American Philological Associations: Latin and Amerindian Languages

summary:

This article questions the common assumption that missionary linguists in early colonial Spanish America believed indigenous languages could be governed by the principles of Latin. Passages from sixteenth-century artes or manuals of Quechua, Nahuatl and P'urépecha show that their authors were compelled either to abandon or transform radically the precepts of classical and Renaissance authorities on grammar. Latin, however, did play a crucial part in the production of translations and original texts in Amerindian languages, which, with certain provisos, lay open an important field of future research for classical philologists and literary historians.