CTLF Corpus de textes linguistiques fondamentaux • IMPRIMER • RETOUR ÉCRAN
CTLF - Menu général - Notices

Arte de los idiomas otomí y pame

Guadalupe Soriano, Juan

DomaineTraditions non-occidentales
SecteurGrammaires amérindiennes [4656]
Auteur(s)

Guadalupe Soriano, Juan

Datation: fl. 1767

Juan Guadalupe Soriano was a Franciscan friar (O.F.M.) from the Province of San Diego (“Predicador apostólico”) in Mexico and Minister of the San José de Fuenclara mission (present day Jiliapan in the Municipality of Pacula in the state of Hidalgo). Later, in 1776, he founded the Purísima Concepción de Bucareli mission in Ranas and el Plátano. According to Bartholomew and Lastra (2012, p. 11), he spent at least 12 years in the Sierra Gorda, 6 among the Otomis, and 6 among the Pame-speaking tribes, as we can read in the “Prólogo Historial” (long version) of his Arte de los idiomas otomí y pame (”tengo de más de seis años entre los indios otomíes y otros tantos entre los pames que son muchísimos”) (p. 96).

Titre de l'ouvrageArte de los idiomas otomí y pame; vocabularies de los idiomas pame, otomí, mexicano y jonaz
Titre traduitGrammar of the Otomi and Pame languages; vocabularies of Pame, Otomi, “Mexican” [=Nahuatl] and Jonaz
Titre courtArte de los idiomas otomí y pame
Remarques sur le titreThe title of the edition of Bartholomew & Lastra (2012) is Tratado del Arte y Unión de los idiomas otomí y pame; vocabularios de los diiomas pame, otomí, mexicano y jonaz. In other publications of Lastra we find different titles: Arte de los idiomas otomí y pame; vocabularies de los idiomas pame, otomí, mexicano y jonaz.
Arte de los idiomas otomí y pame; vocabularies de los idiomas pame, otomí, mexicano y jonaz. (Lastra 2005, p. 207) and also Difícil tratado del arte y union de los idiomas othomi y pame. Doctrina christiana, para la fácil enseñanza he intelligencia de los misterios de N[ues]tra Santa Fe en el idioma pame, para bien de las almas (Lastra, Sherzer & Sherzer 2009: Appendix A, p. 150), which is the title of a section in the edition of Bartolomew & Lastra (2012) starting on page 83. The grammatical section of this book has the title Arte de los idiomas otomí y pame (p. 23). I have not been able to check the original.
Période|18e s.|
Type de l'ouvrageGrammar of two languages, Spanish vocabulary with equivalents in four indigenous languages, Otomi, Pame, Mexicano (Nahuatl) and Jonaz. The Ms also contains a prologue (two versions) of important historical interest.
Type indexéDictionnaire | Grammaire descriptive | Grammaire didactique | Grammaire élémentaire
Édition originaleMs written in 1767 and some additions are made by the author in 1777, since Soriano mentions the secularisation of the missions of Pacula, Xiliapan and Cerro Prieto (Bartholomew & Lastra 2012, p. 13). The section entitled “Explicación de los más principals rudimentos de los dos idiomas otomí y pame” (Bartholomew & Lastra 2012: 145-148) has the date July 3rd, 1768. El Conde la Viñaza gives another date: 1766 (1892, p. 287), as we find in BICRES III (Niederehe 2005, p. 173). In the “Prólogo historial” (short version), Soriano mentions the year 1764 when he must have written this section, since he calls it the present year (“presente año”) (Bartholomew & Lastra 2012, p. 63). In the Prólogo historial (long version) the author mentions the year 1767 as “this year” (“este año”) (p. 94).
Édition utiliséeEd. by Doris Bartholomew & Yolanda Lastra, México, Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas/ Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 2012.
VolumétrieUnknown. No details given in Bartholomew & Lastra (2012).
Nombre de signes80000
Reproduction moderneBartholomew & Lastra (2012).
DiffusionAccording to Bartholomew & Lastra (2012, p. 19) Manrique (1960) and Samperio (1979) knew Soriano’s work. Samperio had only published the “Prólogo historial” in 1979. In Frye (2000, p. 132) we read that there exists a reprint of Guadalupe Soriano’s Arte del idioma pame 1767 (San Luis Potosí, 1990), but I have not been able to trace this edition.
Langues ciblesThe grammatical section consists of two parts, a grammar of Otomí and another describing Pame.
Otomí (Otomanguean family, Otopamean branch). Otomí is a Nahuatl exonym. As endonym, today hñähnu is used (also spelled as hñäñho).
Pame (Otopamean, Western Otomanguean, Otomanguean). For central Pame, the endonym Xi’oi is used, today spoken in San Luis Potosí, Lagunillas, Rayón, Santa Catarina and Tamasopo, and for Northern Pame Xi’iuy (San Luis Potosí, Aquismón, Cárdenas).
The Vocabulary is multilingual Pame, Otomí, “Mexicano” (Nahuatl) and Jonaz.
Jonaz (Chichimeco) is the language spoken in La Misión de Chichimecas de San Luis de la Paz, Guanajuato. The vocabulary contains 1110 entries in Spanish, the translations into Otomí and Pame are complete, with 591 entries translated into Nahuatl, and there are only 122 equivalents in Jonaz (Bartolomew & Lastra 2012, p. 16). Chichimeca Jonaz belongs to the Oto-Pame branch of the Western branch of the Otomanguean language family. They call their language Eza’r
MétalangueCastilian (Spanish). The author also compares Otomí with Latin: (the perfect tense and the supine are formed by “mudanzas” (amo, amavi, amatum), and in Otomí there is a modification (“mudanza”) of the third person singular
Langue des exemplesOtomí and Pame (grammatical section) and in the vocabulary Náhuatl (Mexicano) and (Chichimec) Jonaz also
Sommaire de l'ouvrageArte del Otomí (following Bartholomew & Lastra 2012). Pronunciación del otomí. reglas generales (p. 23); nombres posesivos (24); impersonales (24); conjunción (24); concomitancia (24); materia (25); cómo (25-26); qué (26); negación (26-27); conjugación (27); conjugación del verbo xocqy (‘abrir’), presente de indicativo, pretérito imperfecto, pretérito perfecto, primer romance, segundo romance, pretérito pluscuamperfecto, futuro imperfecto, futuro imperfecto, imperativo, el verbo sum (28-30); de los Nombres. According to the information in Bartholomew & Lastra (2012, p. 30), another scribe wrote the following sections, the hand-writing and the colour of the ink are different.
Libro primero. De los principales rudimentos del idioma othomí. There are many sections without a title, but the paragraphs are numbered from 1-74 (30-45). § Declension, (§ 9-31) (En este idioma solamente hay una declinación); examples of nouns (§ 2-7), pronouns, ‘ particles’ and the ‘ adjectives’ nullus and alter; The verb (paradigms, almost no explanations (§ 32-39); sum, es fui (§ 40-48); possum (§ 49-56); El verbo ne ‘querer’ (§ 57-64); ‘ tenses and moods’ which are missing, such as the subjunctive, infinitive, passive voice, etc. (§ 65-69); tiempos de estando, siendo y habiendo (“ siempre se romancean) (§ 70-71); tiempos de ‘por’ y ‘para’ (§ 72); modo de romanceado (§ 73); “Las raíces” and the “partículas componentes” (§ 74).
Libro segundo. En que se explican las partes de la oración, nombres compuestos y otros y de los verbos se da entera razón y demás conducentes a entera noticia de este idioma. (§ 75-153; p. 45-58). Partes de la oración (§ 75); nombre (§ 76-87); pronombre (§ 88) (Soriano refers to previous pages and does not treat them again; el verbo, partículas que se anteponen y las que se posponen (§ 89-90); Paragraphs devoted mainly to the initials and their “mudanza” (§ 94-102); impersonal (§ 103); de la síncopa (§ 104-109); [some particles] (§ 110-113); participio (§ 114); preposición (§ 115); adverbios (§ 116-152) (Latin-Spanish-Otomi list of “adverbs”, not arranged alphabetically. Sometimes, the Otomi example is given first, as gutho, tengutho (§ 144).
Libro en que se da razón breve del género de los nombres y de las cantidades de todos vocablos por una clarísima ortografía (59-63). No numbered paragraphs, no headers for sections.
Prólogo historial [version corta] (63-67).
Arte del idioma pame (67-83). Unnumbered paragraphs, and generally no titles are given for any sections. The author starts with the noun and “declension” (68-70); pronombre (70-71); modo de pronunciar (71); las letras (71-72); acento (72); advertencias necesarias (72) [about the term “raíz”] (72-73); Copia de los verbos en ya. A list of verbs is given in two columns, on the left Pame, and on the right Spanish, in the first person present, singular indicative. Neither of the two columns is arranged alphabetically (73-76); síncopas (76); pretéritos imperfectos, perfectos, futruros, etc. (77-80); Copia de los verbos en T (Pame-Spanish; not arranged alphabetically) (80-83).
Difícil tratado del arte y unión de los idiomas otomí y pame cuyos dos idiomas se aprenden por unas mismas reglas para la fácil y necesaria administración de las Misiones de Sierra Gorda. (83- 86). In fact, Soriano repeats many topics described earlier.
Dedicatoria a la Virgen María (83-84); Dedicatoria (84-86); Prólogo historial [versión larga] (86-99); modo de pronunciar los dos idiomas otomí y pame (99-100); vocabulario de los Idiomas pame y otomí, mexicano y jonaz. (101-145); Explicación de los más principales rudimentos de los dos idiomas otomí y pame dedicados al Purísimo Corazón de Jesús, día tres de julio 1768 (145-148).
Amonestaciones en otomí (148-151). There are other sections which are not relevant for the grammatical study, such as sections about witches, volcanoes, justice and other topics. Probably this manuscript was not the definitive version.
Objectif de l'auteurNo specific pedagogical principles are mentioned explicitly in the prologue. In the Pame grammar, Soriano believes that it is necessary to be familiar with the grammar of Otomi which enables learners to learn Pame with perfection (p. 68). On page 83, Soriano states that he wrote this text for “easy preaching” (“fácil predicación”). On the other hand, we read in the “Prólogo historial” that the Pame language is extremely difficult.
Intérêt généralThe “Prólogo historial” contains an interesting fact about the origin of the Pame nation. According to Soriano, that the Pame tribe came from Japan, China and Korea and they arrived from Asia passing through California. There is evidence for this theory, since the Pame language still shares features with Chinese (“Y se prueba por inferencia la lengua del idioma pame es casi una con el idioma chino”) (p. 86). The second proof is the fact that both languages share the same particles (“chi”). As Bartholomew & Lastra (2012, p. 12), the linguistic data of Guadalupe Soriano are important for diachronic studies of Otomi. There are some differences between Soriano and Neve y Molina, who wrote in the same period. Soriano does not distinguish all the oral vowels as Neve y Molina did (Lastra 2005, p. 209). Regarding the grammar of Pame, Bartholomew & Lastra observe that Soriano’s work is extremely important, since no other work survived in which this language is described. It is remarkable that these authors do not mention Francisco Valle’s Cuaderno in this section of their introduction, whereas this reference appears in the list of references (p. 21), as they mention also Manrique Castañeda’s paper “Dos gramáticas pames del siglo XVIII” (Manrique Castañeda 1960). It is important that in the grammar of Pame, Soriano explains that the language is tonal. Accents (“virulita”) are used to distinguish how to pronounce the syllable: lowering, ascending the tone or partially ascending and lowering: (“Es una virulita con la que se conoce cómo se debe pronunciar la sílaba, o bajándola, o alzándola o en parte bajándola o alzándola. Son tres los acentos, agudo con que se alza la sílaba, grave con que se baja y circunflejo con que parte se alza y parte se baja”) (p. 72). On the other hand, we can infer from his comparison with Latin (he gives the example with the homographs in Latin legere which can be read as lègere (infinitive) and lêgere (perfect)). It is still too early to distinguish between tone as a suprasegmental phoneme from the quantitative based suprasegmentals in Latin. It is remarkable that this description is only used in the Pame grammar; in the Otomi grammar the author does not use the verbs “alzar” / “bajar”/ or the adjectives “alto” / “bajo”, but instead, Soriano uses the terms ‘breve’ versus ‘largo’ (p. 60). Mainly the lexicographical material of various Otomanguean languages is of great interest. Soriano is less consistent in his orthography (Lastra 2005, p. 217), but his work is a useful tool for the study of Otomi and its varieties in space and time.
Parties du discoursThe author refers explicitly to Nebrija: “Las partes de la oración en este idioma son las mismas que Nebrija pone en el latino. Conviene a saber: nombre, pronombre, verbo, participio, preposición, adjetivo, interjección, y conjunción (Ed. Bartholomew & Lastra 2012, § 75, p. 45). Probably, “adjetivo” is not correct and must be replaced by “adverbio”. In the section where the participle is described (§ 114), Soriano refers again to Nebrija. “The participle is an adjective derived from the verb” (“Según Nebrija, es un adjetivo que se deriva de verbo”).
Innovations term.Soriano did not invent the term ‘raíz’ (“root”) but it is not commonly used in grammars of Otomi, as compared with grammars of Tarascan (Pur’épecha), for instance. In direct relation with the ‘raíces’ are the ‘partículas componentes’, which are needed to form the other tenses and moods. Soriano gives a definition of the ‘raíces’: “Las raíces son tres: presente, pretérito perfecto en su Segundo romance y futuro imperfecto. Llámanse raíces porque de ellas tienen origen y se forman los demás tiempos y así claramente se ve que componiendo en este idioma un tiempo a otro o prestándole sus partículas componentes para su locución….”. (§ 74). In the Pame grammar, Soriano repeats the same definition as given in the Otomi grammar, but now there is only one root for all the verbs, the present indicative (p. 72). The verb “adjetivar” is also less commonly used (§ 87: Supuesto el modo de formar nombres de verbos y de cómo se adjetivan…). Los verbos detenidos: Soriano seems to refer to the glottal stop in § 104-105, where he treats the “síncopa”, but further he comments that “los verbos detenidos” cannot be “syncopated” due to their “retention” (“Los verbos detenidos no se pueden sincopar por la misma detencion”). Another detail is that he changed the term “ovejuno” by “ovejal” (sheepish) (p. 63). The castanet sound also occurs in Soriano’s grammar of Otomi, but here the verb “castañear” is used (p. 23). For the glottal stop, the author uses the name “la detenida”, marked with two “rayitas” en the middle of the word, called “singultadas”, (p.63), “pronunciación singultada o detenida, la cual es llamado el resuello para dentro” (p. 100), but in other cases he also uses the term ‘saltillo’ (passim). Soriano does not distinguish between the “saltillo” and the “pronunciación singultada o detenida”, although Francisco Valle in his Pame grammar tells his readers explicitly that these are not the same (Valle, in Viñaza 1892, p. 290). Different from other authors, Soriano also uses the term “sinalefa”, as synonym for “síncopa” (p. 25).
Corpus illustratifOtomi and Pame (grammar). The illustrative corpus of the grammar is mainly based on morphology. The author uses paradigms and no longer text examples are appended. The work does not contain a section with the “modos de hablar”. Text examples are mainly included in the sections following the grammar.
Indications compl.The original Ms is not available on-line, but the edition of Bartolomew and Lastra (2012) is accessible on-line.
Influence subieThe grammatical model of Soriano’s “Arte del idioma otomi” is Nebrija. Soriano refers explicitly to him (p. 45, § 75) and on page (p. 48, § 93): “nos apartamos del orden de Nebrija y trataremos de los pretéritos de los verbos del otomí”. Other references to Nebrija are: (p. 52, §114); p. 58, § 152, p. 60). In the “Arte del idioma pame” we find also references to Nebrija (p. 68; 70). The term Concomitancia is also used by Sánchez de la Baquera from whom this term may have originated. The Concomitancia is the term for the dual. Sánchez de la Baquera gives three examples first person singular + third person singular, the first + second person singular, and the first + third person singular (p. 53). Soriano gives exactly the same example for the first case: first + third person singular, but he changes only the name “Como con Lorenzo (dinûmbe nanenco, the dual excl.), whereas Sánchez de la Baquera has “como con Pedro (dinunbe naPedro), the second is exactly the same “como contigo” (dual inclusive). The same applies for the “Materia” section. Soriano gives the examples “Plato de plata” (Latin Catinus ex argento) (manza gataxi) “sombrero de lana” (phiɨ gaxiyo) (p. 25) as in Sánchez de la Baquera (p. 52). The paragraph entitled “Si condicional” in Soriano (p. 25-26) is almost verbatim the same as in Sánchez de la Baquera (p. 53-54). In Sánchez de la Baquera, we have also two consecutive sections enumerated in the same order: “Concomitancia” (p. 52-53); Si condicional (p. 53), although both authors could have been inspired by others. The section on Conjugation starts as follows in Sánchez de la Baquera’s grammar: “Conjugacion vnica por la qual se conjugar todos los vervos sea el que fuere, y no ay otro modo. Partículas determinantes de las personas, Di para primeras…. Pero es regla general que en todos los tiempos a estas dichas particulas determinantes sele antepone esta go…” (f. 41-42). Soriano has: “Conjugación única, por la cual se conjugan todos los verbos, sea el que fuere; y no hay otro modo. Las partículas determinantes a las personas son: di-, gui-. Para la primera, di-… y se advierte que [a] las partículas todas que determinan las personas se le antepone la particular go (p. 27). According to Guadalupe Soriano, the Otomi verb has only one conjugation, whereas he admits that Pame has more than one (Bartolomew & Lastra 2012, p. 16), but he is not so explicit about the real number of conjugations. The only extant Pame grammar by Francisco Valle (1892) distinguishes three conjugations.
Influence exercéeUnknown.
Renvois bibliographiquesBartholomew D. & Lastra Y. 2012; Bartholomew D., Lastra Y., Chemin H., Manrique Castañeda L. & Castro C. A. (éd.) 2012 {[ca 1767]}; Frye D. 2000; Lastra Y. 2005; Lastra Y., Sherzer D. & Sherzer J. 2009; Manrique Castañeda L. 1960; Martínez Rosales A. (éd.) 1989; Niederehe H.-J. 2005; Samperio H. 1979 {p. 115-153}; Sánchez de la Baquera J. 1747; Valle F. 1892 {[ca 1730]}; Viñaza E. C. 1892
Rédacteur

Zwartjes, Otto

Création ou mise à jour2018-09