Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. 1 (of 8): Aboriginal America
History
Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. 1 (of 8): Aboriginal America
America -- Discovery and exploration; America -- History; United States -- History
The curious publication of Don José Fernandez Nodal in 1874 is not so
much a grammar of the Quichua Language as a heterogeneous collection
of notes on all sorts of subjects, and can scarcely take a place among
serious works. The author was a native of Arequipa, of good family, but
he was carried away by enthusiasm and allowed his imagination to run
riot.[1327]
The gospel of St. Luke, with Aymara and Spanish in parallel columns,
was translated from the vulgate by Don Vicente Pazos-kanki, a graduate
of the University of Cuzco, and published in London in 1829;[1328] and
more recently a Quichua version of the gospel of St. John, translated
by Mr. Spilsbury, an English missionary, has appeared at Buenos
Ayres.[1329] These publications and others of the same kind have a
tendency to preserve the purity of the language, and are therefore
welcome to the student of Incarial history.
Quichua has been the subject of detailed comparative study by more
than one modern philologist of eminence. The discussion of the Quichua
roots by the learned Dr. Vicente Fidel Lopez is a most valuable
addition to the literature of the subject; while the historical section
of his work is a great aid to a critical consideration of Montesinos
and other early authorities. Whatever may be thought of his theoretical
opinions, and of the considerations by which he maintains them, there
can be no doubt that Dr. Lopez has rendered most important service to
all students of Peruvian history.[1330] The theoretical identification
of Quichuan roots with those of Turanian and Iberian languages, as it
has been elaborated by Mr. Ellis, is also not without its use, quite
apart from the truth or otherwise of any linguistic theory.[1331]
[Illustration: FROM TIMANÁ.
[After a cut in William Bollaert’s _Antiquarian Researches_, etc., p.
41, showing a stone figure from Timana in New Granada, an antiquity of
the Muiscas, found in a dense forest, with no tradition attached.—ED.]]
Editorial labors connected with the publication of the text and of
translations of the Inca drama of Ollantay have recently conduced, in
an eminent degree, to the scholarly study of Quichua, while they have
sensibly contributed to a better knowledge of the subject. Von Tschudi
was the first to publish the text of Ollantay, in the second part of
his _Kechua Sprache_, having given extracts from the drama in the
chapter on the Quichua language in the _Antigüedades Peruanas_. After
a long interval he brought out a revised text with a parallel German
translation,[1332] from his former manuscript, collated with another
bearing the date of La Paz, 1735.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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