Re: [aymara] Aymara and Western Culture

["don asay" <donasay@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

In reply to book of Mormon translation in Aymara,  Yes is the answer, at
least in part.  I was serving as a missionary in the altiplano of Bolivia(
Achicachi) while portions of the Book of Mormon were being translated by my
fellow missionaries and later published before I came home  ( Oregon)
September 1978.  The translation was very arduous and a very serious
undertaking by hand with much personal "research" in the form of  consulting
with very old Aymaristas to seek out "correct form and grammar expressions
etc." in old aymara form.  I brought back home a copy of that book.  I do
not know if the translation was ever completed on the whole book however.

I was taught Aymara in LaPaz.  Near BYU is a Missionary traning center where
new missionaries are taught the language and customs of the country they
will be serving in.  For a time while I was in Bolivia, they attempted to
teach Aymara in that setting.  At the training center each new missionary
was tested on a regualr basis with a "profency " test to gauge progress.
Such a test is given in each lnaguage tought there.  I  have no personal
experience with such a test as I learned Aymara in Bolivia before it was
taught in USA.  However, Aymara was too difficult to learn there away from
the true aymaristas to be successful.  We did so much better where we could
speak with the aymaristas, make fools of ourselves learning from them and
even listening to the radio.  I found the language totally fascinating, a
very literal and accurate language.  Unlike English which I find vague and
easily misunderstood party to party.

As missionaries in Bolivia, we used a book left in the country by the Peace
Corps  "Se Puede Aprender Aymara" by E.A. Nida  It is a pretty good grammar
text and a decent vocabulary appendix.  It has lessons written both in
Spanish and English.

another possible point of Jesuit interest;

I  have a photocopy of a book "copacbana de los Incas"  Documentos
Auto-linguisticos e isografiados del Aymaru-Aymara Protogonos de los
Pre-americanos  copyright 1901  It is largely excerpts from Jesuit Priests
in the 1600's  very interesting.  But alas I have had little time to study
it and my Spanish is failing let alone "ancient" Spanish.

Don
----- Original Message -----
From: "Alex Condori" <lista2@iname.com>
To: <aymaralist@aymara.org>
Sent: Thursday, February 22, 2001 1:04 PM
Subject: RE: [aymara] Aymara and Western Culture


> "Ken Beesley" <Ken.Beesley@xrce.xerox.com>
>
> > > And did not Ludovico Bertonio happened to be a JESUIT
> > > himself? And, of course, his work on Aymara was
> > > developed on a misionary basis.
> > >
> > > It must be a Jesuitic conspiration :)
> >
> >
> > Alex,
> >
> > You're joking, of course, but I really didn't mean to imply
> > that there was anything like a conspiracy.
>
> Yes indeed, I was joking. In fact, I have nothing
> against the Sons of Loyola. And what is more,
> I acknowledge the huge language-related work they
> did all over the Americas. Most early native grammars
> in the Spanish America had jesuitic authorship.
>
> > I'm from a religious background myself (Mormon) and I worked
> > for a company (ALPS, later ALPNET) that, though quite secular itself,
> > grew out of an earlier machine-translation project at Brigham Young
> > University that had definite religious motivation.
>
> Did not the Brigham Young University develop a
> proficiency test on aymara for foreigners, or
> something alike?
>
> > So I am sincerely interested in religious motivations behind
> > a variety of machine-translation projects.
>
> Well, perhaps we are far from reliable Bible
> machine-translations yet (I think that a man-made
> Book of Mormon translation is available in
> Aymara, am I right?)
>
> waliki
>
> Alex
>
>