Synopses & Reviews
As rich as the development of the Spanish and Portuguese languages has been in Latin America, no single book has attempted to chart their complex history. Gathering essays by sociohistorical linguists working across the region, Salikoko S. Mufwene does just that in this book. Exploring the many different contact points between Iberian colonialism and indigenous cultures, the contributors identify the crucial parameters of language evolution that have led to todayand#8217;s state of linguistic diversity in Latin America.
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The essays approach language development through an ecological lens, exploring the effects of politics, economics, cultural contact, and natural resources on the indigenization of Spanish and Portuguese in a variety of local settings. They show how languages adapt to new environments, peoples, and practices, and the ramifications of this for the spread of colonial languages, the loss or survival of indigenous ones, and the way hybrid vernaculars get situated in larger political and cultural forces. The result is a sophisticated look at language as a natural phenomenon, one that meets a host of influences with remarkable plasticity. and#160;
Review
“Anthropologist William Hanks has given us a remarkable piece of scholarly work...” Missiology
Review
"This book is a true landmark."--Anthropos Redaktion
Review
“This book is a true landmark.” Frauke Sachse
Review
and#8220;Together the chapters in this book give a well thought-out overview of the complexity of the social ecologies and linguistic development within Latin America, of the differences between the Portuguese and the Spanish empires, and of those within the Spanish viceroyalties. With this volume, Salikoko S. Mufwene brings to English-language readers the missing piece in the discussion of language ecologies in excolonial regions.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Iberian Imperialism and Language Evolution in Latin America is a fascinating and important volume that insightfully and meticulously explores the complexities of language evolution in colonial and postcolonial Latin America. Above all, the discussions and debates by the varied and expert contributors warn against easy conclusions and oversimplification when considering the consequences of language contact, colonization of indigenous languages, and language evolution. Mufwene and the authors are at pains to stress that detailed scrutiny of what at first sight seems a generalizable geographical area actually throws up a series of different and sometimes surprising outcomes, reflecting, as this does, the enormous demographic, political, social, and ecological diversity of the vast region. This nuanced approach and resistance to generalization is a refreshing and welcome contribution to the wider literature.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Anthropologist William Hanks has given us a remarkable piece of scholarly work...and#8221;
Review
and#8220;This book is a true landmark.and#8221;
Synopsis
This pathbreaking synthesis of history, anthropology, and linguistics gives an unprecedented view of the first two hundred years of the Spanish colonization of the Yucatec Maya. Drawing on an extraordinary range and depth of sources, William F. Hanks documents for the first time the crucial role played by language in cultural conquest: how colonial Mayan emerged in the age of the cross, how it was taken up by native writers to become the language of indigenous literature, and how it ultimately became the language of rebellion against the system that produced it. Converting Words includes original analyses of the linguistic practices of both missionaries and Mayas-as found in bilingual dictionaries, grammars, catechisms, land documents, native chronicles, petitions, and the forbidden Maya Books of Chilam Balam. Lucidly written and vividly detailed, this important work presents a new approach to the study of religious and cultural conversion that will illuminate the history of Latin America and beyond, and will be essential reading across disciplinary boundaries.
Synopsis
and#147;A true benchmark. This work will set a new standard for the conceptualizationand#151;let alone the studyand#151;of missionization and religious conversion, colonial language policy, and language-oriented social history. Hanks provides a framework for thinking about language history that integrates language ideology, linguistic form (from phonology to speech genres), social organization, and the phenomenology of experience that goes so far beyond traditional historical, linguistic, or philological perspectives as to constitute a new paradigm for the field.
Converting Words will be a classic work that will stimulate others to emulate Hanks's powerful scholarly example. The field will never be the same after this book appears.and#8221;and#151;Richard Bauman, author of
A World of Others' Words: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Intertextualityand#147;Hanks's work is utterly original and unprecedented... I don't think historians of the Mesoamerican colonial regimes should write anything until they read this book; it's that important.and#8221;and#151;Jane H. Hill, author of A Grammar of Cupeand#241;o
About the Author
Salikoko S. Mufwene is the Frank J. McLorraine Distinguished Service Professor of Linguistics in the College as well as professor in the Committee on Evolutionary Biology and the Committee on the Conceptual and Historical Studies of Science at the University of Chicago. He is the author of several books, including, most recently Language Evolution: Contact, Competition and Change.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
List of Tables
Preface
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction: The Field of Discourse Production
The Making of a Translanguage and#149; The Body as Totality and#149;
A Shifting Voice for Indian Authors
Part I. The Scope of Reduccand#237;on
2. Perpetual Reducciand#243;n in a Land of Frontiers
Notes on the Political Geography of Post-Mayapand#225;n Yucatand#225;n and#149;
Land#243;pez Medel and the Spirit of the Laws and#149; Reducciand#243;n in a Regional
Perspective and#149; A Land of Frontiers
3. To Make Themselves New Men
Governance of the Guardianand#237;a and#149; Disciplining the Senses and#149;
Bishop Toraland#8217;s Vision and#149; Cogolludoand#8217;s Landscape and#149; Guardianand#237;a
and Cofradand#237;a and#149; Cabildos in the Mission Towns
Part II. Converting Words
4. From Field to Genre and Habitus
Metalinguistic Labeling and#149; Production Format and Author
Position and#149; I ndexical Centering in the Deictic Field and#149;
Stylistic Differentiation of Genres and#149; Multimodality:
Speech, Animation, Inscription and#149; Iteration
5. First Words: From Spanish into Maya
Dictionaries and the Problem of Authorship and#149; The Thematic
Scope of the Dictionaries and#149; From Spanish into Maya and#149;
First Principles and#149; R eligious Practices and#149; Pedagogy and#149;
Language and Signs and#149; G overnance and#149; Marginal Practices
6. Commensuration: Maya as a Matrix Language
Commensuration and Translingual Meaning and#149; Fray Antonio
de Ciudad Real, Exemplary Lengua
7. The Grammar of Reducciand#243;n and the Art of Speaking
What Is an Arte? and#149; The Shadow of Nebrija and#149; Fray Juan Coronel, Arte
en lengua de maya (1620) and#149; G abriel de San Buenaventura, Arte de la
lengua maya (1684) and#149; Fray Pedro Beltrand#225;n de Santa Rosa Marand#237;a, Arte de
el Idioma Maya (1746) and#149; Missionary Linguistics as a Hybrid System
8. The Canonical Word
The Maya Doctrinas and#149; What Is a Doctrina Menor? praying in
maya / doctrinal dialogues / sermons
Part III. Into the Breach: The Dispersion of Maya reducido
9. The Scripted Landscape
What Is a Notarial Document? and#149; L andscape as Text and#149; Early
Chronicles and#149; The Titles of Ebtun and#149; Bills of Sale
10. Petitions as Prayers in the Field of Reducciand#243;n
Letters of the Caciques to the Crown, February 11, 1567 and#149; L etter of
the Batabs to the Crown, March 19, 1567 and#149; Petition from Dzaptand#250;n,
July 20, 1605 and#149; Petitions from Numkinand#237; and Xecelchakand#225;n,
November 1669
11. Cross Talk in the Books of Chilam Balam
Doctrinal Language in the Books of Chilam Balam and#149; True God
Comes to Yucatand#225;n and#149; The Sadness of the Christians and#149; The Words
of the Prophet
Epilogue: Full Circle
Notes
References Cited
Index