Details

Subjects:

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

Form/Genre:

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

Language:

Spanish, Cabecar (or a dialect related to it) and Bribri; and one heading in English.

Biography/History:

Graduated from the medical school of the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala in 1843 and settled in in Costa Rica. Alvarado was based in Cartago from at least 1860, and was living there when he communicated with C. Hermann Berendt in 1873.

Summary:

Handwritten manuscript (bifolium) containing approximately 291 vocabulary entries in Spanish and an Indian dialect spoken in Cachi and/or Orosi, towns in the Orosi valley, in the Paraiso canton of the province of Cartago, Costa Rica; the language probably is related to Cabecar, or to both Cabecar and Bribri. An additional column contains, in some instances, an equivalent in a third Indian language or dialect that is labeled Biceita (Viceita, Vizeita); that language probably corresponds generally to Bribri. A few annotations are in the hand of C. Hermann Berendt, including the addition of the date 1873 at the head. The vocabulary is accompanied by 2 handwritten letters from Alvarado to Berendt, dated 24 July and 14 October 1873 (a larger and a smaller bifolium, respectively). The leaves of the vocabulary and the letters all bear the embossed stamp of Lucas Alvarado, Cartago, in the upper left corner. It appears that the bifolium bearing the vocabulary was enclosed with the first letter. In that letter Alvarado refers several times to the Indians of Orosi, and once specifically to the dialect of the Indians of the town of Orosi; at one point he discusses their history, and refers to their moving to Cachi after the Spanish colonization. The heading over the vocabulary reads in Spanish: común Cachi y Biseita (in the first occurrence Berendt emends the heading to read simply: Cachi). There is a note by Alvarado concerning orthography at the end of the vocabulary, and reference to the same matter in the letter. The letter discusses the relationship of the Orosi language to languages of other groups, mentioning Tucurrique, Biseitas, and Blancos; the Indians of Chiriqui are also mentioned. Reference is made in both letters to Philipp J. J. Valentini as a mutual friend. Also included is a single blue sheet with approximately 70 vocabulary entries in Spanish and an Indian dialect. That sheet appears also to be in Alvarado's hand, and to represent a subset of the Cachi vocabulary on the bifolium, with slightly different orthography. Berendt has added a heading at the top: Vocabulary of the language of the Indians of Cachi, formerly in Orosi, near Cartago, Costa Rica, taken by Dr. Lucas Alvarado. For Berendt's transcription of the 70-word vocabulary, see Ms. Coll. 700, Item 151; in the latter Berendt dates the collection of the vocabulary to 1866, suggesting that the blue sheet might date to that earlier time.

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title from title page (front of paper folder).
Foliation: Paper, 7. The manuscript consists of the following 4 items, enclosed in a contemporary paper folder: 3 bifolia (one listing vocabulary, and 2 comprising letters), and a single blueish leaf (vocabulary). In the case of one of the letters (24 July 1873), the second leaf of the bifolium is cut away, leaving only approximately a 1/4-leaf intact.
Script: Written in the hand of Lucas Alvarado, with some annotations in the hand of C. Hermann Berendt (red ink and pencil).
Origin: Written in Cartago, Costa Rica in 1873. One leaf might date from as early as 1866.

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. 29 (no. 150).
Described in Weeks, John M. "Karl Hermann Berendt: Colección de manuscritos lingüistícos de Centroamérica y Mesoamérica," Mesoamérica 36 (Dec. 1998), p. 631 (no. 9).
Described in Weeks, John M. The Library of Daniel Garrison Brinton (University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2002), p. 44 (no. 92).

Cited as:

UPenn Ms. Coll. 700, Item 150

Contributor:

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

OCLC:

557091781