n]cias de Partículas, y verbos (76-81); Cap. 2: De las figuras retóricas (prótesis, epéntesis, paragoje, aféresis, síncopa, apócope) (81-82). Libro quinto. De las partículas de esta lengua (83-110). Cap. 1: De las partículas, que quedan puestas en los cuatro libros antecedentes [index in alphabetical order] (83-85); Cap. 2: De las partículas, que llaman preposiciones verbales (85-88); Cap. 3: De las partículas interpuestas particulares (88-90); Cap. 4: De las partículas interpuestas comunes, y generales (90-110).
Objectif de l'auteur	Basalenque observes in his prologue that both grammars of his predecessors Gilberti and Lagunas can be improved by another grammar which would be “more clear” (“pudieran tener alguna mas claridad en la disposicion”). Basalenque also observes that he added some material which was not recorded earlier by his predecessors. (Basalenque 1714: “Prólogo”, no page numbers). On page 90 he tells the readers that Lagunas was sometimes a bit too “prolific”, which motivated him to deal with certain topics more “briefly”, limiting himself to the most “necessary”.
Intérêt général	Pedagogically, the work follows a different structure, using “glossas”, which are “lessons” and explanations of the grammar (“glosas, liciones y declaraciones del Arte”). Basalenque follows generally the grammars of Lagunas and Gilberti, but he does not refer to his Arte of Matlatzinca. A close-reading of Basalenque's grammar of Matlatzinca learns us that Basalenque mainly reworked the entire macrostructure as he found it in Gilberti and Lagunas. Basalenque devotes almost 33% of his grammar to particles (p. 76-110), which is in proportion even more than his predecessors did.
Parties du discours	Eight parts of speech: noun, pronoun, verb, participle, adverb, preposition, interjection and conjunction (f. 9r). It is remarkable that Basalenque does not use the concept of ‘interposición’, although the work relies heavily on those of his predecessors. Instead, he used the verb “interponer”, or the participle “interpuesto”, but he does not consider the interposition as the ninth part of speech, as Lagunas proposed.
Innovations term.	“Verbos comunicativos” (p. 44); “verbos engazados” (p. 47); “Partículas interpuestas particulares” (p. 88); “Partículas interpuestas comunes y generales” (p. 90). What Lagunas calls “inseparable verbal prepositions” (“preposiciones verbales inseparables”), as Latin am-, com-, dis-, di-, re-, Basalenque labels them as “dicciones prepositivas de verbos” (p. 85). The fifth chapter of Basalenque's grammar of Tarascan is also entirely devoted to the particles, but nor subclasses nor definitions are given. The author gives only an index of particles referring to “glosses” of the grammar where the reader can find them. He decided not to write a “Treatise” on particles, as he did in his Matlatzinca grammar.
Corpus illustratif	Tarascan. Not many longer phrases are included, no exercises, but sometimes brief dialogues, and some pages on rhetorical figures.
Indications compl.
Influence subie	As we can read in the prologue, Basalenque learned Tarascan from the two grammars of Gilberti and Lagunas (1714: “Prologo”, no number pages). He refers also to Gilberti and Lagunas (p. 70), and he quotes Lagunas again p. 90.
Influence exercée	In the 19th century, Basalenque's work was praised. There existed very few copies of the grammar of Gilberti and for many learners it was not available anymore; the grammar of Lagunas was considered to be “confuse” and “difficult to understand”, and according to Manuel de San Juan Crisóstomo Nájera; the grammar of Basalenque was the best model for his own grammar, since it follows the principles of Latin (“arreglándola por los principios de la Latina”, Nájera 1870, p. 16).
Renvois bibliographiques	Basalenque D. 1640; Basalenque D. 1714; Basalenque D. 1805; Basalenque D. 1962; Eguiara y Eguren J. J. 1755; Guevara M. de 1862; Guzmán Betancourt I. 2001; Lastra Y. 2013; Nájera M. de San Juan Crisóstomo 1870; Peñafiel A. (éd.) 1886; Salguero P. 1664; Warren J. B. 2007
Rédacteur	Zwartjes, Otto
Création ou mise à jour	2019-12 \| 2017-05