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Article published In: The History of Chinese Linguistics in East and West
Edited by Otto Zwartjes
[Historiographia Linguistica 51:1-3] 2024
► pp. 206–251

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The Bocabulario de la Lengua Sangleya por las Letraz de el A.B.C. (Manila, ca. 1617)

Structure, contents, function

 | Universität Tübingen
Published online: 20 March 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/hl.00170.doh
Abstract
The Bocabulario de la Lengua Sangleya por las Letraz de el A.B.C. stands out among the Spanish missionary oeuvres dedicated to the documentation of the Chinese vernacular spoken by the Sangley community in Manila around the year 1600. As opposed to other vocabularies and dictionaries of the same epoch, it contains not only single line Hokkien-Spanish entries, but many additional pieces of linguistic and cultural information including example sentences selected and designed for conversational use during field work regarding proselytization. The Bocabulario is a complex text where several discourse layers can be distinguished, one traced back to the sources utilized by the compilers, another one implemented by the compilers themselves while following their didactic and practical goals, and a last one by the copyists who do not seem to have grown up with the European tradition of scripturality.
Résumé
Le Bocabulario de la Lengua Sangleya por las Letraz de el A.B.C. se distingue parmi les œuvres missionnaires espagnoles consacrées à la documentation du chinois vernaculaire parlé par la communauté Sangley de Manille vers 1600. Contrairement à d’autres vocabulaires et dictionnaires de la même époque, il contient non seulement des entrées en hokkien-espagnol en une seule ligne, mais aussi de nombreuses informations linguistiques et culturelles supplémentaires, notamment des exemples de phrases sélectionnées et conçues pour une utilisation conversationnelle lors de travaux de terrain à visées prosélytes. Le Bocabulario est un texte complexe dans lequel on peut distinguer plusieurs couches de discours, l’une remontant aux sources utilisées par les compilateurs, une autre mise en œuvre par les compilateurs eux-mêmes en suivant leurs objectifs didactiques et pratiques, et une dernière par les copistes qui ne semblent pas avoir grandi avec la tradition européenne de l’écriture scripturale.
Zusammenfassung
Das Bocabulario de la Lengua Sangleya por las Letraz de el A.B.C. ragt unter den spanischen Missionarswerken hervor, die sich der Dokumentation der chinesischen Umgangssprache widmen, die von der Sangley-Gemeinde in Manila um das Jahr 1600 gesprochen wurde. Im Gegensatz zu anderen Vokabularien und Wörterbüchern derselben Epoche enthält es nicht nur einzeilige hokkien-spanische Einträge, sondern zahlreiche zusätzliche sprachliche und kulturelle Informationen. Dazu gehören Beispielsätze, die für den praktischen Gebrauch in Konversationen bei der Feldarbeit im Rahmen der Missionierung zusammengestellt und erarbeitet wurden. Das Bocabulario ist ein komplexer Text, in dem sich mehrere Diskursebenen unterscheiden lassen: eine geht auf die von den Kompilatoren verwendeten Quellen zurück, eine andere wurde von den Kompilatoren selbst im Rahmen ihrer didaktischen und praktischen Ziele implementiert und eine letzte stammt von den Kopisten, die offensichtlich nicht mit der europäischen Tradition der Schriftlichkeit aufgewachsen sind.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction and research question
  • 2.The socio-historic background
  • 3.The language of the Sangleys and missionary documentation of EMHo in the 16th — 17th centuries
  • 4.Making sense of the Bocabulario: criteria for a digital edition
  • 5.The macro-structure of the British Library manuscript Add. 25.317
  • 6.The macro-structure of the Bocabulario
  • 7.The micro-structure of the individual entries
    • 7.1The basic meaning and pronunciation guidelines
    • 7.2The example sentences
    • 7.3Further linguistic information
    • 7.4Further cultural information
  • 8.The Bocabulario and the lost Diccionario de la lengua chincheo mentioned by Abel-Rémusat (1826)
  • 9.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
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