Details

Other Title:

Viceita

Subjects:

Bribri dialect -- Glossaries, vocabularies, etc.
Cabecar language -- Glossaries, vocabularies, etc.
Terraba language -- Glossaries, vocabularies, etc.
Indians of Central America -- Costa Rica -- Languages.
Bribri Indians.
Cabecar Indians.
Terraba Indians.
Talamanca Indians.
Indians of Central America.
Language and languages.
Terraba language.
Cabecar language.
Bribri dialect.
Costa Rica -- Languages.
Costa Rica.

Form/Genre:

Glossaries.
Manuscripts, Spanish.
Manuscripts, Latin American.
Glossaries, vocabularies, etc.
Controlled vocabularies.

Language:

Spanish and one or more Indian language (or dialect) of the Talamanca region of Costa Rica, probably Bribri, but possibly also Cabecar, and/or Terraba.

Summary:

C. Hermann Berendt's handwritten transcription of a list of 147 vocabulary entries (p. 1-2, 10) in Spanish, with the equivalent in an unspecified Indian language (or dialect) of the Talamanca region in southeastern Costa Rica, probably Bribri, but possibly including Cabecar; accompanied by a 4-leaf questionnaire (p. 3-6), with 90 numbered questions and responses, concerning Indians of the Talamanca region identified as Viceitas (Biceitas, Biseytas), a designation that is often associated with the Bribri Indians but sometimes with both Bribri and Cabecar Indians. The questions are in the hand of Berendt, and the responses, although having a different appearance, are probably also in his hand. The vocabulary entries appear to be numbered 1-137 but, due to a repetition of the numbers 110-119, actually amount to 147; the last 11 vocabulary entries, numbered 126 to 137, are written at the end of the questionnaire (p. 10). According to the title page, the vocabulary was recorded by Lebkowitz in Moin, in the Limón province of Costa Rica. A note by Berendt (also on title page) explains that the (original?) manuscript was obtained by Charles N. Riotte and brought by him to Washington, D.C., in 1867, where, later on, in 1874, it was transcribed and sent to Berendt; Philipp J. J. Valentini is mentioned, perhaps as intermediary. (Riotte served as the U. S. ambassador, or minister resident, in Costa Rica from 1861 to 1867.) The vocabulary list has the heading: Republic of Costa Rica / Name of tribes / Queun, Bribri, Cabecar, & San José Cabagra. In another note (title page) Berendt identifies the person responsible for the notes (noticias) referred to in the title (meaning, evidently, the material in the questionnaire) simply as a Costa Rican. The first question asks, what do the Talmancans (Talamancas) call their tribe? The response is: Biseyta (possibly written initially as: Viseyta). The second question asks: what do the other Indian tribes in the vicinity call them? The response lists: Cuen; Orosi; Bribri; Uren; Tiliri; Cabeceros de Tiliri, San José Cabeguer; la Estrella; Jabui; Cabeceras de Blanco; Chirripo; Terebes (Teribe, Terraba). (The language of the last-named group, Terraba, is considered to be distinct from Bribri and Cabecar.) The questions are grouped under headings, roughly: names of the tribes; geography of the territory they inhabit; numbers of them; physical appearance; dress and basic way of life; dwellings; trade and interactions with other tribes; social life; war; medicine; literature; calendar and astronomy; history; and antiquities. For approximately 10 questions the responder indicates that he does not know the answer.

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title from title page (p. i).
This was the fourteenth of 19 manuscripts formerly bound together, probably by Daniel Garrison Brinton, and now disbound (Items 129-136, 143, 145, 146, 151-155, and 157-159). The bound volume had the spine title: Languages of Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
Pagination: Paper, 6 + i leaves; [i]. [1], 2, [3-10]. Contemporary pagination in ink, modern pagination in pencil, upper outer corners. The manuscript comprises a title leaf (tipped in on front fly leaf, p. i); 1 leaf (p. 1-2; vocabulary); and 4 leaves (p. 3-10; 2 bifolia containing questionnaire). Pages 1-10 were originally folded and tipped in.
Layout: Vocabulary written in 2 columns of entries; within each column, Spanish is on the left and the Indian language on the right. Questionnaire written in 2 columns, with questions on the left and responses on the right.
Script: Written in the hand of C. Hermann Berendt.
Binding: Contemporary paper covers; originally sewn. All leaves of the manuscript are now loose.
Origin: Written ca. 1874.

Penn Provenance:

From the collection of C. Hermann Berendt, later acquired by Daniel Garrison Brinton (ex libris stamp on the verso of front free endpaper in the bound volume that once contained the present item).

Cited in:

Described in Brinton, Daniel Garrison. Catalogue of the Berendt Linguistic Collection (Department of Archaeology and Paleontology, University of Pennsylvania, 1900), p. 29 (no. 157).
Described in Weeks, John M. "Karl Hermann Berendt: Colección de manuscritos lingüistícos de Centroamérica y Mesoamérica," Mesoamérica 36 (Dec. 1998), p. 660 (no. 103).
Described in Weeks, John M. The Library of Daniel Garrison Brinton (University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2002), p. 68-70 (no. 388, document 14).

Cited as:

UPenn Ms. Coll. 700, Item 157

Contributor:

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

OCLC:

537311649