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Table of contents
A world of many voices: Editors’ introduction 1
K. David Harrison, David S. Rood and Arienne Dwyer
Sri Lanka Malay revisited: Genesis and classification 13
Umberto Ansaldo
Working together: The interface between researchers and the native
people – The Trumai case 43
Aurore Monod Becquelin, Emmanuel de Vienne and Raquel
Guirardello-Damian
Tense, Aspect and Mood in Awetí verb paradigms: Analytic and synthetic forms 67
Sebastian Drude
Tonogenesis in Southeastern Monguor 111
Arienne Dwyer
Language, ritual and historical reconstruction: Towards a linguistic,
ethnographical and archaeological account of Upper Xingu Society 129
Carlos Fausto, Bruna Franchetto and Michael Heckenberger
Endangered Caucasian languages in Georgia: Linguistic parameters
of language endangerment 159
Jost Gippert
Contact, attrition and shift in two Chaco languages: The cases
of Tapiete and Vilela 195
Lucía A. Golluscio and Hebe González
Tofa language change and terminal generation speakers 243
K. David Harrison and Gregory D. S. Anderson
Hočank’s challenge to morphological theory 271
Johannes Helmbrecht and Christian Lehmann
A preliminary study of same-turn self-repair initiation in Wichita conversation 317
Armik Mirzayan](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/75396-250315142206-ff294a5c/75/Lessons-from-Documented-Endangered-Languages-1st-Edition-K-David-Harrison-Ed-10-2048.jpg)
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Lessons from Documented Endangered Languages
Multimedia analysis in documentation projects: Kinship, interrogatives and
reciprocals in Akhoe Haiom 355
Thomas Widlok, Christian Rapold and Gertie Hoymann
Index 371](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/75396-250315142206-ff294a5c/75/Lessons-from-Documented-Endangered-Languages-1st-Edition-K-David-Harrison-Ed-11-2048.jpg)
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A world of many voices
Editors’ introduction
K. David Harrison, David S. Rood and Arienne Dwyer
The papers in this volume – spanning locales as diverse as Amazonia, Native North
America, Siberia, and Sri Lanka – represent part of an unprecedented and still
growing effort to advance, coordinate and disseminate the scientific documenta-
tion of endangered languages on a scale not previously attempted.
As the pace of language extinction increases, linguists and native communi-
ties – each with their own motives and methods – are accelerating their efforts to
speak, remember, hear, teach, learn, record, analyze and archive as much as possi-
ble of our common human heritage that is linguistic diversity. At the same time,
new technologies have made the rapid collection, analysis and storage of massive
amounts of multimedia data both affordable and feasible in a way that they were
not just a few short years ago. Many languages will now assuredly outlive, at least
in an archival sense, both their last speakers and their last documenters. These
data will be available to unknown and perhaps unimagined users (including the
descendants of the last speakers) as far into the future as technology, funding, and
human cooperation permits.
The DoBeS program (Dokumentation bedrohter Sprachen, The Documen-
tation of Endangered Languages), begun in 2000 by the Volkswagen Foundation
set key benchmarks for documentation standards, future funding initiatives, and
archival design. The digital repository at the Max Planck Institute in Nijmegen is
to date the most capacious centralized archive specifically designed to house en-
dangered language data. Though the Volkswagen Foundation has a long history of
funding basic research in all fields of science and humanities, this project repre-
sented a new and bold direction. In 2000, as the first twelve funded “pilot phase”
projects began, it could not have been foreseen how the DoBeS project would
inspire and influence other major funding initiatives, such as those by the Hans
Rausing Endangered Languages Project (HRELP) at the School of Oriental and
African Studies, or the Documentation of Endangered Languages Program (DEL)
funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/75396-250315142206-ff294a5c/75/Lessons-from-Documented-Endangered-Languages-1st-Edition-K-David-Harrison-Ed-12-2048.jpg)
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K. David Harrison, David S. Rood and Arienne Dwyer
Figure 1. Endangered Languages covered in this volume
Thanks to funding initiatives like these, the type of meticulous research that
used to be called “field work” and is now increasingly called “language documenta-
tion” or “documentary linguistics” has risen dramatically over the past five years in
prominence,importance and prestige, both within linguistics and in the public do-
main. Field linguists and their allies cannot help but feel delighted and vindicated
by this turn of events. For many years, especially in North American universities,
theoretical linguistics completely dominated the landscape, to the extent that peo-
ple who collected the data on which theories must of necessity be based felt they
received significantly less respect for their work and had less chance of landing an
academic job than did their more theoretically-oriented colleagues. This has now
begun to change, thanks in part to the funding trend begun by DoBeS.
Participants in the DoBeS pilot phase in 2000–2001 attempted something the
field of linguistics as a whole had not yet accomplished: Agree on a set of minimum
standards for annotation, tagging, transcription, digital data formats, centralized
archiving, intellectual property protection, data ethics and access. It was a broad
ambit, and it is too early to tell what lasting effect decisions made by consortium
members may have had. Our modest efforts certainly got the discussion going and
served as a model for subsequent documentation and funding initiatives. DoBeS
also set new goals for multi-disciplinarity – DoBeS proposals were expected to
include not only linguists but also scholars from allied disciplines such as ethno-
musicology, speech science, ethnography, and history. Many of the funded projects
did succeed in fostering new such collaborations across the disciplines.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/75396-250315142206-ff294a5c/75/Lessons-from-Documented-Endangered-Languages-1st-Edition-K-David-Harrison-Ed-13-2048.jpg)
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A world of many voices
But the advances for linguistics proper were also significant. In many cases,
the languages being documented – such as Trumai, Vilela and Wichita – were not
only endangered or moribund, but were previously only marginally documented
or very poorly understood by outsiders. In some cases the remaining speakers were
growing old to the point that documentary work was rapidly becoming unfeasible.
The window of opportunity for documentation is thus narrower than the actual
lifetime of a language, and is now rapidly closing for many languages represented
in this volume.
Authors of papers in this volume – all funded via the DoBeS initiative – were
asked to do more than simply unveil newly collected data from previously poorly-
known and endangered languages. They were asked to consider challenges posed
by these languages to current linguistic theories or models. Beyond that, they were
asked to address social and ethical issues involved in the process of documenting,
and how these might in turn affect the involved communities (whether of speak-
ers, rememberers or scientists). Some authors took a more data-driven approach,
organizing highly complex linguistic facts – paradigms, affixes, vowel patterns –
and pointing out the theoretically challenging aspects of what they had amassed.
Others dwelt more on the social and human dimensions, discussing particular
problems of nostalgia and modernity, memory and forgetting, obsolescence and
ethics, while viewing language as not merely data on a page but a living creation
in the minds and mouths of its speakers.
We may well be witnessing a paradigm shift towards a new empiricism and
holism in linguistics, and a shift in public awareness of language endangerment
and its consequences. The new empiricism is driven by the lasting multimedia re-
sources created by language documentation projects. These resources, designed to
capture the nature of linguistic systems, also serve as major culture studies re-
sources. Never before have extensive text collections been directly accessible to
researchers worldwide. Interoperability of these resources – the means by which
scholars from outside the original project can access primary data – is a nec-
essary component in all aspects of digital data and will change expectations for
evidence in linguistics in the coming decades. In just the past five years, a vibrant
discussion has emerged among linguists about best practices, data standards, the
ethics of participatory documentation, archiving technologies, data longevity, and
capacity-building in indigenous communities.
At the same time, a broader public of educators, students, politicians, activists,
and indigenous communities have been engaged in a dialogue about the value of
languages, cultures and human diversity in the face of encroaching globalization.
That these concerns resonate deeply with our own linguistic research is evidenced
by a sharp increase in the number of journalists, communities, foundations and
scientists newly interested in language endangerment.For all those interested com-
munities, we present the papers in this volume as a preliminary report from the](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/75396-250315142206-ff294a5c/75/Lessons-from-Documented-Endangered-Languages-1st-Edition-K-David-Harrison-Ed-14-2048.jpg)
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K. David Harrison, David S. Rood and Arienne Dwyer
frontlines. We hope to have made a modest contribution to greater scientific and
humanitarian understanding of the world’s vanishing tongues, of those who speak
them, and those who listen.
Untangling human history
What can endangered languages tell us about patterns of contact and mixing of
peoples that took place in human prehistory? Umberto Ansaldo’s paper (Chap-
ter 1) invites us to examine Sri Lankan Malay (abbreviated here as SLM; ISO 639-3
SCI), a creole that arose out of a multilingual contact environment and that still
awaits a precise categorization. As Ansaldo’s paper clearly illustrates, field linguis-
tics holds great potential to enhance the results of disciplines such as anthropolog-
ical genetics, geography and history and to help untangle knotty problems of early
human migration and settlement.
After a description of the five communities where SLM is spoken today (in
four of which it is now endangered) the author turns to a technical analysis of
grammatical phenomena. He carefully sifts through patterns of nominal marking
in field data he collected from SLM, looking at phenomena such as animacy, dative
subjects, and case syncretism, and considering the most likely adstrate sources for
each of these. Prior analyses of SLM as a “classical” creole, with Tamil as the pri-
mary superstrate language, are based mostly on incomplete or even completely
absent historical evidence, and must be revisited. Ansaldo suggests that SLM is
best considered a mixed language, the product of a unique process of long-term,
gradual restructuring under multilingual contact. SLM seems to show potentially
equal influence of both Tamil and the majority Sinhala adstrates, and a significant
degree of typological convergence with general South Asian patterns. Endangered
varieties of SLM may indeed prove – pending further needed documentation by
Ansaldo and others – to be an excellent test case for models of typological conver-
gence and the dynamics of language contact.
Contested cultures
How can linguists working on endangered languages bridge the gap between their
own research goals and the often very different cultural world views of the com-
munity they are working in? Chapter 2, by Aurore Monod Becquelin, Emmanuel
de Vienne, and Raquel Guirardello-Damian explores this quandary. The lead au-
thor began her work in Brazil 30 years ago, and was subsequently joined by her
co-authors. She has observed how the Trumais have become connected to and
aware of other peoples, participating in the formation of a regional, Brazilian, and](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/75396-250315142206-ff294a5c/75/Lessons-from-Documented-Endangered-Languages-1st-Edition-K-David-Harrison-Ed-15-2048.jpg)
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A world of many voices
global indigenous identity. This participation is fraught with inter-ethnic rivalries
and contested indigenous notions of authenticity. It has led, the authors argue, to
a process of reflexivization and folklorization driven by a consumerist demand for
“pure Indian” culture and, subsequently, to a transformation of the indigenous
Trumai view of their own culture through Western eyes.
What constitutes adequate documentation, it turns out, is very much in the
eye and ear of the beholder. Trumais and outsiders exhibit markedly different
ways of listening to recorded narratives and treating archival objects. For the Tru-
mais, as the authors point out, it is not the object (e.g., a recording) itself that
matters – as there exists no presumption of its permanence – but the communica-
tive interaction behind it, and the subsequent reciprocal relationships fostered by
its continued circulation. Can any culture, they wonder, escape being irrevocably
transformed “when passing through the sieve of the collecting process”? Docu-
mentation entails constructions of knowledge (as opposed to mere information
or data) and its possession by speakers and researchers. Each participant in this
process faces the potential impossibility of meeting the other’s expectations while
remaining true to his or her own principles.
A first step towards an adequate documentation as researchers is to admit our
often limited understanding of indigenous economies of knowledge and rules of
social transmission. As for the agenda of preserving culture, the authors voice an
important caution: “When we record a form of knowledge that is alive and in con-
stant transformation, we run a high risk of turning it into a rigid format, no longer
able to mutate and evolve (the knowledge becomes frozen in the form in which it
appears in the audio or video recording produced). This affects the way people
relate to the knowledge in question. It also affects its accessibility and its transmis-
sion to future generations.” These important observations, with the vivid examples
cited from Trumai culture, will speak to many of the most vexing problems faced
by documentary field linguists.
Morphological complexity
Continuing the theme of Amazonian languages, Sebastian Drude (Chapter 3) de-
scribes the pronominal and TAM (Tense-Aspect-Mood) systems of a previously
undocumented Brazilian Tupian language, while also illustrating and demon-
strating the advantages of Integrational Linguistics, a new model of description
developed mainly by Hans-Heinrich Lieb. The language, Awetí, utilizes both split-
ergative and split-intransitive case marking, and both aspect and modality cat-
egories, but not tense; the categories that seem to correspond to tense, such as
“future,” fit better into the system as sub-categories of modal “factuality.” The
model, basically a word-and-paradigm schema, allows for the separate description](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/75396-250315142206-ff294a5c/75/Lessons-from-Documented-Endangered-Languages-1st-Edition-K-David-Harrison-Ed-16-2048.jpg)
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K. David Harrison, David S. Rood and Arienne Dwyer
of function and structure. Whether a category is marked as an affix or by means
of a particle or auxiliary verb, we can see the uniformity of the meaning system
behind the variety of marker types. The ultimate definitions of morphemes, then,
are lists of categorical features which each one amalgamates, and parsing words
becomes a matter of mechanically checking the surface form against the list of fea-
tures. Drude estimates that each transitive verb paradigm contains approximately
1,000 forms with up to 1,400 meanings (because of morphological syncretism), all
parsable using the two or three dozen categories he has described. This study suc-
cessfully applies a descriptive model developed for other kinds of languages to an
endangered language, describes a somewhat different kind of split case-marking
system than has been reported in other Tupian languages, and argues cogently for
a TAM system without tense.
Emergent tone systems
To what extent can the prosody of a language undergo change due to contact? Ari-
enne Dwyer (Chapter 4) presents an intriguing case for a previously non-tonal
language that now appears to be in the early stages of acquiring contrastive tone.
In contact with Northwestern Chinese, the Mongolic language under investiga-
tion, Southeastern Monguor, has developed systematic prosodic contrasts in cases
of homophony. Although one other Mongolic language of the region is known to
adapt tonal features of Chinese loans, Southeastern Monguor applies tonal distinc-
tions to native Mongolic lexemes, where such distinctions in Mongolic languages
are otherwise unknown – including in other dialects of Monguor. This analysis
uses acoustic data from homophonous pairs in carrier utterances to assess emer-
gent pitch patterns. It then traces the historical development of each of these
lexemes (including one of Greek origin) to posit causes for the contrastive and
non-contrastive pitch patterns. Syllable simplification and other diachronic pro-
cesses has resulted in a small but growing number of homophones, giving rise to
the contrasts that appear to indicate incipient tonongenesis. The language’s sys-
tematic use of a final high pitch in non-constrastive syllables suggests an ongoing
development towards a two-tone (High-Low) system, realized as rising and falling
pitches, respectively. In order to avoid potential homophony, such cases will likely
increase over time. If this leads to the emergence of a full-fledged tone system,
it will make SE Monguor unique among documented Mongolic languages. The
phonetic data, including pitch tracks, in this article also illustrate the kind of theo-
retical advances that can be made when speakers of a rare language can be recorded
under ideal laboratory conditions.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/75396-250315142206-ff294a5c/75/Lessons-from-Documented-Endangered-Languages-1st-Edition-K-David-Harrison-Ed-17-2048.jpg)
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A world of many voices
Shamans’ chants and linguistic archeology
How deeply into human prehistory does the study of language and culture al-
low us to delve? And in what ways can endangered language research help solve
archaeological and ethnographic conundrums? Carlos Fausto, Bruna Franchetto
and Michael Heckenberger (Chapter 5) present an interdisciplinary essay on the
ritual-political system among contemporary Upper Xingu peoples of Amazonia.
They use field data from ethnography, linguistics and archeology to reconstruct
patterns of cultural contact from the 9th century to the present. They argue that
the Upper Xingu ritual polity, which is predominantly ethnic Arawakan, emerged
out of a process of ‘relational interweaving’. This process stands in sharp contrast
to the ‘familiarizing predation’ type of cultural assimilation found among many
Carib, Tupian, Jivaroan, and other Amazonian peoples.
Specific layers of language, in this case ritual chant and song, contain rich
residual evidence that awaits discovery. For example, when Kuikuru shamans
chant and sing, they employ a mixed language containing elements of the an-
cient Waura language alongside contemporary Kuikuru. An unsolved puzzle here
is why ritual singing and chanting would result in a unique form of linguistic hy-
bridization, while everyday languages were maintained as distinct. This research
shows a very promising model for interdisciplinary collaborations in Amazonia
and beyond, and the central role language documentation can play.
Assessing endangerment
Turning to three languages of the Caucasus, Jost Gippert (Chapter 6) discusses
the various manifestations of language contact in speech communities where in-
advertent and constant code-mixing seems to be the norm. Since the dominant
contact languages in question, Russian and Georgian, differ greatly in structure
both from each other and from the small language groups examined here, many
puzzles about contact effects on the grammar and discourse present themselves.
Marshalling an impressive range of new field data that covers genres ranging from
composed poetry to informal recorded dialogue, the author argues cogently for
a holistic approach to endangered speech data. Based on his careful transcrip-
tion and analysis of recordings, he shows many examples of how language contact
manifests itself (both synchronically and diachronically) in loans, shift, and sim-
plification. Finally, the author suggests that code-switching itself – taken together
with other demographic and social factors – can serve as a key diagnostic of the
degree of language endangerment, in part because of the way in which different
dominant languages can leave different traces – interferences of certain types – in
minority languages.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/75396-250315142206-ff294a5c/75/Lessons-from-Documented-Endangered-Languages-1st-Edition-K-David-Harrison-Ed-18-2048.jpg)
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K. David Harrison, David S. Rood and Arienne Dwyer
The floodgates of memory
What happens when a speech community is reduced to just two speakers who
seldom use their language? To what extent can linguists, in the process of docu-
menting, help such last speakers open the floodgates of memory to recall sounds,
verbal forms and stories that they may not have heard or spoken in nearly half
a century? Lucía Golluscio and Hebe González (Chapter 7) explore some dy-
namic processes of forgetting and remembering now taking place in two nearly
extinct languages of Argentina: Taipete and Vilela. The authors present a large
body of newly-collected and analyzed data – much of which may indeed be the
last material collected from native speakers on these languages – to demonstrate
the complex kinds of borrowing, attrition and restructuring that can take place in
the grammars of obsolescent languages.
In Taipete we see a strong tendency to nativize Spanish loanwords with respect
to syllable structure, nasal harmony and stress. Somewhat surprisingly, Taipete
seems highly resistant to Spanish influence at the level of its morphology, even
though pervasive contacts effects are observed in the phonology and syntax. Vilela,
now nearly extinct, presents an interesting case of a speech community gradually
becoming ‘invisible.’ Actively suppressed, the language now has just two elderly
speakers; one additional speaker has since passed away. The authors present a mov-
ing and very personal account of these two speakers struggling to recall bits and
pieces of their ancestral language. Surprising progress is seen during the period of
fieldwork described in this paper, thanks in part to some innovative techniques of
“memory floodgating” applied by the researchers.
Moribund yet living
The contribution to this volume by David Harrison and Gregory Anderson (Chap-
ter 8) addresses directly an issue of the documentation undertaking itself: What
kind of data are available and should be collected from a moribund language? They
argue that some of the changes seen in the language of younger semi-speakers
are simply normal evolutionary developments, and those changes should be de-
scribed and discussed separately from the kind that result from the process of
replacing this language with another. They illustrate their point with data from
Tofa, a Siberian Turkic language, contrasting descriptions of the language from
two generations ago with data they have just collected. One of several changes they
consider “normal,” in that it eliminates marked forms in favor of unmarked ones
and has parallels in other Turkic languages, is the simplification of the morphol-
ogy of the first person plural imperative. The simplification of the modal auxiliary
system likewise has parallels in vigorous languages in the family.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/75396-250315142206-ff294a5c/75/Lessons-from-Documented-Endangered-Languages-1st-Edition-K-David-Harrison-Ed-19-2048.jpg)
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A world of many voices
Other contact-induced changes include the use of Russian-like relative clause
constructions, while a third type of change is harder to characterize. The youngest
speakers have largely simplified the phonetics of the vowel system by eliminating
front rounded vowels, yet they still treat the words with historically front stem
vowels as front for vowel harmony purposes. They have thus increased the ab-
stractness of the vowel harmony rules by eliminating the phonetic conditioning
for them – clearly an increase in the complexity of the inflectional system. The les-
son we learn from this study, then, is that even moribund languages are still living
languages, and continue to undergo change even in the terminal generation. Data
from their younger speakers are thus just as significant for the study of linguistics
as are data from older ones.
Challenges to linguistic theory
Why do language theoreticians need to study endangered languages in depth?
When Johannes Helmbrecht and Christian Lehmann (Chapter 9) attempted to
make sense of the morphological template for Hočank (Winnebago) verbs, they
discovered that the language obliged them to rethink the categories used in
morphological theory. This spurred them to develop a new typology of affixes,
“tak[ing] into consideration the results of historical linguistics as well as gram-
maticalization theory.” Most of the paper is devoted to a detailed description of
the Hočank verbal template, making use of the classification established at the
beginning of the paper. Although the evolution of these unusual morphological
patterns is clear from both internal reconstruction and comparative studies (in-
flectional prefixes become entrapped between preverbal elements and verb roots
when the particle-verb complex lexifies), the synchronic pattern contradicts many
typological claims about the structure of words. This kind of work with previously
under-documented languages makes two contributions to the field: a theoretical
clarification for general linguistics, and detailed structural information for those
who study this and related languages.
Conversational strategies
Since the overall purpose of the DoBeS project is to archive and disseminate
endangered-language data, the project on Wichita incorporated the archiving of
collections which contain now-extinct forms. Chapter 10 demonstrates what can
be learned from such re-processing of data from an earlier era. Armik Mirzayan
asks how speakers of this polysynthetic language signal that they are stopping their
speech and starting over again – technically called “same turn self-repair.” Taking](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/75396-250315142206-ff294a5c/75/Lessons-from-Documented-Endangered-Languages-1st-Edition-K-David-Harrison-Ed-20-2048.jpg)
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K. David Harrison, David S. Rood and Arienne Dwyer
a 1966 recording and enhancing it with modern technological tools, then applying
conversation analysis to the result gives us the basis for an extremely detailed study
of the interaction between language structure and the way speakers correct them-
selves when they perceive themselves making mistakes while talking. He shows
that, in his words, “Repair, taking place for whatever interactional pressures at
hand, intrusively cuts off the morphologically complex word-in-progress. Subse-
quently the strict ordering of bound morphemes, along with morphophonemic
fusion of the sounds, constrains how the repair is completed.” To some extent,
Wichita speakers use the same devices as do speakers of other kinds of languages,
but Mirzayan conclusively demonstrates that “despite some of the cross-linguistic
generalizationsthat we see in the types of self-repair initiation, and in their phono-
logical function, it seems that at the level of morphosyntax there are language
specific constraints that may arise as a result of structural forces from within the
language itself. These drive the nature of the outcome of repair initiation.”
Kinship in context
The paper by Thomas Widlok, Christian Rapold and Gertie Hoymann (Chapter
11) demonstrates the importance of two of the DoBeS documentation principles:
interdisciplinarity and multimodal documentation. Linguistic documentation can
be enriched by employing a team of people from different disciplines, and video
records enhance audio, photographic, and text documentation to provide a more
holistic picture of a language and its speakers. The authors apply both anthropo-
logical and linguistic analyses to elucidate the problem of kinship identification.
The video clarifies how participants identify and address each other, and offers a
possible clue as to why particular question words are used; anthropological analy-
sis determines how a relationship is established and elucidates the relation between
cultural practices and language patterning; linguistic analyses of interrogatives
and reciprocals show how the language allows the speaker to explain complex
phenomena. This disciplinary interaction also illustrates the spiral nature of doc-
umentation work: provisional analysis is essential at the beginning stages of the
documentation activity, and allows the initial annotation of the data, but a thor-
ough understanding of the phenomena is only possible with a repeated, elaborated
study of the annotated recordings.
Acknowledgements
The editors wish to thank many people who made this volume possible. Our
‘shadow editor,’ Robbie Hart devoted many hours to formatting and proofread-](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/75396-250315142206-ff294a5c/75/Lessons-from-Documented-Endangered-Languages-1st-Edition-K-David-Harrison-Ed-21-2048.jpg)
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A world of many voices
ing the papers. At John Benjamins, Kees Vaes and Michael Noonan guided us
through the submission and review process. Nineteen anonymous reviewers gen-
erously lent their expertise and constructive criticism to improve the final product.
Gregory Anderson, Lisa Lim and Sergio Meira provided editorial assistance to au-
thors. Ulrike Mosel and Peter Wittenberg, both serving on the DoBeS steering
committee, offered expert advice and institutional support. Vera Szöllösi-Brenig,
the DoBeS program officer at Volkswagen Stiftung, offered encouragement and
administered the generous support granted to all the projects featured in this
volume. The Volkswagen Stiftung, under the leadership of Secretary-General Wil-
helm Krull, along with its Humanities and Social Sciences Division, directed by
Axel Horstman, should be lauded for a willingness to see resources directed not
only to scholars, but to community-based collaborative projects that can benefit
native speakers.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/75396-250315142206-ff294a5c/75/Lessons-from-Documented-Endangered-Languages-1st-Edition-K-David-Harrison-Ed-22-2048.jpg)
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Sri Lanka Malay revisited
Genesis and classification
Umberto Ansaldo
Universiteit van Amsterdam
This paper presents a fresh take on the origins and nature of Sri Lanka Malay
(SLM), based on fieldwork data collected in 2003–2005 in Kirinda, in the south-
east of Sri Lanka. It departs from previous studies of SLM in that it is based on
substantial recordings of spoken data in natural settings as well as coverage of
oral and written history. Work on SLM so far has offered significant insights
into the nature of these varieties; due to limited data available, however, some
aspects have failed to emerge which are important for our current understanding
of SLM. In particular, I aim to show the value of first-hand historical research
and natural linguistic data in order to achieve plausible accounts of genesis and
accurate classifications of SLM varieties. Based on the combination of these
approaches, this paper argues that SLM is the result of trilingual admixture, in
which a typological shift from Malay to Lankan grammar occurs.
Foreword
This paper consists of two parts. Part I critically revisits two fundamental assump-
tions of historical nature made in previous literature which have not been ques-
tioned so far, namely (1) intermarriage and (2) creolization in the evolution of Sri
Lanka Malay varieties (SLM). Based on careful historical analysis, I claim that the
views entertained on SLM so far are biased towards Tamil influence at the expense
of Sinhala. Part II presents data from the case system of SLM, showing the inter-
play of Sinhala and Tamil in the restructuring process. Finally, I suggest that SLM
varieties can best be classified, based on historical as well as structural analysis, as
mixed languages with a dual adstrate (Sinhala and Tamil) and a typical Pidgin-
Malay-derived (PMD) lexifier (cf. Adelaar Prentice 1996). Restructured Malay
varieties of Sri Lanka are precious for our understanding of contact dynamics as
they are among the few contact varieties which have evolved in an environment
in which no Standard European acrolect is present. In this case, Malay varieties
(cf. below) can be considered as lexifiers, while the main adstrates are Sinhala](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/75396-250315142206-ff294a5c/75/Lessons-from-Documented-Endangered-Languages-1st-Edition-K-David-Harrison-Ed-24-2048.jpg)
![TSL[v.20020404] Prn:17/07/2008; 13:55 F: TSL7802.tex / p.2 (14)
Umberto Ansaldo
and Lankan Tamil, which, though genetically belonging to differentfamilies, Indo-
European and Dravidian respectively, have been in contact over a long period of
time and show clear typological convergence (Masica 1976; Emeneau 1980).
Part I. Historical foundations
. Introduction
Two related assumptions entertained so far in the literature need to be addressed
in order to do justice to the history and the nature of SLM varieties: the ‘Tamil
bias’ and the ‘creole classification’ idea. Before moving to a critique of these ideas,
a sociohistorical background of SLM communities is necessary.
. SLM speech communities
Sri Lanka Malay (SLM) varieties, so far generally viewed as ‘creoles’ (see e.g. Smith,
Paauw and Hussainmiya 2004), are currently endangered as they are no longer
fluently spoken by the younger generation, with one exception, the community
in Kirinda. With the dominant languages Sinhala and Tamil already in conflict,
due to political and ethnic struggle, a minority such as the SLM tends to converge
towards the dominant linguistic groups in order not to be disadvantaged, which
results in the younger generations abandoning their vernacular.
Table 1. SLM varieteies at present
Community Characteristics Vitality
Colombo Middle-upper class; often bi- or trilingual
(Tamil/Sinhala); standardizing in Malay;
restricted usage of SLM; English fairly fluent
Endangered: no SLM in
younger generation
Slave Island
(Colombo)
Lower class; most Tamil influenced; bi- or
trilingual; no English
Endangered; use of
SLM discouraged
Kandy (and
Hill Country)
Similar to Colombo community; weaker
standardization forces
Endangered
Hambantota Traditionally heavy Sinhalese-speaking area;
low-middle class, often trilingual; limited
English
Mildly endangered
Kirinda Lower class; good trilingual competence in
middle-younger generations; English limited to
a few individuals
Fully vital: mother
tongue even in present
generation](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/75396-250315142206-ff294a5c/75/Lessons-from-Documented-Endangered-Languages-1st-Edition-K-David-Harrison-Ed-25-2048.jpg)
Lessons from Documented Endangered Languages 1st Edition K. David Harrison (Ed.)
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- 5. Lessons from DocumentedEndangered Languages 1st Edition K. David Harrison (Ed.) Digital Instant Download Author(s): K. David Harrison (Ed.), David S. Rood (Ed.), Arienne M. Dwyer (Ed.) ISBN(s): 9789027290205, 9027290202 Edition: 1st File Details: PDF, 24.03 MB Year: 2008 Language: english
- 6. Lessons from DocumentedEndangered Languages
- 7. Volume 78 Lessons fromDocumented Endangered Languages Edited by K. David Harrison, David S. Rood and Arienne Dwyer General Editor Michael Noonan University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Editorial Board Wallace Chafe Santa Barbara Ronald W. Langacker San Diego Bernard Comrie Leipzig / Santa Barbara Charles N. Li Santa Barbara R.M.W. Dixon Melbourne Andrew Pawley Canberra Matthew S. Dryer Buffalo Doris L. Payne Oregon John Haiman St Paul Frans Plank Konstanz Jerrold M. Sadock Chicago Bernd Heine Köln Assistant Editors Spike Gildea University of Oregon Suzanne Kemmer Rice University Paul J. Hopper Pittsburgh Sandra A. Thompson Santa Barbara Andrej A. Kibrik Moscow Dan I. Slobin Berkeley Edith Moravcsik Milwaukee A companion series to the journal Studies in Language.Volumes in this series are functionally and typologically oriented, covering specific topics in language by collecting together data from a wide variety of languages and language typologies. Typological Studies in Language (TSL)
- 8. Lessons from Documented EndangeredLanguages Edited by K. David Harrison Swarthmore College David S. Rood University of Colorado Arienne Dwyer University of Kansas John Benjamins Publishing Company Amsterdam/Philadelphia
- 9. Library of CongressCataloging-in-Publication Data Lessons from documented endangered languages / edited by K. David Harrison, David S. Rood, and Arienne Dwyer. p. cm. (Typological Studies in Language, issn 0167-7373 ; v. 78) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Endangered languages. I. Harrison, K. David. II. Rood, David S. III. Dwyer,Arienne M. P40.5.E53L47 2008 306.44--dc22 2008014319 isbn 978 90 272 2990 8 (Hb; alk. paper) © 2008 – John Benjamins B.V. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the publisher. John Benjamins Publishing Co. · P.O. Box 36224 · 1020 me Amsterdam · The Netherlands John Benjamins North America · P.O. Box 27519 · Philadelphia pa 19118-0519 · usa The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984. 8 TM
- 10. TSL[v.20020404] Prn:20/08/2008; 8:32F: TSL78CO.tex / p.1 (v) Table of contents A world of many voices: Editors’ introduction 1 K. David Harrison, David S. Rood and Arienne Dwyer Sri Lanka Malay revisited: Genesis and classification 13 Umberto Ansaldo Working together: The interface between researchers and the native people – The Trumai case 43 Aurore Monod Becquelin, Emmanuel de Vienne and Raquel Guirardello-Damian Tense, Aspect and Mood in Awetí verb paradigms: Analytic and synthetic forms 67 Sebastian Drude Tonogenesis in Southeastern Monguor 111 Arienne Dwyer Language, ritual and historical reconstruction: Towards a linguistic, ethnographical and archaeological account of Upper Xingu Society 129 Carlos Fausto, Bruna Franchetto and Michael Heckenberger Endangered Caucasian languages in Georgia: Linguistic parameters of language endangerment 159 Jost Gippert Contact, attrition and shift in two Chaco languages: The cases of Tapiete and Vilela 195 Lucía A. Golluscio and Hebe González Tofa language change and terminal generation speakers 243 K. David Harrison and Gregory D. S. Anderson Hočank’s challenge to morphological theory 271 Johannes Helmbrecht and Christian Lehmann A preliminary study of same-turn self-repair initiation in Wichita conversation 317 Armik Mirzayan
- 11. TSL[v.20020404] Prn:20/08/2008; 8:32F: TSL78CO.tex / p.2 (vi) Lessons from Documented Endangered Languages Multimedia analysis in documentation projects: Kinship, interrogatives and reciprocals in Akhoe Haiom 355 Thomas Widlok, Christian Rapold and Gertie Hoymann Index 371
- 12. TSL[v.20020404] Prn:18/08/2008; 12:24F: TSL7801.tex / p.1 (1) A world of many voices Editors’ introduction K. David Harrison, David S. Rood and Arienne Dwyer The papers in this volume – spanning locales as diverse as Amazonia, Native North America, Siberia, and Sri Lanka – represent part of an unprecedented and still growing effort to advance, coordinate and disseminate the scientific documenta- tion of endangered languages on a scale not previously attempted. As the pace of language extinction increases, linguists and native communi- ties – each with their own motives and methods – are accelerating their efforts to speak, remember, hear, teach, learn, record, analyze and archive as much as possi- ble of our common human heritage that is linguistic diversity. At the same time, new technologies have made the rapid collection, analysis and storage of massive amounts of multimedia data both affordable and feasible in a way that they were not just a few short years ago. Many languages will now assuredly outlive, at least in an archival sense, both their last speakers and their last documenters. These data will be available to unknown and perhaps unimagined users (including the descendants of the last speakers) as far into the future as technology, funding, and human cooperation permits. The DoBeS program (Dokumentation bedrohter Sprachen, The Documen- tation of Endangered Languages), begun in 2000 by the Volkswagen Foundation set key benchmarks for documentation standards, future funding initiatives, and archival design. The digital repository at the Max Planck Institute in Nijmegen is to date the most capacious centralized archive specifically designed to house en- dangered language data. Though the Volkswagen Foundation has a long history of funding basic research in all fields of science and humanities, this project repre- sented a new and bold direction. In 2000, as the first twelve funded “pilot phase” projects began, it could not have been foreseen how the DoBeS project would inspire and influence other major funding initiatives, such as those by the Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project (HRELP) at the School of Oriental and African Studies, or the Documentation of Endangered Languages Program (DEL) funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation.
- 13. TSL[v.20020404] Prn:18/08/2008; 12:24F: TSL7801.tex / p.2 (2) K. David Harrison, David S. Rood and Arienne Dwyer Figure 1. Endangered Languages covered in this volume Thanks to funding initiatives like these, the type of meticulous research that used to be called “field work” and is now increasingly called “language documenta- tion” or “documentary linguistics” has risen dramatically over the past five years in prominence,importance and prestige, both within linguistics and in the public do- main. Field linguists and their allies cannot help but feel delighted and vindicated by this turn of events. For many years, especially in North American universities, theoretical linguistics completely dominated the landscape, to the extent that peo- ple who collected the data on which theories must of necessity be based felt they received significantly less respect for their work and had less chance of landing an academic job than did their more theoretically-oriented colleagues. This has now begun to change, thanks in part to the funding trend begun by DoBeS. Participants in the DoBeS pilot phase in 2000–2001 attempted something the field of linguistics as a whole had not yet accomplished: Agree on a set of minimum standards for annotation, tagging, transcription, digital data formats, centralized archiving, intellectual property protection, data ethics and access. It was a broad ambit, and it is too early to tell what lasting effect decisions made by consortium members may have had. Our modest efforts certainly got the discussion going and served as a model for subsequent documentation and funding initiatives. DoBeS also set new goals for multi-disciplinarity – DoBeS proposals were expected to include not only linguists but also scholars from allied disciplines such as ethno- musicology, speech science, ethnography, and history. Many of the funded projects did succeed in fostering new such collaborations across the disciplines.
- 14. TSL[v.20020404] Prn:18/08/2008; 12:24F: TSL7801.tex / p.3 (3) A world of many voices But the advances for linguistics proper were also significant. In many cases, the languages being documented – such as Trumai, Vilela and Wichita – were not only endangered or moribund, but were previously only marginally documented or very poorly understood by outsiders. In some cases the remaining speakers were growing old to the point that documentary work was rapidly becoming unfeasible. The window of opportunity for documentation is thus narrower than the actual lifetime of a language, and is now rapidly closing for many languages represented in this volume. Authors of papers in this volume – all funded via the DoBeS initiative – were asked to do more than simply unveil newly collected data from previously poorly- known and endangered languages. They were asked to consider challenges posed by these languages to current linguistic theories or models. Beyond that, they were asked to address social and ethical issues involved in the process of documenting, and how these might in turn affect the involved communities (whether of speak- ers, rememberers or scientists). Some authors took a more data-driven approach, organizing highly complex linguistic facts – paradigms, affixes, vowel patterns – and pointing out the theoretically challenging aspects of what they had amassed. Others dwelt more on the social and human dimensions, discussing particular problems of nostalgia and modernity, memory and forgetting, obsolescence and ethics, while viewing language as not merely data on a page but a living creation in the minds and mouths of its speakers. We may well be witnessing a paradigm shift towards a new empiricism and holism in linguistics, and a shift in public awareness of language endangerment and its consequences. The new empiricism is driven by the lasting multimedia re- sources created by language documentation projects. These resources, designed to capture the nature of linguistic systems, also serve as major culture studies re- sources. Never before have extensive text collections been directly accessible to researchers worldwide. Interoperability of these resources – the means by which scholars from outside the original project can access primary data – is a nec- essary component in all aspects of digital data and will change expectations for evidence in linguistics in the coming decades. In just the past five years, a vibrant discussion has emerged among linguists about best practices, data standards, the ethics of participatory documentation, archiving technologies, data longevity, and capacity-building in indigenous communities. At the same time, a broader public of educators, students, politicians, activists, and indigenous communities have been engaged in a dialogue about the value of languages, cultures and human diversity in the face of encroaching globalization. That these concerns resonate deeply with our own linguistic research is evidenced by a sharp increase in the number of journalists, communities, foundations and scientists newly interested in language endangerment.For all those interested com- munities, we present the papers in this volume as a preliminary report from the
- 15. TSL[v.20020404] Prn:18/08/2008; 12:24F: TSL7801.tex / p.4 (4) K. David Harrison, David S. Rood and Arienne Dwyer frontlines. We hope to have made a modest contribution to greater scientific and humanitarian understanding of the world’s vanishing tongues, of those who speak them, and those who listen. Untangling human history What can endangered languages tell us about patterns of contact and mixing of peoples that took place in human prehistory? Umberto Ansaldo’s paper (Chap- ter 1) invites us to examine Sri Lankan Malay (abbreviated here as SLM; ISO 639-3 SCI), a creole that arose out of a multilingual contact environment and that still awaits a precise categorization. As Ansaldo’s paper clearly illustrates, field linguis- tics holds great potential to enhance the results of disciplines such as anthropolog- ical genetics, geography and history and to help untangle knotty problems of early human migration and settlement. After a description of the five communities where SLM is spoken today (in four of which it is now endangered) the author turns to a technical analysis of grammatical phenomena. He carefully sifts through patterns of nominal marking in field data he collected from SLM, looking at phenomena such as animacy, dative subjects, and case syncretism, and considering the most likely adstrate sources for each of these. Prior analyses of SLM as a “classical” creole, with Tamil as the pri- mary superstrate language, are based mostly on incomplete or even completely absent historical evidence, and must be revisited. Ansaldo suggests that SLM is best considered a mixed language, the product of a unique process of long-term, gradual restructuring under multilingual contact. SLM seems to show potentially equal influence of both Tamil and the majority Sinhala adstrates, and a significant degree of typological convergence with general South Asian patterns. Endangered varieties of SLM may indeed prove – pending further needed documentation by Ansaldo and others – to be an excellent test case for models of typological conver- gence and the dynamics of language contact. Contested cultures How can linguists working on endangered languages bridge the gap between their own research goals and the often very different cultural world views of the com- munity they are working in? Chapter 2, by Aurore Monod Becquelin, Emmanuel de Vienne, and Raquel Guirardello-Damian explores this quandary. The lead au- thor began her work in Brazil 30 years ago, and was subsequently joined by her co-authors. She has observed how the Trumais have become connected to and aware of other peoples, participating in the formation of a regional, Brazilian, and
- 16. TSL[v.20020404] Prn:18/08/2008; 12:24F: TSL7801.tex / p.5 (5) A world of many voices global indigenous identity. This participation is fraught with inter-ethnic rivalries and contested indigenous notions of authenticity. It has led, the authors argue, to a process of reflexivization and folklorization driven by a consumerist demand for “pure Indian” culture and, subsequently, to a transformation of the indigenous Trumai view of their own culture through Western eyes. What constitutes adequate documentation, it turns out, is very much in the eye and ear of the beholder. Trumais and outsiders exhibit markedly different ways of listening to recorded narratives and treating archival objects. For the Tru- mais, as the authors point out, it is not the object (e.g., a recording) itself that matters – as there exists no presumption of its permanence – but the communica- tive interaction behind it, and the subsequent reciprocal relationships fostered by its continued circulation. Can any culture, they wonder, escape being irrevocably transformed “when passing through the sieve of the collecting process”? Docu- mentation entails constructions of knowledge (as opposed to mere information or data) and its possession by speakers and researchers. Each participant in this process faces the potential impossibility of meeting the other’s expectations while remaining true to his or her own principles. A first step towards an adequate documentation as researchers is to admit our often limited understanding of indigenous economies of knowledge and rules of social transmission. As for the agenda of preserving culture, the authors voice an important caution: “When we record a form of knowledge that is alive and in con- stant transformation, we run a high risk of turning it into a rigid format, no longer able to mutate and evolve (the knowledge becomes frozen in the form in which it appears in the audio or video recording produced). This affects the way people relate to the knowledge in question. It also affects its accessibility and its transmis- sion to future generations.” These important observations, with the vivid examples cited from Trumai culture, will speak to many of the most vexing problems faced by documentary field linguists. Morphological complexity Continuing the theme of Amazonian languages, Sebastian Drude (Chapter 3) de- scribes the pronominal and TAM (Tense-Aspect-Mood) systems of a previously undocumented Brazilian Tupian language, while also illustrating and demon- strating the advantages of Integrational Linguistics, a new model of description developed mainly by Hans-Heinrich Lieb. The language, Awetí, utilizes both split- ergative and split-intransitive case marking, and both aspect and modality cat- egories, but not tense; the categories that seem to correspond to tense, such as “future,” fit better into the system as sub-categories of modal “factuality.” The model, basically a word-and-paradigm schema, allows for the separate description
- 17. TSL[v.20020404] Prn:18/08/2008; 12:24F: TSL7801.tex / p.6 (6) K. David Harrison, David S. Rood and Arienne Dwyer of function and structure. Whether a category is marked as an affix or by means of a particle or auxiliary verb, we can see the uniformity of the meaning system behind the variety of marker types. The ultimate definitions of morphemes, then, are lists of categorical features which each one amalgamates, and parsing words becomes a matter of mechanically checking the surface form against the list of fea- tures. Drude estimates that each transitive verb paradigm contains approximately 1,000 forms with up to 1,400 meanings (because of morphological syncretism), all parsable using the two or three dozen categories he has described. This study suc- cessfully applies a descriptive model developed for other kinds of languages to an endangered language, describes a somewhat different kind of split case-marking system than has been reported in other Tupian languages, and argues cogently for a TAM system without tense. Emergent tone systems To what extent can the prosody of a language undergo change due to contact? Ari- enne Dwyer (Chapter 4) presents an intriguing case for a previously non-tonal language that now appears to be in the early stages of acquiring contrastive tone. In contact with Northwestern Chinese, the Mongolic language under investiga- tion, Southeastern Monguor, has developed systematic prosodic contrasts in cases of homophony. Although one other Mongolic language of the region is known to adapt tonal features of Chinese loans, Southeastern Monguor applies tonal distinc- tions to native Mongolic lexemes, where such distinctions in Mongolic languages are otherwise unknown – including in other dialects of Monguor. This analysis uses acoustic data from homophonous pairs in carrier utterances to assess emer- gent pitch patterns. It then traces the historical development of each of these lexemes (including one of Greek origin) to posit causes for the contrastive and non-contrastive pitch patterns. Syllable simplification and other diachronic pro- cesses has resulted in a small but growing number of homophones, giving rise to the contrasts that appear to indicate incipient tonongenesis. The language’s sys- tematic use of a final high pitch in non-constrastive syllables suggests an ongoing development towards a two-tone (High-Low) system, realized as rising and falling pitches, respectively. In order to avoid potential homophony, such cases will likely increase over time. If this leads to the emergence of a full-fledged tone system, it will make SE Monguor unique among documented Mongolic languages. The phonetic data, including pitch tracks, in this article also illustrate the kind of theo- retical advances that can be made when speakers of a rare language can be recorded under ideal laboratory conditions.
- 18. TSL[v.20020404] Prn:18/08/2008; 12:24F: TSL7801.tex / p.7 (7) A world of many voices Shamans’ chants and linguistic archeology How deeply into human prehistory does the study of language and culture al- low us to delve? And in what ways can endangered language research help solve archaeological and ethnographic conundrums? Carlos Fausto, Bruna Franchetto and Michael Heckenberger (Chapter 5) present an interdisciplinary essay on the ritual-political system among contemporary Upper Xingu peoples of Amazonia. They use field data from ethnography, linguistics and archeology to reconstruct patterns of cultural contact from the 9th century to the present. They argue that the Upper Xingu ritual polity, which is predominantly ethnic Arawakan, emerged out of a process of ‘relational interweaving’. This process stands in sharp contrast to the ‘familiarizing predation’ type of cultural assimilation found among many Carib, Tupian, Jivaroan, and other Amazonian peoples. Specific layers of language, in this case ritual chant and song, contain rich residual evidence that awaits discovery. For example, when Kuikuru shamans chant and sing, they employ a mixed language containing elements of the an- cient Waura language alongside contemporary Kuikuru. An unsolved puzzle here is why ritual singing and chanting would result in a unique form of linguistic hy- bridization, while everyday languages were maintained as distinct. This research shows a very promising model for interdisciplinary collaborations in Amazonia and beyond, and the central role language documentation can play. Assessing endangerment Turning to three languages of the Caucasus, Jost Gippert (Chapter 6) discusses the various manifestations of language contact in speech communities where in- advertent and constant code-mixing seems to be the norm. Since the dominant contact languages in question, Russian and Georgian, differ greatly in structure both from each other and from the small language groups examined here, many puzzles about contact effects on the grammar and discourse present themselves. Marshalling an impressive range of new field data that covers genres ranging from composed poetry to informal recorded dialogue, the author argues cogently for a holistic approach to endangered speech data. Based on his careful transcrip- tion and analysis of recordings, he shows many examples of how language contact manifests itself (both synchronically and diachronically) in loans, shift, and sim- plification. Finally, the author suggests that code-switching itself – taken together with other demographic and social factors – can serve as a key diagnostic of the degree of language endangerment, in part because of the way in which different dominant languages can leave different traces – interferences of certain types – in minority languages.
- 19. TSL[v.20020404] Prn:18/08/2008; 12:24F: TSL7801.tex / p.8 (8) K. David Harrison, David S. Rood and Arienne Dwyer The floodgates of memory What happens when a speech community is reduced to just two speakers who seldom use their language? To what extent can linguists, in the process of docu- menting, help such last speakers open the floodgates of memory to recall sounds, verbal forms and stories that they may not have heard or spoken in nearly half a century? Lucía Golluscio and Hebe González (Chapter 7) explore some dy- namic processes of forgetting and remembering now taking place in two nearly extinct languages of Argentina: Taipete and Vilela. The authors present a large body of newly-collected and analyzed data – much of which may indeed be the last material collected from native speakers on these languages – to demonstrate the complex kinds of borrowing, attrition and restructuring that can take place in the grammars of obsolescent languages. In Taipete we see a strong tendency to nativize Spanish loanwords with respect to syllable structure, nasal harmony and stress. Somewhat surprisingly, Taipete seems highly resistant to Spanish influence at the level of its morphology, even though pervasive contacts effects are observed in the phonology and syntax. Vilela, now nearly extinct, presents an interesting case of a speech community gradually becoming ‘invisible.’ Actively suppressed, the language now has just two elderly speakers; one additional speaker has since passed away. The authors present a mov- ing and very personal account of these two speakers struggling to recall bits and pieces of their ancestral language. Surprising progress is seen during the period of fieldwork described in this paper, thanks in part to some innovative techniques of “memory floodgating” applied by the researchers. Moribund yet living The contribution to this volume by David Harrison and Gregory Anderson (Chap- ter 8) addresses directly an issue of the documentation undertaking itself: What kind of data are available and should be collected from a moribund language? They argue that some of the changes seen in the language of younger semi-speakers are simply normal evolutionary developments, and those changes should be de- scribed and discussed separately from the kind that result from the process of replacing this language with another. They illustrate their point with data from Tofa, a Siberian Turkic language, contrasting descriptions of the language from two generations ago with data they have just collected. One of several changes they consider “normal,” in that it eliminates marked forms in favor of unmarked ones and has parallels in other Turkic languages, is the simplification of the morphol- ogy of the first person plural imperative. The simplification of the modal auxiliary system likewise has parallels in vigorous languages in the family.
- 20. TSL[v.20020404] Prn:18/08/2008; 12:24F: TSL7801.tex / p.9 (9) A world of many voices Other contact-induced changes include the use of Russian-like relative clause constructions, while a third type of change is harder to characterize. The youngest speakers have largely simplified the phonetics of the vowel system by eliminating front rounded vowels, yet they still treat the words with historically front stem vowels as front for vowel harmony purposes. They have thus increased the ab- stractness of the vowel harmony rules by eliminating the phonetic conditioning for them – clearly an increase in the complexity of the inflectional system. The les- son we learn from this study, then, is that even moribund languages are still living languages, and continue to undergo change even in the terminal generation. Data from their younger speakers are thus just as significant for the study of linguistics as are data from older ones. Challenges to linguistic theory Why do language theoreticians need to study endangered languages in depth? When Johannes Helmbrecht and Christian Lehmann (Chapter 9) attempted to make sense of the morphological template for Hočank (Winnebago) verbs, they discovered that the language obliged them to rethink the categories used in morphological theory. This spurred them to develop a new typology of affixes, “tak[ing] into consideration the results of historical linguistics as well as gram- maticalization theory.” Most of the paper is devoted to a detailed description of the Hočank verbal template, making use of the classification established at the beginning of the paper. Although the evolution of these unusual morphological patterns is clear from both internal reconstruction and comparative studies (in- flectional prefixes become entrapped between preverbal elements and verb roots when the particle-verb complex lexifies), the synchronic pattern contradicts many typological claims about the structure of words. This kind of work with previously under-documented languages makes two contributions to the field: a theoretical clarification for general linguistics, and detailed structural information for those who study this and related languages. Conversational strategies Since the overall purpose of the DoBeS project is to archive and disseminate endangered-language data, the project on Wichita incorporated the archiving of collections which contain now-extinct forms. Chapter 10 demonstrates what can be learned from such re-processing of data from an earlier era. Armik Mirzayan asks how speakers of this polysynthetic language signal that they are stopping their speech and starting over again – technically called “same turn self-repair.” Taking
- 21. TSL[v.20020404] Prn:18/08/2008; 12:24F: TSL7801.tex / p.10 (10) K. David Harrison, David S. Rood and Arienne Dwyer a 1966 recording and enhancing it with modern technological tools, then applying conversation analysis to the result gives us the basis for an extremely detailed study of the interaction between language structure and the way speakers correct them- selves when they perceive themselves making mistakes while talking. He shows that, in his words, “Repair, taking place for whatever interactional pressures at hand, intrusively cuts off the morphologically complex word-in-progress. Subse- quently the strict ordering of bound morphemes, along with morphophonemic fusion of the sounds, constrains how the repair is completed.” To some extent, Wichita speakers use the same devices as do speakers of other kinds of languages, but Mirzayan conclusively demonstrates that “despite some of the cross-linguistic generalizationsthat we see in the types of self-repair initiation, and in their phono- logical function, it seems that at the level of morphosyntax there are language specific constraints that may arise as a result of structural forces from within the language itself. These drive the nature of the outcome of repair initiation.” Kinship in context The paper by Thomas Widlok, Christian Rapold and Gertie Hoymann (Chapter 11) demonstrates the importance of two of the DoBeS documentation principles: interdisciplinarity and multimodal documentation. Linguistic documentation can be enriched by employing a team of people from different disciplines, and video records enhance audio, photographic, and text documentation to provide a more holistic picture of a language and its speakers. The authors apply both anthropo- logical and linguistic analyses to elucidate the problem of kinship identification. The video clarifies how participants identify and address each other, and offers a possible clue as to why particular question words are used; anthropological analy- sis determines how a relationship is established and elucidates the relation between cultural practices and language patterning; linguistic analyses of interrogatives and reciprocals show how the language allows the speaker to explain complex phenomena. This disciplinary interaction also illustrates the spiral nature of doc- umentation work: provisional analysis is essential at the beginning stages of the documentation activity, and allows the initial annotation of the data, but a thor- ough understanding of the phenomena is only possible with a repeated, elaborated study of the annotated recordings. Acknowledgements The editors wish to thank many people who made this volume possible. Our ‘shadow editor,’ Robbie Hart devoted many hours to formatting and proofread-
- 22. TSL[v.20020404] Prn:18/08/2008; 12:24F: TSL7801.tex / p.11 (11) A world of many voices ing the papers. At John Benjamins, Kees Vaes and Michael Noonan guided us through the submission and review process. Nineteen anonymous reviewers gen- erously lent their expertise and constructive criticism to improve the final product. Gregory Anderson, Lisa Lim and Sergio Meira provided editorial assistance to au- thors. Ulrike Mosel and Peter Wittenberg, both serving on the DoBeS steering committee, offered expert advice and institutional support. Vera Szöllösi-Brenig, the DoBeS program officer at Volkswagen Stiftung, offered encouragement and administered the generous support granted to all the projects featured in this volume. The Volkswagen Stiftung, under the leadership of Secretary-General Wil- helm Krull, along with its Humanities and Social Sciences Division, directed by Axel Horstman, should be lauded for a willingness to see resources directed not only to scholars, but to community-based collaborative projects that can benefit native speakers.
- 24. TSL[v.20020404] Prn:17/07/2008; 13:55F: TSL7802.tex / p.1 (13) Sri Lanka Malay revisited Genesis and classification Umberto Ansaldo Universiteit van Amsterdam This paper presents a fresh take on the origins and nature of Sri Lanka Malay (SLM), based on fieldwork data collected in 2003–2005 in Kirinda, in the south- east of Sri Lanka. It departs from previous studies of SLM in that it is based on substantial recordings of spoken data in natural settings as well as coverage of oral and written history. Work on SLM so far has offered significant insights into the nature of these varieties; due to limited data available, however, some aspects have failed to emerge which are important for our current understanding of SLM. In particular, I aim to show the value of first-hand historical research and natural linguistic data in order to achieve plausible accounts of genesis and accurate classifications of SLM varieties. Based on the combination of these approaches, this paper argues that SLM is the result of trilingual admixture, in which a typological shift from Malay to Lankan grammar occurs. Foreword This paper consists of two parts. Part I critically revisits two fundamental assump- tions of historical nature made in previous literature which have not been ques- tioned so far, namely (1) intermarriage and (2) creolization in the evolution of Sri Lanka Malay varieties (SLM). Based on careful historical analysis, I claim that the views entertained on SLM so far are biased towards Tamil influence at the expense of Sinhala. Part II presents data from the case system of SLM, showing the inter- play of Sinhala and Tamil in the restructuring process. Finally, I suggest that SLM varieties can best be classified, based on historical as well as structural analysis, as mixed languages with a dual adstrate (Sinhala and Tamil) and a typical Pidgin- Malay-derived (PMD) lexifier (cf. Adelaar Prentice 1996). Restructured Malay varieties of Sri Lanka are precious for our understanding of contact dynamics as they are among the few contact varieties which have evolved in an environment in which no Standard European acrolect is present. In this case, Malay varieties (cf. below) can be considered as lexifiers, while the main adstrates are Sinhala
- 25. TSL[v.20020404] Prn:17/07/2008; 13:55F: TSL7802.tex / p.2 (14) Umberto Ansaldo and Lankan Tamil, which, though genetically belonging to differentfamilies, Indo- European and Dravidian respectively, have been in contact over a long period of time and show clear typological convergence (Masica 1976; Emeneau 1980). Part I. Historical foundations . Introduction Two related assumptions entertained so far in the literature need to be addressed in order to do justice to the history and the nature of SLM varieties: the ‘Tamil bias’ and the ‘creole classification’ idea. Before moving to a critique of these ideas, a sociohistorical background of SLM communities is necessary. . SLM speech communities Sri Lanka Malay (SLM) varieties, so far generally viewed as ‘creoles’ (see e.g. Smith, Paauw and Hussainmiya 2004), are currently endangered as they are no longer fluently spoken by the younger generation, with one exception, the community in Kirinda. With the dominant languages Sinhala and Tamil already in conflict, due to political and ethnic struggle, a minority such as the SLM tends to converge towards the dominant linguistic groups in order not to be disadvantaged, which results in the younger generations abandoning their vernacular. Table 1. SLM varieteies at present Community Characteristics Vitality Colombo Middle-upper class; often bi- or trilingual (Tamil/Sinhala); standardizing in Malay; restricted usage of SLM; English fairly fluent Endangered: no SLM in younger generation Slave Island (Colombo) Lower class; most Tamil influenced; bi- or trilingual; no English Endangered; use of SLM discouraged Kandy (and Hill Country) Similar to Colombo community; weaker standardization forces Endangered Hambantota Traditionally heavy Sinhalese-speaking area; low-middle class, often trilingual; limited English Mildly endangered Kirinda Lower class; good trilingual competence in middle-younger generations; English limited to a few individuals Fully vital: mother tongue even in present generation
- 26. Other documents randomlyhave different content
- 28. 126. (Año de 1529.—Noviembre13.)—Real cédula mandando al Obispo de Cuba informe cuántos indios tiene encomendados doña Catalina Agüero, mujer que fué del difunto tesorero Pero Nuñez de Guzmán, casada al presente con el gobernador Gonzalo de Guzmán. Dado en Madrid. (A. de I., 79, 4, 1.) «La Reyna.—Venerable padre maestro fray Miguel Ramirez, electo obispo de Cuba, y otras cualesquier personas a cuyo cargo está la encomienda y repartimiento de los yndios de la dicha ysla. Por parte de doña Catalina de Agüero, mujer que fue de Pero Nuñez de Guzman, nuestro tesorero de esa ysla, defunto, y agora lo es de Gonçalo de Guzman, lugar teniente de governador della, me ha sido fecha rrelacion, que avido rrespeto a lo quel dicho su marido nos sirvió y el dicho Gonçalo de Guzman nos ha servido e syrve, se depositaron en ella ciertos yndios que tenia encomendados el dicho Pero Nuñez de Guzman, su primer marido, los cuales diz que ella agora tiene y posee, y nos fue suplicado y pedido por merced se los mandásemos de nuevo encomendar para que ella y el dicho su marido mejor nos pudiesen servir, o como la mi merced fuese; por ende, yo vos mando que vos ynformeys qué cantidad de yndios son los que asy tiene doña Catalina de Agüero y vacaron por muerte del dicho su marido, y si hallareis que la dicha doña Catalina al presente los tiene encomendados, enviareys ante nos la relacion dello, y entre tanto que por nos se provee lo que de justicia se deva hacer, no movays ni quiteys a la dicha doña Catalina los dichos yndios, ni parte alguna dellos, de los que ansy vacaron por muerte del dicho su
- 29. marido, ante selos dexad tener en la dicha encomienda, y terneys particular cuidado de su buen tratamiento conforme á las nuestras ordenanças, que para ello estan fechas. Fecha en Madrid a trece dias del mes de noviembre de mil e quinientos y veynte e nueve años.=Yo la Reyna.=Refrendada de Sámano: señalada del Conde y del doctor Beltran y del Licenciado de la Corte y del Licenciado Xuarez de Carvajal.»
- 30. 127. (Año de 1529.—Diciembre22.)—Real cédula encargando al Obispo de Cuba no se haya mal con los frailes de San Francisco que han ido á fundar casa en la isla, antes los favorezca y anime á la fundación. Dada en Madrid. (A. de I., 79, 4, 1.) La Reyna.—Reberendo maestro fray Miguel Ramirez electo obispo de Cuba. Yo soy ynformada que ciertos Religiosos de la orden de San Francisco fueron a poblar a esa ysla y fundar en ella casa y monasterio con que se esperava que Dios nuestro señor seria muy servido, y los vecinos desa ysla rescivirian mucho contentamiento et consolacion en sus ánymas et conciencia, como se ha hecho en todas las otras partes de las yndias donde los Religiosos de la dicha orden han poblado, y que para anymallos a ello vos no les aveys hecho el tratamiento que hera rrazon, antes os aveys avido tan mal con ellos, que son ydos o se quieren yr, y por ques rrazon que sean favorescidos y bien tratados, por el buen exemplo que han dado en esas partes y fruto que han hecho en ellas, yo vos encargo mucho que les hagays todo el buen tratamiento que ser pueda, teniendo con ellos la conformidad ques rrazon que se tenga entre perlados y Religiosos, favoresciéndolos y anymándolos para que con mas voluntad asy esten en esa ysla y hagan en ella la dicha casa y monasterio, que demas de dar en esto buen ejemplo y ser cosa del servicio de nuestro señor, me terné en ello de vos por servida. De Madrid á veynte e dos dias del mes de diciembre de mill quinientos e veynte e nueve años.=Yo la Reyna.=Refrendada de Sámano. Señalada del Conde y doctor Beltran y Licenciado Xuarez.
- 32. 128. (Sin fecha) Elobispo electo Fray Miguel Ramirez informa á S. M. lo ocurrido con los frailes de San Francisco, contestando á la cédula anterior. (A. de I., Aud. de Sto. Dgo. Papeles por agregar.)
- 33. 129. (Año de 1529.—Diciembre22.)—Real cédula ordenando al Juez de residencia quite desde luego los visitadores de indios que ha nombrado, y deje entender en la visita á los alcaldes ordinarios, como antes lo hacían. Dada en Madrid. (A. de I., 79, 4, 1.) La Reyna.=Nuestro lugarteniente de nuestro gobernador e juez de residencia de la isla Fernandina. Por parte de la ciudad de Santiago desa ysla y de los otros pueblos y vecinos della me ha seydo hecha Relacion que hasta aqui syempre los alcaldes ordinarios de los dichos pueblos han visytado los yndios questan en sus jurisdicciones y que asy convernia que se hiziese, porque los dichos alcaldes conocen las personas que los tienen encomendados y siendo de sus jurisdicciones y comarcas saven sy son bien tratados y estan ynformados de lo que mas conviene para el remedio dello, y que de poco tyempo a esta parte vos con acuerdo del electo obispo desa ysla aveys proveydo de dos visytadores generales para que visyten todos los yndios desa ysla con salario de ciento e cincuenta pesos de oro en cada un año a cada uno dellos, los quales diz que en esa dicha visytacion han hecho muchos agravios e synrrazones a los vezinos desa ysla, y dello nazen otrros ynconvenyentes, los quales cesaran y el dicho salario se escusaria, visytando los dichos alcaldes como hasta aquy se ha hecho, y nos fue suplicando e pedido por merced asy lo mandásemos proveer o como la mi merced fuese; por ende yo vos mando que quiteys luego los dichos visytadores generales e les mandeis, e nos por la presente, que no
- 34. entyendan mas enla dicha visytacion y la dexeys hazer a los dichos alcaldes ordinarios como solian hazer, syn les poner en ello embargo ny ympedimento alguno, e para la visytacion de los yndios que tovyeren los alcaldes ordinarios, nombrad persona que lo haga, e no visyte uno los del otro, e de como ellos visytan tened especial cuydado de lo ynquirir y saber, e ynformarnos eys dello para que syempre se provea lo que convenga. E no fagades ende al. Fecha en Madrid a veynte e dos dias del mes diziembre de mill e quinyentos e veynte e nueve años.=Yo la Reyna.=Refrendada de Sámano; señalada del Conde y doctor Beltran y Licenciado Xuarez.
- 35. 130. (Año de 1529.—Diciembre22.)—Real cédula mandando á los oficiales de la Casa de Contratación que envíen á la isla Fernandina trigo de varios géneros á fin de ensayar su cultivo. Dada en Madrid. (A. de I., 79, 4. 1.) La Reyna.=Nuestros oficiales que residis en la ciudad de Sevilla, en la Casa de la Contratacion de las Indias. Yo soy informada que en la ysla Fernandina, antes llamada Cuba, se daria trigo sy allá se llevase y pusyese recabdo en ello, y que dándose el dicho trigo, la dicha ysla y poblacion della y nuestras rrentas vernian en acrescentamiento e hirian muchos labradores destos rreynos á vivir a la dicha ysla, y nos fue suplicado e pedido por merced vos mandasemos que enviásedes alguna cantidad de trigo a la dicha ysla de todos los géneros que lo ay en estos Reynos para se sembrar en ella o como la mi merced fuese; por ende yo vos mando que enbieys a la dicha ysla la cantidad de trigo que os pareciere de todos géneros, de manera que baya muy guardado y conservado, como no se dañe, lo qual enviareys por los meses de hebrero o março o por setiembre, por que llegue a la dicha ysla a tiempo que se pueda sembrar luego como llegare, encargando a los maestres que lo llevaren, que pongan en ello mucho recavdo, lo qual enviareys dirigido al nuestro governador y oficiales de la dicha ysla. Fecha en Madrid a veynte e dos dias del mes de diziembre de mill e quinientos e veynte e nueve años.=Yo la Reyna. Refrendada de Sámano.=Señalada del Conde y Doctor Beltran y Licenciado Xuarez.
- 37. 131. (Año de 1529.—Diciembre22.)—Real cédula ordenando al Licenciado Juan de Vadillo que marche desde luego á tomar residencia al Gobernador de la isla de Cuba. Dada en Madrid. (A. de I., 79, 4, 1.) La Reyna.=Licenciado Juan de Vadillo. Ya sabeis como vos está cometido y mandado que vays a la ysla de Cuba y tomeis residencia a Gonzalo de Guzman lugarteniente de nuestro gobernador della y deis orden como en los dias que se vos señalan para tomar la dicha resydencia se cobren las debdas que alli se nos deben, como avreis visto por los despachos que cerca dello vos he mandado enbiar, y porque nuestra voluntad es que aquella se cumpla y aga efecto con la brevedad que se requiere, por ende yo vos mando y encargo mucho que si quando ésta recibiéredes no oviéredes ido a la dicha ysla, os partais y vais luego a ella a entender en lo que por nos vos está cometido y mandado y en esto no aya dilacion por que ansy conviene a nuestro servicio y al bien de aquella ysla y administracion de la nuestra justicia. Fecha en Madrid a veynte e dos dias del mes de diziembre de mill e quinientos y veynte e nuebe años.=Yo la Reyna.=Refrendada de Sámano. Señalada de los dichos.
- 38. 132. (Año de 1529.—Diciembre22.)—Real cédula comunicando á Gonzalo de Guzmán otra que se dirige al Obispo de la isla ordenando que ni él ni el Gobernador tengan indios encomendados, á fin de que puedan celar mejor el buen tratamiento por los encomenderos. Dada en Madrid. (A. de I., 79, 4, 1.) La Reyna=Gonzalo de Guzman, nuestro lugartenyente de gobernador de la ysla Fernandina; sabed que yo he mandado una mi cédula fecha en esta guysa. La Reyna, Reverendo padre maestro frai Miguel Ramirez, electo obispo de la ysla Fernandina y abbad de Jamayca; ya sabeys como por provisyon nuestra está a vuestro cargo juntamente con Gonçalo de Guzman, lugartenyente de nuestro governador de la ysla, el repartimyento de los yndios della, y a vos particularmente está cometida la administracion y buen tratamiento y proteccion de ellos, y soy ynformada que de los yndios que avia vacos quando vos fuystes a esa ysla se vos encomendaron y tomastes alguna cantidad dellos, y por que para estar libre y poder mejor mirar por el buen tratamiento de los dichos yndios y de su conversyon y adminystracion vos no deveys tener ningunos yndios, y ansy está mandado y declarado con todos los otros prelados y protectores, yo vos mando que sy quando ésta recibiéredes tuviéredes algunos en encomienda o en otra qualquier manera, luego los dexeis y vos y el nuestro governador los encomendeys á otras personas vecinas desa ysla que esten syn ellos, y de aqui adelante no tomeys ningunos, por quanto esta es nuestra voluntad y ansy conviene á servicio de Dios nuestro señor y descargo de
- 39. nuestra conciencia, porlas causas dichas. Fecha en Madrid a veynte e dos dias del mes de dizienbre de mill e quinientos e veynte e nueve años.=Yo la Reyna.=Por mandado de Su Magestad Juan de Sámano. Por ende yo vos mando que veades la dicha mi cédula que de suso va yncorporada y hagays que se guarde y cumpla como en ella se contiene, syn que en ello aya falta alguna, y quel dicho electo obispo dexe qualesquier yndios que toviere, y os junteys con él y conforme a ella los encomendeys a personas vecinos desa ysla que esten syn ellos, por manera que no lo queden ningunos y en todo se cumpla la dicha mi cédula por que ansy es nuestra voluntad, y de lo contrario me ternia por desservida: y avisarme eys de cómo se cumple. Fecha en Madrid a veinte e dos dias del mes de diziembre de mill e quinientos e veynte y nueve años.=Yo la Reina.=Refrendada de Sámano. Señalada del Conde y del doctor Beltran y del licenciado Juarez.
- 41. 133. (Año de 1529.—Diciembre22).—Real cédula al Obispo de Cuba ordenando se desprenda de los indios que tiene en su persona encomendados y el buen tratamiento que deben recibir de los otros. Dada en Madrid. (A. de I., 79, 4, 1.) La Reyna=Reverendo padre maestro frai Miguel Ramirez, electo obispo de Cuba, abad de Jamaica. Vi vuestra letra de veinte e ocho de agosto deste año y en el nuestro consejo de las yndias se vieron las rrelaciones que embiastes, y tengos en servicio el cuydado que teneis de escrevir tan particularmente lo que toca a los yndios desa ysla y la voluntad que mostrays a entender en su conversion a nuestra santa fee católica y a que sean tratados como libres, para que se conserven, pues esto, ansy por ser uos prelado y religioso, como por lo que particularmente vos está cometido cerca de su proteccion y buen tratamyento, toca más que á nadie y en confiança de vuestra bondad y religion y letras se os encomienda lo uno y lo otro y que en ello descargareys la conciencia del emperador my señor y mia, yo vos encargo quanto puedo que con todas vuestras fuerças entendais en que sean bien tratados como libres vasallos nuestros y doctrinados en las cosas de nuestra santa fee católica, teniendo por cierto que este es el más agradable servicio que nos podeis hazer y que syempre nos aviséis de lo que os parece que conviene que yo mandare proveer a este propósito para que se provea lo que convenga. 2. Háme sido hecha relacion que de los yndios que avia vacos quando vos fuistes a esa ysla, se vos encomendaron y tomastes
- 42. alguna cantidad dellos,y por que para estar libre y poder mejor mirar por su buen tratamiento y conversion y administracion vos no deveis tener nyngunos yndios y ansy esta mandado y declarado con todos los otros prelados y protetores, si quando ésta recibiéredes toviéredes algunos en encomienda o en otra qualquier manera luego los dexad y vos y el nuestro governador los encomendad á otras personas vesynos desa ysla que esten sin ellos y de aqui adelante no tomeys ningunos por que ansy conbiene al servicio de Dios y descargo de nuestra conciencia por las causas dichas. 3. Vi lo que dezis, como por provision nuestra se vos enbió a mandar que os ynformásedes sy los dichos yndios reciben mucho trabajo en lo del xamurar, y oydo lo que por parte de los vecinos desa ysla se alegase proveyésedes lo que os pareciese y nos enbiásedes la relacion, y que en esto no aviades hecho cosa alguna hasta la fundicion por que en aquel tiempo van personas de toda la isla a esa cibdad y entonces los vecinos de la ysla alegaran de su derecho y abrá mas personas de quyen se aga ynformacion y se proveerá lo que convenga a servicio de dios y bien de los yndios; ansy vos lo encargo lo hagays. 4. Vi lo que dezis como vos y Gonçalo de Guzman aveis proveido de visitadores generales para que vayan por esa ysla a ver cómo son tratados los yndios y que este es principal remedio que para ello allays: acá ha parecido que no conviene que aya los dichos visytadores y que los alcaldes de los pueblos en sus jurediciones hagan la dicha visitacion como se solia hazer, y se ha proveydo en esto lo que alla vereis: aquello hareis que se guarde. 5. Y para escusar los ynconvenientes que dezis que ay de que los dichos alcaldes hagan la dicha visitacion teniendo ellos yndios y siendo juezes en sus causas, vos y el gobernador nombrareis persona para visytar los yndios que tovieren los dichos alcaldes. De Madrid a veynte e dos dias del mes de diziembre de mill e quinientos y veinte y nueve años.=Yo la Reyna.=Refrendada de Sámano. Señalada del Conde y del doctor Beltran y de Xuarez.
- 43. 134. (Año de 1529.—Diciembre22.)—Real cédula contestando al Gobernador y oficiales reales acerca de las necesidades de la isla.—Ofrece envío de armas.—Niega el pase de indios esclavos desde Nueva España.—Estimula la fundación del convento de franciscanos á que el obispo se ha opuesto, y la obra de la Catedral. Dada en Madrid. (A. de I., 79, 4, 1.) La Reyna=Lugarteniente de nuestro gobernador de la isla Fernandina y oficiales della. Vi vuestra letra de veinte y cinco de mayo deste año: 2. Y quanto a lo que dezis que en lo de las tercias recargadas que ha cobrado el obispo Don frai Juan Hubit, sobre que traeys pleito con sus hazedores, en que mandamos dar cierta cédula para que se le acudiese con ciertos maravedis que sobrello le estan enbargados; aquello conplistes y como los hazedores del dicho obispo han cobrado todo el tiempo que fue obispo doze mill y tantos pesos de oro y que para lo que nos perteneciere de las tercias desto estan embargados setecientos pesos de oro en personas abonadas y anda el pleito sobrello, está bien lo que aveys hecho y vosotros seguireis nuestra justicia de manera que por falta de cuydado y deligencia nuestra hazienda no reciba daño: el obispo ha pedido acá que se le manden desenbaraçar y se le hará justicia; no dexeis por esto de hazer lo que conviene a la nuestra, hasta acaballo. 3. Dezis como Lope Hurtado, nuestro thesorero desa ysla, se pasó syn dar en Sevilla las fianças que hera obligado, por que dize que no se las pidieron, y que en esa ysla no las puede dar, y syn
- 44. embargo desto lerecibistes a su oficio y nos suplicays mandemos proveer en ello, por que esto es conforme a lo que está ordenado y mandado que todos nuestros oficiales den fianças de sus oficios. Yo vos mando que luego que ésta veays, hagays quel dicho Lope Hurtado dé las dichas fianças, y no las dando, le notificad que dentro de ocho meses las dé ay ó en Sevilla ante nuestros oficiales, y sy dello no truxere recaudos bastantes en este termino poned otra persona que sea ydónea y suficiente para ello y que dé fianças bastantes, entretanto que nos mandáremos lo que cumple a nuestro servicio. 4. Dezis que seria cosa muy provechosa para esa ysla que de la Nueva España se truxesen a ella alguna cantidad de yndios esclavos, y por que al presente parece cosa muy dañosa que de la Nueva España saquen esclavos, no ha lugar de proveerse lo que pedis. 5. En lo que dezis que para la guarda desa ysla y seguridad de los yndios della convernya que se os enviasen de Sevilla cien vallestas con todo su adereço y doscientas lanças y espadas, yo lo mandare ver y se dará en ello la horden que convenga, que ya se ha començado a entender con una persona que se encarga de las llevar y de lo que se hiciere sereis avisados. 6. En servicio os tengo el cuydado que tovistes de enviar el oro de los defuntos y ansy vos mando tengays siempre cuydado de enviar lo que oviere para que se dé a sus herederos. 7. Yo holgara de que oviera dispusicion para hazer la limosna e ayuda que dezis para la obra de la yglesia desa cibdad, pero las necesidades que de cada dia se nos ofrecen son tantas que no da a ello lugar. 8. Yo soy ynformada que a ruego desa cibdad avian ydo a ella de la ysla Española ciertos religiosos de la horden de Sant Francisco a hacer casa y monesterio de la dicha orden y que con las limosnas que la buena gente les avia dado y mandas que les avian hecho tenian para començar á hazer el dicho monesterio y quel obispo desa ysla creyendo que con la estada ay de los dichos religiosos ha de perder parte de los provechos que tiene, les ha hecho tan mal
- 45. tratamiento y disfavorprocurando que se vayan, que son ydos o estan para se ir, lo qual es en deservicio de Dios y nuestro y mal exemplo, y sobrello le he mandado enviar la cédula que con ésta va: dársela eys y terneis con él manera como la cumpla y no ynpida a los dichos religiosos a que hagan el dicho monesterio, antes los favorezca, y vosotros haced lo mismo anymándoles y ayundándoles a ello para que con mas voluntad asyenten y pueblen en esa ysla. 9. Asy mismo me ha sydo hecha relacion que algunas personas vecinos desa ysla quieren hazer sus limosnas y ayudar para la obra de la yglesia desa cibdad y el dicho obispo nombrase persona de confiança y abonada para que de allí se gastase en la dicha obra y les diese quenta dello, y que por no haver nombrado la dicha persona se dexa de hazer tan buena obra y sobrello envio con esta la carta que vereys para el dicho obispo: darsela eys y terneis con él manera como se dé la horden que os pareciere que conviene para que aya la dicha persona y se cobren las limosnas y gasten en el dicho edificio. 10. Está bien lo que dezis que conplistes con el secretario Francisco de los Covos, comendador mayor de Leon, los doss mill ducados que se libraron en las debdas desa ysla del alcance del thesorero Pero Nuñez de Guzman, y por que los otros dos mill que para en quenta de los veynte mill ducados le estavan librados en los tres postreros años de los diez años en que se avia de complir la dicha merced por otra muestra provisyon vos enviamos a mandar que lo cunplais, luego conforme a ella lo conplid. De madrid a veynte y dos dias del mes de diziembre de mill e quinientos e veynte e nueve años.=Yo la Reyna.=Refrendada de Sámano, señalada de los dichos.
- 46. 135. (Año de 1530.—Febrero6.)—Carta de Hernando de Castro al Rey informando lo que dejó debiendo Pero Nuñez de Guzmán y la conveniencia de que se ultimen las cuentas. (A. de I., 54, 1, 34.) S. C. C. Mag.—En fin de la fundicion del año pasado escrivi á V. Mag. particularmente con el oro que se enbio desta ysla e agora hago lo mesmo porque me parece que conviene asi al servicio de V. Mag. En la ynstrucion que V. Mag. mandó enbiar a esta ysla para nosotros los oficiales ay un capítulo en que se nos manda que vos ynformemos delo que quedan debiendo los thesoreros que ha avido en esta ysla, e se cobre e ponga en el arca de tres llaves, por virtud de lo qual porque antes no avia poder, entramos a tomar quenta a Pero Nuñez de Guzman difunto, el qual tovo el cargo de thesorero sin le tomar quenta casi siete años, e hizimosle cargo de todo lo que avia cobrado por V. Mag. hasta en contra de lviiiɔ pesos de oro fino e baxo, e dava por descargo xlvɔiiii pesos de oro fino e baxo que fue dado para enbiar á V. M. y para otros libramientos de salarios e de otras cosas, asi que tomando en quenta todo lo que dize, que se le tomen en cuenta nuebe o diez mil pesos de oro que dize se perdieron en la renta del almojarifazgo desta ysla ciertos años pasados, tiempo de su cargo, que los obo de quiebra en la dicha renta e se perdio de arrendar e sus fiadores, e mandando V. mag. que este dapno e perdida de su renta de almojarifazgo se tomase en quenta, todavia se le alcançaron por iiiɔ pesos de oro; esto á su
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