Abstract

ARBOLEDA GUISAO, Bibiana  and  ROJAS DIAZ, José Luis. Lexical analysis on the orthographic opacity of a Chronicle of the Indies: The case of the Spanish verb haber. Leng. [online]. 2018, vol.46, n.1, pp.127-148. ISSN 0120-3479.  https://doi.org/10.25100/lenguaje.v46i1.6196.

Until the end of the XVIII century the European chroniclers of the Indies recreated through their manuscripts the culture, landscapes and the way of living in the Americas in the imaginaries of the European world. Nevertheless, this recreation omitted sometimes the point of view and the American experience. This is the case of the Crónica Teatro Crítico Americano o Nueva Tentativa para la Solución del gran problema histórico sobre la población de la América (Cabrera, 1794) kwon through its translation into English and in which several lexical units characterized for their orthographic opacity could hide images, stories and characterizations of the Americas around 1794, and even today, 193 years later still are unknown by the Europeans. We took the case of the verb haber (to have) analyzing its orthographic behavior in a corpus composed by the whole chronicle, through a lexical analysis. We attest that the mother language of the chronicler (Italian) could have implied the orthographic opacity of the chronicle, affecting the accuracy of the translation done by Henry Berthoud in 1822. This version has been used by Europeans to understand the Mayan city of Palenque. After more than 500 years the history of the Americas told by the voice and languages of the Americans is still being untold.

Keywords : Amerindian cultures; manuscripts; documentary heritage; Mayas; written language; chronicle of indies.

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