Lenca vocabularies from the villages Guajiquero, Opatoro, Intibucat and Similaton (Honduras)
Contributor:
Berendt, C. Hermann 1817-1878 (former owner); Brinton, Daniel G. 1837-1899 (former owner)
Name:
Squier, E. G. 1821-1888
Date:
1858
Description:
C. Hermann Berendt's transcription of Lenca vocabularies collected by E. G. Squier, comprising 84 words, and numbers up to 70, in English and 4 dialects of Lenca, as spoken in the Honduran villages of Guajiquiro (Guajiquero), Opatoro, Intibucá (Intibucat) and Similiton (Similaton), respectively. The villages are located in western Honduras, in the mountainous region southwest of the plain of Comayagua. Although Berendt does not attribute the vocabulary to a published source, the list appears identical to the version of these vocabularies published by Squier in his book The states of Central America (London: Sampson Low, Son, & Co., 1858; p. 253-256). The latter work comprised an expanded version of Squier's earlier work, Notes on Central America (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1855), in which Squier refers to having collected the Lenca vocabulary in Guajiquiro in June 1853, and mentions obtaining a list of numerals used by the people of Similiton at a later point (p. 379). Berendt's transcription includes one annotation: next to the entries corresponding to the English word iron, he notes the Mexican (Nahuatl) word tepuztli, meaning copper. The handwritten vocabulary (f. 1-6) is bound together with a printed copy of an article by Squier entitled A visit to the Guajiquero Indians (f. 9-18), as published in Harper's new monthly magazine, vol. 19, no. 113 (October 1859), p. 602-619. The article, which contains 20 illustrations (engravings of drawings), is a narrative account of Squier's visit to Guajiquiro on the occasion that he collected vocabulary there. The article has one annotation by Berendt in pencil (p. 606), under a footnote about abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg's manuscript of a chant from Indians in the Guatemalan town of Rabinal; where Squier reports that Brasseur told him in a letter that he wrote out the chant himself in twelve days, Berendt puts a note saying that Brasseur actually found the manuscript on a road from Guatemala to Chiapas.
Language:
English
Provenance:
From the collection of C. Hermann Berendt, later acquired by Daniel Garrison Brinton (ex libris stamp on title page).
18 leaves : paper; 244 x 157 (200 x 90-115) mm bound to 250 x 160 mm
Geographic Subject:
Honduras; Honduras -- Languages
Rights:
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/
Notes:
Ms. codex; Title from title page (f. 1r); Foliation: Paper, iv + 18 + vi; [1-18]; modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto. Handwritten manuscript (f. 1-6) bound together with a printed article by E. G. Squier (f. 9-18); f. 7-8 are blank. The printed leaves are paginated 601-619 (with the article beginning on the verso of the first leaf, p. 602); the last printed leaf is mostly cut away, with only the top third, which contains the end of the article (p. 619), pasted onto a blank leaf in the bound volume (f. 18).; Layout: Vocabulary written in 5 columns of 23 lines, across a 2-page spread (3 columns on the left-hand and 2 on the right-hand page), with English on the far left, and Lenca equivalents in 4 columns to the right, under headings for the village names Guajiquero, Opatoro, Intibucat, and Similaton, respectively.; Script: Written in the hand of C. Hermann Berendt.; Binding: Contemporary quarter calf over marbled boards. Inner hinges cracked; f. 1-4 detached,and other gatherings partially loose.; Origin: Written sometime after the publication of E. G. Squier's work The States of Central America in 1858 and before C. Hermann Berendt's death in 1878.; English and Lenca.
Physical Location:
Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, Manuscripts, Ms. Coll. 700
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