Extracto de la gramatica mutsun

The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Vocabulary or Phrase Book of the Mutsun

Language, Spoken at the Mission of San Juan Bautista, Alta California, by Father Felipe Arroyo de la Cuesta

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Title: A Vocabulary or Phrase Book of the Mutsun Language, Spoken at the Mission of San Juan Bautista, Alta California

Author: Father Felipe Arroyo de la Cuesta

Release Date: February 14, 2004 [EBook #11081]

Language: English and Spanish

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Produced by David Starner, David Garcia and PG Distributed Proofreaders

[Nota del transcriptor: Las irregularidades en acentuación y ortografía del español del libro original han sido retenidas en este texto digital]

{Transcriber's note: The irregularities in accenting and orthography in the Spanish of the original have been retained in this etext.]

SHEA'S

LIBRARY OF AMERICAN LINGUISTICS.

IV.

GRAMMAR OF THE MUTSUN LANGUAGE,

SPOKEN AT THE MISSION OF SAN JUAN BAUTISTA, ALTA CALIFORNIA.

BY

FATHER FELIPE ARROYO DE LA CUESTA,

OF THE ORDER OF ST. FRANCIS.

1861

EXTRACTO

DE LA

GRAMATICA MUTSUN,

Ó DE LA LENGUA DE LOS NATURALES DE LA

MISION DE SAN JUAN BAUTISTA,

COMPUESTA

POR EL REV. PADRE FRAY FELIPE ARROYO DE LA CUESTA,

DEL ORDEN SERAFICO DE N.P. SAN FRANCISCO, MINISTRO

DE DICHA MISION EN 1816.

NUEVA-YORK.

1861.

Contenido

PREFACE

The accompanying volume is printed exactly from a manuscript of 76 pages, small quarto, belonging to the College of Santa Inez, by whose president it was, at the suggestion of A.S. Taylor, Esq., forwarded to the Smithsonian Institution.

The Mutsunes were the Indians among whom the mission of San Juan Bautista was planted, June 24, 1799. Their village lay in the centre of a valley, with abundance of rich land, and as late as 1831 numbered 1200 souls. The mission is about 40 miles northwest from Monterey, and they are thus the most northerly tribe, of whose language, to our knowledge, the Spanish missionaries compiled a grammar. For purposes of comparison this little work, accordingly, possesses great value, as the language was one of considerable extent, covering, according to Mr. Taylor's estimate, a district one hundred and seventy miles long by eighty broad.

The late W.W. Turner, who examined the work, says in a brief notice addressed to the Historical Magazine (vol. 1, p. 206): "The Mutsun language is clearly the same with the Rumsen or Runsien (the Achastlian of De la Manon); one of the two spoken at the mission of San Carlos, and with that of the mission of La Soledad, further to the south. A considerable degree of resemblance appears also in the language of the Olhones (or Costanos) on the Bay of San Francisco; and a fainter one further north in the San Rafael, and also in the Olamentke or Bodegan language."

On the cover of the manuscript is the following note, of considerable importance in instituting comparisons: Copia de la lengua Mutsun en estilo Catalan á causa la escribió un Catalan. La Castellana usa de la fuerza de la pronunciacion de letras de otro modo en sa alfabeto. Ve el original intitulado Gramatica California. The Catalans pronounce ch hard and j like the Germans.

Father Felipe Arroyo de la Cuesta was then, it would seem, a Catalan. He came to California, it is said, about 1810, and was for many years missionary at San Juan Bautista. About 1830 he had, however, become very infirm and broken in health, yet then new troubles came, and in the political changes, which struck a death blow to the missions, the aged missionary was driven from one refuge to another, still apparently continuing his literary labor. He finally died at the mission of Santa Inez in 1842.

J.G.S.

INTRODUCCION

A LA

GRAMATICA MUTSUN.

Al Idioma de estos Indios, le faltan las letras siguientes: b, d, k, f, r, fuerte, v consonante, y x.

CAPITULO I.

De la Analogia, o partes de la Oracion.

De las Declinaciones del Nombre Substantivo.

Las Declinaciones de los nombres substantivos son tantas como terminaciones tienen los mismos Nombres: unos acaban en es, como eyes; otros en an, como ánan; otros en ec, como iréc; otros en us, como rus; otros en a, como ríña; otros en el, como mógel; otros en ag, como rag; otros en o, como coró; otros en ar, como sácar; otros en or, como por; otros en oi, como jócoi; otros en ur, como júppur; otros en os, como jórcos: y asi otros nombres con otras terminaciones irreducibles por ahora â numero determinado. Mas porque tengan tantas, y tan diversas terminaciones, no por eso dexan de poderse declinar gramaticalmente todos los nombres que llamamos Substantivos, aunque sin artículos, ô signo pronominal el, la, lo, ô hic, hæc, hoc, como se dice en latin: por esto en los substantivos no se pone, ni se dice, eyes, la barba, sino barba; ánan, la madre, sino madre; irec, piedra; rus, saliva; riña, ratón: mógel, cabeza; rag, piojo; coró, pies; sácar, liendre; por, pulga; jocoi, sarna; juppur, divieso; y jorcos, pescuezo: porque este idioma carece de nuestros artículos gramaticales; y de consiguiente de los generos masculino,