Details

Subjects:

Chorti language -- Glossaries, vocabularies, etc.
Pokomam language -- Glossaries, vocabularies, etc.
Chol language -- Glossaries, vocabularies, etc.
Alaguilac language.
Mayan languages -- Glossaries, vocabularies, etc.
Indians of Central America -- Guatemala -- Languages.
Indians of Central America.
Mayan languages.
Chol language.
Pokomam language.
Chorti language.
Guatemala.
Language and languages.
Guatemala -- Languages.

Form/Genre:

Glossaries.
Manuscripts, Spanish.
Manuscripts, German.
Glossaries, vocabularies, etc.
Controlled vocabularies.

Language:

Spanish, German, Chorti, and possibly Pokomam, with a few words in Chol.

Biography/History:

Young German researcher working under the direction of C. Hermann Berendt.

Summary:

Two lists of vocabulary words of about 100 words each, related to an expedition to Acasaguastlán and Jilotepeque (Jilotepec), Guatemala (the district occupied by the Pokomam Indians), undertaken by Franz Bromowicz in February 1878, for the purpose of collecting vocabularies and other information, especially with reference to the language called Alaguilac. Although Berendt noted "Pocoman de Jilotepec" on the cover (upper right corner), the manuscript itself contains references to the Chorti language rather than to Pokomam. List 1 is mainly in Spanish, German and Chorti, with a column provided for Alaguilac that is mostly blank; the first page also has a 4th column of words labeled Chol. On the last page is a list of 8 questions in German concerning the Alaguilac and the Chorti languages, the customs of the Indians that speak Alaguilac, what they call themselves, and what other Indians call them. List 2 is in Spanish and an Indian language, presumably Chorti (the column is not labeled). It has a handwritten heading in German: Vocabeln aus Jlotepec, Indianer Manuel Sanchez, repondiert [?] in Gegenwart P. Cordon; dated 16 February 1878. Included are some notes in German that refer to an original language spoken in old Indian places in the region of Jilotepeque, Pinula and Chimalapa that is of unknown origin but contains words recognized as Alaguilac. A 3rd item is a page of notes in German outlining the expedition along a time line, from 8 to 23 February 1878, with mention of a search for the Chorti language (von Chimalapa nach Jilotepec, die Chorti Sprache suchen), and the help of a certain priest (Pfarrer), Padre Cordon. Also included is a handwritten document in Spanish that appears to be a travel permit, issued for Franz Bromowicz in Magdalena on 13 February 1878, with the stamp of the municipal court, and signed by Valentin [?] Guerara.

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title from title page (f. 1r of paper folder).
Foliation: Paper, 13; the manuscript consists of 4 separate items inside a paper folder: 1 set of 2 bifolia; 1 gathering of 4 leaves; 1 single leaf; and 1 single bifolium. Contemporary (?) pagination in ink, upper outer corners of first 2 bifolia: 1, [ii], 4, [i], 6.
Layout: Pages of vocabulary written in 2 or 4 columns of 29-36 lines, sometimes ruled in ink; notes written in long lines.
Script: Written in the hands of C. Hermann Berendt and Franz Bromowicz; municipal permit in the hand of Valentin [?] Guerara.
Origin: Written in central Guatemala, in the vicinity of Acasaguastlán and Jilotepeque, in 1878.

Penn Provenance:

From the collection of C. Hermann Berendt, later acquired by Daniel Garrison Brinton (ex libris stamp on title page).

Cited in:

Described in Brinton, Daniel Garrison. Catalogue of the Berendt Linguistic Collection (Department of Archaeology and Paleontology, University of Pennsylvania, 1900), p. 20 (no. 90).
Described in Weeks, John M. "Karl Hermann Berendt: Colección de manuscritos lingüistícos de Centroamérica y Mesoamérica," Mesoamérica 36 (Dec. 1998), p. 643 (no. 49).
Described in Weeks, John M. The Library of Daniel Garrison Brinton (University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2002), p. 100 (no. 788).

Cited as:

UPenn Ms. Coll. 700, Item 90

Contributor:

Berendt, C. Hermann (Carl Hermann), 1817-1878, former owner.
Brinton, Daniel G. (Daniel Garrison), 1837-1899, former owner.

OCLC:

444679406