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Extracto de la gramatica mutsun

9781465564108
49 pages
Library of Alexandria
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Overview
The accompanying volume is printed exactly from a manuscript of 76 pages, small quarto, belonging to the College of Santa Inez, by whose president it was, at the suggestion of A.S. Taylor, Esq., forwarded to the Smithsonian Institution. The Mutsunes were the Indians among whom the mission of San Juan Bautista was planted, June 24, 1799. Their village lay in the centre of a valley, with abundance of rich land, and as late as 1831 numbered 1200 souls. The mission is about 40 miles northwest from Monterey, and they are thus the most northerly tribe, of whose language, to our knowledge, the Spanish missionaries compiled a grammar. For purposes of comparison this little work, accordingly, possesses great value, as the language was one of considerable extent, covering, according to Mr. Taylor's estimate, a district one hundred and seventy miles long by eighty broad. The late W.W. Turner, who examined the work, says in a brief notice addressed to the Historical Magazine (vol. 1, p. 206): The Mutsun language is clearly the same with the Rumsen or Runsien (the Achastlian of De la Manon); one of the two spoken at the mission of San Carlos, and with that of the mission of La Soledad, further to the south. A considerable degree of resemblance appears also in the language of the Olhones (or Costanos) on the Bay of San Francisco; and a fainter one further north in the San Rafael, and also in the Olamentke or Bodegan language. On the cover of the manuscript is the following note, of considerable importance in instituting comparisons: Copia de la lengua Mutsun en estilo Catalan á causa la escribiï un Catalan. La Castellana usa de la fuerza de la pronunciacion de letras de otro modo en sa alfabeto. Ve el original intitulado Gramatica California. The Catalans pronounce ch hard and j like the Germans

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