Arte doctrinal para aprender la lengua matlaltzinga

Guevara, Miguel de

Domaine	Traditions non-occidentales
Secteur	Grammaires amérindiennes [4661]
Auteur(s)	Guevara, Miguel de
	Datation: ca 1585-1646 Born around 1585, Miguel de Guevara entered the order of the Augustinians (O.S.A.) in 1610. He was “consultor” in Tiripitío, “procurador” in Charo, “prior” in Undameo, Pátzcuaro and Salamanca and “visitador” of the Province. He knew three indigenous languages: Nahuatl, P'urhépecha and Matlatzinca (Guzmán Betancourt 2001).
Titre de l'ouvrage	Arte doctrinal y modo general para aprender la lengua Matlaltzinga
Titre traduit	Doctrinal grammar and general method for learning the Matlaltzinga language
Titre court	Arte doctrinal para aprender la lengua matlaltzinga
Remarques sur le titre	Complete title: Arte doctrinal y modo general para aprender la lengua matlaltzinga, para la administracion de los Santos Sacramentos, así para confesar, casar, y predicar con la definicion de Sacramentis y demas cosas necesarias para hablarla y entenderla, por el modo mas ordinario y versado comun y generalmente para no ofuscarse en su inteligencia. Hecho y ordenado por el padre Fr. Miguel de Guevara, Ministro predicador y operario evangélico, en las tres lenguas que generalmente corren en esta Provincia de Michoacan Mexicana, Tarasca, y Matlaltzingo, prior actual del convento de Santiago Undamêo.
Période	\|17e s.\|
Type de l'ouvrage	Brief grammatical introduction, mainly devoted to the parts of speech and morphology, paradigms, accompanied by “advertencias” and “notas” (unnumbered). No details related to phonology, orthography, but on p. 221-222 some information is given about how to make sentences, whose phrases have to be in agreement with agents and patients, as the grammar of this language prescribes (“para hacer las oraciones, cuyos periodos van conforme á las personas que hacen en el verbo y personas que padecen, según la gramática de esta lengua”, as) and syntax. Special attention is paid to verbal “conjugations”, and the verbs, used in combination with “particles”. The works also contains word lists Spanish-Matlazinca, some of which are arranged thematically (“árboles”, p. 209, “los días”, p. 214), others grammatically (“adverbiales”, p. 210), and a Christian doctrine.
Type indexé	Grammaire pour étrangers \| Grammaire didactique \| Lexique \| Texte religieux
Édition originale	1638. The original manuscript has been lost. A transcription of the Ms has been published in the Boletín de la Sociedad Mexicana de Geografía y Estadística. The original Ms lacks a section of 39 folios. In order to fill this gap, the editorial board of the Boletín attached a section entitled “Advertencia” which includes a section of the grammar of father Basalenque, transcribed by Francisco Pimentel (p. 253-260); also published in Pimentel (1874).
Édition utilisée	Boletín de la Sociedad Mexicana de Geografía y Estadística 9, 1862, p. 197-260. (MS completed in 1638).
Volumétrie	Original Ms has been lost.
Nombre de signes	45000
Reproduction moderne	No recent editions.
Diffusion	Both the 1862 edition and the BNF copy are uncomplete. The editors of the Boletín de la Sociedad Mexicana de Geografía y Estadística added an appendix to Guevara’s text entitled “Advertencia” (p. 253-260), written by Francisco Pimentel, published earlier in his Cuadro descriptivo (Pimentel 1874, vol. 3: 69-87). Pimentel added this section, summarizing Basalenque’s grammar. The BNF manuscript stops abruptly in the section entitled “del modo con el qual pveden empezar a hablar” (the religious texts included in 1862 are missing). Pascacio Montijo (2017: 16; 48) mentions another 19th or 20th copy, housed in the Bancroft Library, California (BANC MSS M-M 490).
Langues cibles	Matlatzinca. Matlatzinca is a language of the Otomanguean linguistic phylum (forming with Tlahuica, or Ocuiltec, the Atzinca group of the Otomian sub-branch of the Otopamean branch of this phylum) (Pascacio Montijo 2017: 17-21). Matlatzinca is severely endangered, with 731 speakers in 2011 in and around San Francisco Oxtotilpan; Ocuiltec is spoken in San Juan Atzingo and six other different places around Ocuilan, South-East of the volcano Nevado de Toluca, with 698 speakers (Pascacio Montijo 2017: 21-22; 37) in 2010. In the colonial period, Matlatzinca was the glottonym used for Matlatzinca generally (Western part of the State of Mexico, Morelos, Guerrero and Michoacán), whereas Pirinda was also used for the variety of the Matlatzinca spoken in Michoacán, excluding Ocuiltec (Pascacio Montijo 2017: 28-29). The endonym used for Ocuiltec today is Pjiekak’joo (lit. “this is the language I speak”). Sometimes P'urhépecha is referred to (with the indication “en tarasco”, p. 200) and in other cases Nahuatl is given as well (with the indication “en Mexicano”, p. 211). According to Guevara, woman’s speech was considerably different from male speech and for that reason two confessionaries were written for both sexes (Pimentel vol. 3: 83).
Métalangue	Spanish (occasionally Latin [p. 221])
Langue des exemples	Matlaltzinca, occasionally Tarascan (P'urhépecha) or Nahuatl
Sommaire de l'ouvrage	Arte de las declinaciones de los nombres (p. 198-200); De los nombres demostrativos (200); De los compuestos de quis (200); quidquid quod (200-202); De los adverbios (203); Reglas generales por donde se han de conocer las conjunciones y partículas de los verbos para las cuatro (203-204). [The editor indicates here that 39 folios of the autograph are missing]; a word list is following without specific content, without title (204-205); adverbia (de tiempo) (204); Para los numerales (205-206); Nota de los vocablos para adelante (206); Colores; and several other topics, chosen at random (206-209); para los árboles (209-210); adverbiales (210-211); Del modo con el cual pueden empezar a hablar (211-212); Los sentidos corporales (212); Nombres de Dios (212-213); Los enemigos del alma (213); de las cuatro postrimerías (213); De los siete Sacramentos (213); diminutivos (213); medidas (213); Los Días (214-224); Para las enfermedades; preguntas generales (224-228); Para cosas comestibles (228); Pájaros y aves volátiles (228-229); Del agua (229); de la tierra (229); modo de contar generalmente en Matlaltzingo (229-231); Numerales (231); Primera noticia de verbos (231-237); Modo de hablar con los idénticos verbales (238); De todas las partículas necesarias por abecedario, curiosa y trabajosamente notadas para saberlas [alphabetically arranged list of particles] (239-241); Las de interposición (241); antepuestas (241-242); pospuestas (242); Adverbia, adverbia loci, adverbia temporis (242-243); Verba reciproca (243-244), De las dos tu tu (244-245); Declaración y modo de mostrar el ministro la Doctrina Cristiana (245-) (Pater noster, ave maria, el credo, mandamientos, sacramentos and other religious texts of the cathecism, in Spanish and Matlatzinca).
Objectif de l'auteur	One of the aims, according to the author, is to compose a tool for missionaries, so that they can do their work in Matlatzinca, without using texts in the general language Tarascan (“no tiene sino remitirse á la tarasca general”) (p. 231-232); Avisos generales para todos los idénticos verbales y su conocimiento (p. 233). The main objective is to give a brief introduction, exempt from prolific homilies and without rhetoric (“prolijas arengas, ni retórica”, p. 222).
Intérêt général	As some others did (see the entries on Quintana and Nágera Yanguas), Guevara decided to present a different method for learning a foreign language, compared to the average grammar (accompanied by dictionaries and texts) of Náhuatl. His main objective was not to teach the nouns, pronoun, verb, person, gender, particle, and phrases, which would imply too many details considered “superfluous” and “useless” (“supérfluo é inútil”). His method was focused on presenting the verbs “por modo de vocabulario” (231) (in the manner of a vocabulary) in order to learn them for application in prayers. In the New World, language instruction was mainly based on a trilogy: Grammar, dictionary and religious texts (confessions, Christian doctrine). Guevara decided to compose one work including these three aspects. Grammar, including a word list, often not structured, and sometimes organized according to semantic field, dialogues in the style of Pedro de Arenas's Manual for learning and/ or teaching daily conversation, with useful tools for communication about religious topics, confessions, etc. The work does not follow any model of peninsular grammar or dictionary.
Parties du discours	The author does not sum up the traditional eight parts of speech, but devotes a special section to the particles (as others did, Basalenque).
Innovations term.	“Verbales racionales” (p. 237). “Verbales idénticos” (p. 237).
Corpus illustratif	Paradigms in the grammatical section and expressions almost “at random” from daily communication, (expressions such as “Todos se ríen de tí” [“everyone is laughing at you!”], p. 218), proverbs (“el que vive bien siempre está hermoso como la rosa”, p. 219; “los sacerdotes andan de pueblo en pueblo como los pájaros hoy aquí y mañana allí” [“the priests are walking from one village to another, as birds, today here and tomorrow there”]) and other expressions have a religious character. Sometimes Latin is used (Speciosus forma prae fiilis [sic] hominum (p. 221).
Indications compl.
Influence subie	The Ms. of Basalenque's grammar of Matlatzinca is dated 1640, but Guevara, who finished his grammar in 1638, already mentions Basalenque's work (p. 199). This means that at least a part of Basalenque’s work, maybe only his “arte abreviado” and probably also some parts of his treatise on particles, were available earlier than 1638. (Basalenque started learning Matlatzinca in 1637 when he was 60 years old). Guevara does not explain why there was a need for another grammar, written by another member of the same religious order (Augustinians) in the same region, and almost at the same time. It is remarkable that Basalenque did not use the term “interposición”, which was developed by Lagunas, but in Guevara's work the term is used (“partículas, las de interposición”). I do not exclude the possibility that Guevara also used other sources, possibly Lagunas. If we compare the Treatise of the particles (“Tratado de las particulas”) of Basalenque with the corresponding section in Guevara, we conclude that the latter is much briefer. For instance, where Basalenque has subsections for the letter “B” (Ba, Be, Bi, Bo, Borin, Bu) occupying two folios, Guevara discusses only one of them (bu). It is also obvious that Guevara did not always copy the definitions of Basalenque. He adapted them according to his own style: Bu makes the verbs “frequentative” (“frecuentativos”, p. 239), and Basalenque has “dice frecuentación en la acción”: (p. 96). Chuna (“exagera mucho”; Guevara p. 239); while Basalenque: “dice exageración” (99); Guevara: Ho: niega al verbo, and Basalenque: “dice imposibilidad” (p. 101). Each author has his own style and phrasing. In other cases, definitions are quite similar (for instance the change from /d/ to /r/) (ibid.).
Influence exercée	Unknown.
Renvois bibliographiques	Arenas P. de 1611; Basalenque D. 1640; Guevara M. de 1862; Guzmán Betancourt I. 2001; Pascasio Montijo E. T. 2017; Pimentel F. 1874 {El Matlatzinca ó Pirinda, vol. 3, p. 53-87}
Rédacteur	Zwartjes, Otto
Création ou mise à jour	2019-12 \| 2017-05