A new Timucua book

My colleague and coauthor Timothy Johnson recently managed to discover a new Timucua book!

Here is a press release about it
https://www.flagler.edu/campus-community/news/flagler-professor-discovers-unknown-spanish-timucua-book-while-on-sabbatical.php?fbclid=IwAR31P56IhRyRKItBcFxToJaxtfpUcv7TsqeLdxXAK2Xi9c9lViSGIwgC0Yg

Some additional information:

• It is bound together with a copy of the 1627 Catechismo y Examen  (Pareja, Francisco. 1627b. Cathecismo y Examen para los que comulgan. En lengua castellana y Timuquana. Mexico City: Imprenta de Iuan Ruyz.) There is another copy of this 1627 work in the British Museum, but the Codrington copy has the 1628 work bound after it.
• It does not duplicate any previously known book.
• The title calls it Part IIII, suggesting that Pareja, Francisco. 1627a.Catecismo en lengua timuquana y castellana en el qual se instruyen y cathequizan los adultos infieles que an de ser Christianos. Mexico City: Emprenta de Ioan Ruyz  was probably intended to be parts 1 and 2.  More on this:
• Pareja 1627 does have two parts -- the first part is an account of the creation of the world and the birth of Christ.  The second part is an edited/corrected version of the 1612 book Pareja, Francisco. 1612a. Cathecismo en lengua castellana, y Timuquana. En el qual se contiene lo que se les puede enseñar a los adultos que an de ser baptizados. Mexico City: Impresa de la Viuda de Pedro Balli. (NY Historical Society)
• It is not clear what part III is.  Is it the 1627 Catechismo y Examen?  Nothing on the title page or introduction labels this as part III of a multi-part work.

Here is a link to the page at Codrington with the manuscript:

http://codrington.asc.ox.ac.uk/epbs/r_9_22.php

Videos of some Timucua presentations

I recently noticed that some of my talks about Timucua topics have been filmed and are up on YouTube.

Here is a discussion of various possible authors of the Timucua materials.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1myChpeMYZA

And here is an old one discussing verbal morphology in Timucua

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6baysNXKAY

New lexical entries

Here are two of the most recent lexical entries.  I am rather proud of having figured out (most) of what these words mean.

The second of these words, pileno, seems to refer to a food which would be considered a delicacy for a feast.  Maybe something like chicken livers?

Proto-Muskogean *N and Timucua t?

Some Proto-Muskogean correspondence sets show a correspondence between /n/ in Western Muskogean and /ł/ in other Muskogean languages.  An example is the following set for FISH:

Choctaw and Chickasaw  nani'
Alabama & Koasati          łało
Hitchiti & Mikasuki         ła:ł-i
Creek                                łało

Mary Haas reconstructed this phoneme as *N, but its phonetic realization has always been somewhat uncertain.

I have begun to notice some cases where this PM phoneme matches with /t/ in Timucua:

FATHER   PM *iNki   Timucua iti
BROTHER (of a woman)  PM *NakfV   Timucua tafi 'brother-in-law (of a woman)'
ARROW PM *Naki  Timucua atulu?

Several PM kin terms end in -ki, which is probably separable.  If the BROTHER word contains a metathesized version of the same -ki, then possibly the pre-Proto-Muskogean are

FATHER pPm *iN(i)
BROTHER pPM *Naf(i)

This relationship might make sense if PM*N = θ.

The Timucua word for spider

Reading through various miracle stories in Pareja's (1627) Catechismo y Examen, I came across the story below which deals with a blasphemer who was eaten by a giant spider. Here I give the text and a rough analysis. The word for 'spider' appears to be satala, though it only appears once in the story. This is currently the only instance of the word in the corpus.

Much about the analysis of this story is not entirely worked out, but the climax of the story is satala iquo acoleta, yò, maninoleta, mine opomomincoqua navrutapitata, which seems to mean literally "a very big (iquo aco) spider, one that was frightening (yò manino), came down (pita) accompanied by (na-uruta) its thread (opomo)"

CatEx f287r-v [A giant spider eats a heretic]

1.1

Hicaco

hica village -co coord

Londres

Londres *London

mononco

mono call -nco RelCl

Inglaterrabeta

Inglaterra *England beta oblique

S

San saint

Pablo

Pablo Paul

Yglesiamitononco

Yglesia church -mitono his (respectful) -nco RelCl

,

inincono

Canturia

Canturia *Canterbury

Arçobispo

mucuqua

mucu in the presence of -qua nsuff

ytahosta

ytaho unknown verb [denounce?] -s benef -ta part

ysimonincono

ysi say -mo Pl:A -ni -ncono determiner? article?

,

ychiqecheno

ychiqecheno shoe

parema

pare sew -ma art

,

yaha

yaha one

herejeleta

hereje heretic(s) -leta indef

SS

Sacramento

Sacramento *sacrament

,

nabosota

na- ins boso honor, praise -ta part

,

nubuatimastetila

nubuatima show reverence -s benef -te part -ti neg -la aff

,

§

In the city of London in England in the church of St Paul, it is told that they denounced a heretic shoemaker before the Archbishop of Canterbury, who had no reverence for the most holy Sacrament.

En la ciudad de Londres en Inglaterra en la Yglesia de S Pablo aconteciò, que denunciaron à un çapatero hereje delante del Arçobispo de Canturia, que no hazia ninguna reverencia al santissimo SACRAMENTO,

1.2

masimoqe

masi say -mo Pl:A -qe if

Arçobispo

michunu

-michunu RelCl

,

"

orobisiecasta

orobisi behave badly ecasta

ysisonincono

,

catoomoqe

ca- thus toomo after -qe if

maqua

-ma art -qua comparative

,

quòstatiquanta

,

heqe

heqe now

toomota

toomo after -ta part

memano

-mi ordinal -mano top

cume

cume heart, chest, soul

vle

vle humility

,

chicosta

chico bite, strike -s benef -ta part

nabosta

nabo praise -s benef -ta part

,

nubuatimasta

nubuatima show reverence -s benef -ta part

hache

=hache =imper

,"

§

The archbishop exhorted him that from then on he should revere it with humility, and the heretic replied shamelessly that a spider was more worthy of reverence.

Exortòle el Arçobispo, que de alli adelante lo reverenciase humilmente, y el hereje con mucha desverguença le respondiò, que una araña era mas digna de reverencia.

1.3

masiqe

masi say -qe and then

hereje

hereje heretic(s)

michunu

-michunu RelCl

hebuano

hebuano word

,

ano

ano person

yuchisati

yuchisati

hebuata

hebua speak -ta part

ypuluta

ypulu reply (with hebua) -ta part

,

isinincono

,

cuyamabeta

cuya -ma art beta oblique

,

nabosota

na- ins boso honor, praise -ta part

nubuatimasta

nubuatima show reverence -s benef -ta part

Sacramentomanacu

,

nabosota

na- ins boso honor, praise -ta part

,

monoleheleqete

mono call le cop -heleqete not at all

moqe

mo say -qe and then

,

naquana

naquana without delay

paha

paha house

abõcobeta

abo high location -nco indef beta oblique

chitoholifa yemabetana

chito head holifa yema betana

,

satala

satala spider

iquo

iquo large

acoleta

acole very -ta part

,

yò

yò feel horror/hatred/repugnance

,

maninoleta

mani feel horror/hatred/repugnance -no nmlz -leta indef

,

mine

mine

opomomincoqua

opomo spiders web -mi 3poss -nco RelCl -qua if

navrutapitata

na- ins vru accompany -ta part pita descend -ta part

puenta

puen come -ta part

blasfemo

hebuaniheti

hebuani word heti evil, demon

,

hebuamichu

hebua speak -michu prev mention

,

opomomichu

opomo spiders web -michu prev mention

,

nipitama

nipita mouth -ma art

,

tanatalabosota nela

ta= away= na- ins talabo put in mouth? -so caus ta nela

,

§

And at that moment from the peak of the roof, a giant and frightening spider came down and wrapped its thread around the blasphemer, and put him it in its mouth.

Y al momento de lo alto de la cu[m]bre del techo, bajando una grandissima y espantosa araña endreçando su hilo al blasfemo, se le puso en la boca.

1.4

ytimileno

ytimileno father (or priest)

puqua puquama

puqua puqua in abundance -ma art

,

enetequa

ene see -tequa so that

intela

in be -te part -la aff

caqi

caqi this

yquòtimono

yquòtimono miracle, mystery

inema

inema all

eneta

ene see -ta part

,

charosamano

Thomas

Baldense

intala

.

Escrive este milagro Tomas valdense, que se hallò presente, con otros muchos Prelados. tom. 2. c. 62. contra Vuielepho.

The miracle of the Jewish boy saved from the furnace

One of the miracles of the sacrament related in the 1627 Catechismo y Examen is the story of a Jewish boy who consumes a piece of the Host at school.  In a rage, his father puts him in an oven.  But miraculously, after three days, he is taken out unharmed.

Here is a brief English summary:

Here are the Spanish and Timucua versions:

Obviously, this story has very nasty historical associations with European anti-Semitism.  Who knows what the Timucua must have thought of these stories of European Jews?

Honorifics in Timucua

This past weekend, I presented a paper at the Florida Anthropological Society on honorifics in Timucua.  Here is a link to the slides:
https://www.academia.edu/25550211/Honorific_marking_in_the_Timucua_language

/o/ and /u/ in Timucua -- distributional oddities

/o/ and /u/ seem to be different phonemes in Timucua.  At least there are multiple words that differ according to /o/ vs /u/ in some way that is not predictable:

atulu  'arrow'
mucu 'eye'

atichicolo 'heart, soul'
anoco 'lord'

Nevertheless, there is an apparent restriction on the vowels of adjacent syllables within a morpheme, such that /uCu/ and /oCo/ are very common, while /uCo/ and /oCu/ are rare or restricted.

For the /oCu/ combination, we find only instances in Spanish loans or in multimorphemic words:
Comuninoni  'commununion'
descomulgado 'excommunicated'

ano-hubaso-no  'love (honored argument)'

There are orthographic counterexamples for words spelled with , where these represent /kw, bw, fw/, e.g. /ofweno/ 'after', /bweta/ 'for, to'.

For the /uCo/ combination, there are a few common Timucua words:

chumo 'resemble, be like'
calubo 'punish'
hulubo 'farm, till'
nubo 'daughter-in-law'

However, in these examples, the consonant between /u/ and /o/ must be labial.
There are almost no examples of /uCu/ where /C/ is labial.

Thus we seem to have a phonological restriction that in adjacent syllables, non-low back vowels (/u,o/) must agree in height.  And a rule like

/u/ --> /o/ / [C]              ____
                  [+ant, -cor]

How many Confessionarios?

One of the most important documents for understanding Timucua culture is the 1613 Confessionario en lengua Castellana, y Timuquana con algunos consejos para animar al penitente, by Francisco de Pareja.

This was the subject of the pioneering study by Jerald Milanich and William Sturtevant:

Milanich, Jerald T., William C. Sturtevant, and Francisco Pareja. Francisco Pareja's 1613 confessionario: a documentary source for Timucuan ethnography. Florida Division of Archives, History, and Records Management, 1972.

But where is the actual book located?

The copy that was used by Milanich and Sturtevant was at the New York Historical Society.  The National Anthropological Archives has a microfilm of the photostat which John R. Swanton worked on.  (NAA MS#2401 "Religious texts in Timucua Pareja 3 texts and Movilla")

The first frame of the microfilm is

The cover page looks like this:

However, the New York Historical Society tells me that they cannot locate this book, and they believe that it has been sold.  (It is also possible that it has been lost or stolen.)

In the meantime, a digital version of another copy has become available at archive.org.  The version available at archive.org is from the John Carter Brown and the cover page is as below:

Is the copy now at the Brown library the same as the one that used to be at the NYHS?  I do not think so, since the JCB version has a waterstain on the cover page that is not visible on the other copy.  The NYHS also has some word written by hand to the right of the symbol in the middle of the page.

The employments of the (Timucua) hermaphrodites

This is one of the excellent plates showing drawings of early Timucua life:
https://www.floridamemory.com.

The text description of the roles of transgender people here is very interesting, though with with a probable overlay of European moral judgment:

Employments of the Hermaphrodites

In this country there are numerous hermaphrodites, a mixture of both sexes. They are considered odious by the Indians, but as they are robust and strong they are used to carry loads instead of beasts of burden. When the kings set out to war, it is the hermaphrodites who transport the supplies. They place the Indians, dead from either wounds or sickness, on a stretcher made of two stout poles covered with a mat of woven thin canes. The head rests on a fur; a second fur is wound around the stomach; a third around the hips; a fourth is placed around the calves. (I did not ask the reason for this custom, but I suppose it is for show, for sometimes they do not do all this and simply bind one leg.) Next they take belts of leather, about three or four fingers wide and fix them at both ends of the poles and put them on their heads, which are very hard; then they carry their dead to the place of burial. Persons with infectious diseases are carried to places reserved for them on the shoulders of the hermaphrodites who supply them with food until they are well again.

We cannot tell very much about Timucua attitudes to gay/lesbian/transgender issues from the available material, but there are several parts of the confessional that ask about the matter and give us some words.

All four of the words are fairly long for monomorphemic nouns, so they are probably compounds of some kind.  The only clue at this point is that three of them begin with yuba, the word that means 'bottom'.  Unfortunately, the remaining parts have not yet been found elsewhere in the corpus.

The puzzle of Timucua agreement - 2A agreement

Timucua is an extinct native language from Florida, whose grammar I've been trying to understand for about two decades.
The agreement system of Timucua is surprisingly complex.  In my SSILA 2016 paper, I outline basic properties of the paradigms involved.  To quote part of that:

The A and B agreement affixes appear at different places in the structure of the verb, and the 1st and 2nd plural B agreement are composed of a prefix and a suffix. The 2nd person A suffixes can appear in two positions, which I call the general and the restricted postion (as discussed in more detail in 3.1.3). B prefixes also appear in two possible positions -- one for core arguments and one for applied objects. Agreement for applied objects precedes the locative/instrumental applicative prefix na-, while core agreement follows the applicative. Thus the pattern follows a template like the following.

AgrBAppliedapplic=AgrB-verb -applic-AgrB-pres-AgrAgeneral-past-AgrArestricted{complementizer/illoc force}

The two paradigms are shown below:

	A paradigm	B paradigm
1sg	-la~-le	ni-
2sg	-naye (general) ~ -chi- (restricted contexts)	chi-
3sg	--	--
1pl	-nica	ni-...-bo
2pl	-naqe (general) ~ -chica (restricted contexts)	chi-...-bo
3pl	-mo ~ -ma	-bo

Table 4 Present paradigm

If both arguments of the verb are local (1st or 2nd person) then the subject shows A agreement and the object shows B agreement.

 A problematic detail for that paper is the distribution of the two forms of 2nd person A agreement.  For the singular, these are -naye ~ -naie and -chi.  For the plural, they are -naqe and -chica.

The facts are more complicated than my conference paper had time to explore.  A particularly puzzling fact is the relative order of the 2sA prefix and the future suffix -he ~ -ha.  The facts seem to show that in statements, the order is

V-future-2sA

while in questions, the order is

V-2sA-future

Examples that support this generalization.  First the questions:

1612 Cat, f012r

Next come the statements

"...know that if you eat from the tree of life standing, this tree of life of good and evil deeds which you must not eat from, you will die a death without delay" 

The data for examples in the past is less robust -- there are plenty of 2nd person past questions ("did you V...?), but not many clear cases of 2nd person past statements ("You V-ed").  Nevertheless, it seems that the same pattern is found.

Note the sequence V-bi-naye in the first lines of these examples.  (It seems that in the "have you counseled her" example, the verb that shows interrogative morphology is the last one.)

Because you refused my word, this was a very great sin, and so all the food will be earned with work and you will sweat and be cold.

The position of 2sA after the past marker is seen in the last example.


How can the template be adapted to reflect this difference between statements and questions?

The correct generalizations seem to be

1.   the future and past are in the same slot and
2. 2sA agreement precedes the future/past in a question, using the restricted form -chi, but
3. 2sA agreement follows the future/past in a statement, using the general from -naye.

These are not very easy facts to accommodate into the theory.  Perhaps questions require non-final agreement?  But what kind of strange requirement is that?