Details

Other Title:

Darien

Subjects:

Cuna language -- Glossaries, vocabularies, etc.
Indians of Central America -- Panama -- Languages.
Indians of Central America.
Language and languages.
Cuna language.
Panama -- Languages.
Panama.

Form/Genre:

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

Language:

English and Cuna.

Summary:

C. Hermann Berendt's transcription of vocabulary recorded by Lionel Wafer on the Isthmus of Darien (Panama), in the Indian language spoken there (Cuna) and English, taken from the original 1699 edition of Wafer's book about his travels entitled A new voyage and description of the Isthmus of America. The vocabulary has 45 entries, including a few phrases, and 22 numbers ranging from 1 to 51. Berendt notes that the words and phrases come from p. 187-188, and the numbers from p. 181-183 of Wafer's book. Berendt includes two annotations in pencil, one suggesting that the word nee (moon) be compared to Tule dialect, and the other querying whether the meaning of the word mamaubah should be fire (not: fine). In addition, a note by Berendt in red ink (p. 3) cites an explanation from Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés (libro xxix, cap. 26-31; probably in: Historia general y natural de las Indias) about the derivation of the name Coyba or Cueva from an Indian word meaning: a distant place.

Notes:

Ms. component part.
Title from component title page (p.1).
Item 169, in contemporary paper covers, is the 6th of 15 manuscripts (Items 162-165, 167-171, 172-175, 218, and 219) bound together in a volume with the spine title: Languages of Chiriqui and Darien.
Pagination: Paper, 6 leaves; fol. ii (paper endleaves) + 3 + i (paper endleaf); [1-2], 3-5, [6 (blank)]; contemporary pagination in ink, upper outer corners.
Layout: Vocabulary written with the Darien (Cuna) word(s), or the numeral, on the left, followed by the English.
Script: Written in the hand of C. Hermann Berendt.
Watermark: PIRIE'S Old Style.
Origin: Probably written in New York circa 1873; the manuscript uses the same paper as other items on the topic of Darien languages dating from that time and found in the same bound volume.

Penn Provenance:

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

Cited in:

Described in Brinton, Daniel Garrison. Catalogue of the Berendt Linguistic Collection (Department of Archaeology and Paleontology, University of Pennsylvania, 1900), p. 30 (no. 169).
Described in Weeks, John M. "Karl Hermann Berendt: Colección de manuscritos lingüistícos de Centroamérica y Mesoamérica," Mesoamérica 36 (Dec. 1998), p. 682 (no. 179).
Described in Weeks, John M. The Library of Daniel Garrison Brinton (University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2002), p. 67-68 (no. 387, document 6).

Cited as:

UPenn Ms. Coll. 700, Item 169

Contributor:

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

OCLC:

713572240