DUTCH CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STUDY OF NATIVE AMERICAN LANGUAGES

Author(s): Willem F.H. Adelaar

Source: Boletín de Estudios Latinoamericanos y del Caribe, No. 44, AMERICAN STUDIES IN THE
NETHERLANDS, 1970-1987 (Junio de 1988), pp. 55-60
Published by: Centrum voor Studie en Documentatie van Latijns Amerika (CEDLA)
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 Boletin de Estudios Latinoamericanos y del Caribe 44, junio de 1988

DUTCH CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STUDY OF

NATIVE AMERICAN LANGUAGES

Willem F.H. Adelaar

Introduction

In contrast to the European language situation, native American languages have

always outnumbered the linguists studying them. For many languages all but themost
elementary data are lacking. The rapid decline of the native American population
during the first centuries of contact brought about the disappearance of many lan
guages. Later, this process continued due to policies aimed at the forced assimilation
or the physical elimination of Indian communities. As a result, stillmore languages
disappeared or were brought to the verge of extinction, leaving as many objects for
urgent research. For a number of extinct languages, the only evidence available is
documentary, and necessarily incomplete.
Early Spanish and Portuguese grammarians have contributed significantly to our
knowledge of a number of Indian languages, especially of those languages thatwere of
strategic importance tomissionary activity and consolidation of the colonial adminis
tration. (A chair for Quechua was, for instance, created at the University of San
Marcos in Lima as early as 1579.) However, the colonial rulers' interest in the native
languages of their territories soon diminished, and many languages have gone almost
unnoticed until the present century. This accounts, inpart, for the rather imbalanced
picture we have of the native languages of Latin America.
The almost unbelievable variety of languages in theNew World along with the lack
of good linguistic descriptions have tended to hinder the establishment of verifiable
genetic relationships which might fit the native American languages. Sapir's proposals
for the genetic classification of theNorth American Indian languages have not all met
with general acceptance. For South America, we have not even begun tomove toward
a general consensus in spite of valuable work at the local level. The establishment of
genetic relations between languages or language families is one of the ways inwhich
linguistics can contribute to our knowledge of contacts and population movements in
the pre-European past of theAmericas. In areas where no written documents existed
until the arrival of the European invaders, such contributions assume particular
importance.

In the Netherlands, research in native American languages has enjoyed a strongly

descriptive tradition. Much descriptive work has been supplemented with hypotheses
on genetic classification and early language contact. More recently, data from native
American languages have been used for the purpose of expanding and developing
linguistic theories. In this context, the study of mixed languages consisting of both
native American and European elements deserves special mention. There isa growing

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 interest in the field of literature and the analysis of textswritten in native American
languages. Meso-American codices have also been studied. On the other hand, most
classics of the American Indian literary and historical tradition still await translation
into Dutch.
The descriptive tradition, as practised in theNetherlands, is geared to
providing an
indispensable commodity. Without good linguistic descriptions, any effort at the
comparative level remains purely speculative, data used for purposes of linguistic
theory will be incorrect or incomplete, and philological work will yield poor interpre
tations. Another good reason for giving priority to descriptive work in linguistics is
provided by thedemands of the Indians themselves. As ethnic conscience grows, native
American communities have developed expectations as to the results of research of
which they are the objects. The production of grammars, dictionaries and
teaching
materials is needed both for educational purposes and for strengthening group identi
ty.

North American Language Studies

Dutch involvement in native American linguistic research dates from the firsthalf of
the present century and began with C.C. Uhlenbeck's work on Blackfoot, an Algon
quian language of the North American prairies, and CH. de Goeje's work on the
languages of the Guyanas and Northeastern Brazil.
Research of North American languages was first undertaken in the '60s by Aert H.
Kuipers, who made a detailed description of Squamish, a Salishan language spoken on
a reservation situated within the limits of the town of Vancouver. Later, Kuipers
extended his research to Shuswap, another Salishan language, spoken in the interior of
British Columbia. As a professor of Slavic linguistics at Leiden University, Kuipers
encouraged several of his students and colleagues to begin descriptive work on native
languages of British Columbia. The interest of the Leiden descriptivists came to
include not only the Salishan family but also the neighbouring Wakashan and Dene
(Athabaskan) families.
The Salishan languages which have been researched by Dutch scholars are Bella
Coola (Henk F. Nater), Comox (Jan Timmers), Lillooet (Jan P. van Eijk), Sechelt (Jan
Timmers), Shuswap and Squamish (both by Kuipers). So far, grammatical descrip
tions of four languages have appeared: Bella Coola, Lillooet, Shuswap and Squamish.
Dictionaries or root-lists have appeared for Bella Coola, Sechelt, Shuswap and Squa
mish. Furthermore, Kuipers has made significant contributions to the reconstruction
of Proto-Salish. Studies have been made of the northern division of Wakashan,
comprising the languages Haisla, Heiltsuk (or Bella Bella), Kwakwala (or Kwakiutl)
and Oowekyala. John C. Rath has published a huge amount of lexical material and
texts of these languages, partly in cooperation with Neville J. Lincoln. Frederik H.H.
Kortlandt, Kuipers' successor in the Slavic department, discovered thatHeiltsuk is a
tonal language, a fact which had gone unnoticed in earlier work. Hein Vink published
a phonology of theHaisla language. Nater is currently studying theTahltan language
of theDene family spoken at Iskut in northern British Columbia. The Dutch linguists
van Eijk, Nater and Rath found temporary employment as resident-linguists on British
Columbian Indian reservations where one of their tasks was the production of educa
tional materials for the use of the community.
Both the Salishan and the Wakashan languages are of considerable linguistic
interest because they have extremely complex consonant systems, which require
extensive phonetic training to study. Although not demonstrably related genetically,
the two families have much in common and exhibit many characteristics of a Sprach
bund. Of particular interest is the existence of vowelless words in (Salishan) Bella Coola

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and (Wakashan) Heiltsuk, two languages which are neighbours geographically but are
otherwise unrelated. The languages of theDene family have neither exerted nor been
subject to any significant influence from either Salishan or Wakashan. The Dene
language family is spread out across vast areas of Alaska and Western Canada with
extensions as far south as California, Arizona and New Mexico.
Andre G.F. van Hoik, professor of Slavic languages and member of the Centre of
Arctic Studies at the University of Groningen, is conducting research on the Inuit
language of Greenland. Several articles on semiotics in relation to the Inuit language
and culture have appeared.

Caribbean Language Studies

De Goeje's work on the languages of theGuyanas has been continued in the form of
Berend J. Hoffs research on theCarib (or Carina) language of Surinam. As a member
of theGeneral Linguistics Department at Leiden University, Hoff wrote an extensive
descriptive grammar of Carib as well as several articles on details of the syntax of that
language. Hoffs field research was carried out mainly in Surinam itself.Nowadays,
quite a few speakers of theCarib language live in theNetherlands, one of whom isMr.
R. Kiban, an assistent toDr. Hoff as a consultant on theCarib language. Hoffs work
includes comparative topics, such as the exchange of loan words between Carib and
the Tupi languages of Brazil, and encompasses an extensive corpus of Carib texts.

Quechua Studies

In the early '60s, there grew an increasing awareness of the fact that the Quechua
language spoken in theAndes from southern Colombia down to northern Argentina
was not as monolithic as ithad once seemed. Pioneering work by Alfredo Torero and
by Gary J. Parker clearly showed thatQuechua was in fact divided into a large number
of dialects which were in many cases not mutually intelligible. It had also been
established that a large group of dialects located in the central and northern highlands
of Peru, the so-called Quechua I or Quechua B dialects, constituted a rather divergent
subdivision of the Quechua family. This conclusion led to establishing a date of
perhaps 1500 years ago for the separation of the two main branches of Quechua.
The findings of Torero and Parker refuted the idea that the predominance of
Quechua had exclusively been a consequence of Inca imperialism and of subsequent
colonial language policy. It became obvious that the initial expansion of the language
took place long before Inca power had attained its apogee in the 15th century. The
speakers of Proto-Quechua, the language from which all the present-day Quechua
dialects derive, did not live near Cusco, which was to become the Inca capital, but
further north in the central highlands and coast of Peru.
These new insights engendered a need for in-depth descriptions of local varieties of
Quechua, especially those belonging to the central and northern Peruvian group. Since
1967, the present author has conducted field research on central Peruvian dialects
spoken inChongos Bajo (Huancayo province), San Pedro de Cajas and Vicora Congas
(Tarma province) and Pacaraos in the upper Chancay valley (Huaral province). An
in-depth description of the grammar and lexicon of Quechua dialects spoken in the
province of Tarma was published in 1977. A lexicon of the Pacaraos dialect appeared
in 1982, and a grammatical description thereof in 1987.
The Pacaraos dialect, now only spoken by a few aged individuals, is of particular
importance to the reconstruction of Proto-Quechua. It preserves a 1stperson ending
which consists of a stressed vowel + -y inword-final position. This form provides a
plausible explanation for all other 1stperson endings attested inpresent-day Quechua
dialects.

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 The present author is also engaged in the research of extinct minor languages of
Peru, such as the Culli language which was spoken in the colonial provinces of
Huamachuco and Conchucos.

Together with Alfredo Torero, who spent a year at the Comparative Linguistics
Department of Leiden University with a research grant from theNetherlands Organi
sation for Pure Scientific Research (ZWO) in 1983-1984, the present author has started
research on the intricate historical relationship of theQuechua language family and
theAru language family. The so-called Aru family comprises Aymara and two minor
languages, Jaqaru and Cauqui, both still in use. Apart frommany structural similari
ties, Quechua and Aru share about 25% of their lexicon. Nevertheless, they are not
demonstrably related in the genetic sense. Most efforts are now directed towards
establishing criteria for determining the direction and the relative antiquity of past
borrowings. The unique relationship between the Quechua and Aru families is of
importance to the reconstruction of Andean prehistory and for theoretical aspects of
language contact.
In the early '70s, Pieter C. Muysken (of theGeneral Linguistics Department of the
University of Amsterdam) started research on the Ecuadorean varieties of Quechua
(locally called Quichua). Together with Louisa R. Stark, Muysken published a dictio
nary of highland Ecuadorean Quechua reflecting the dialect differences found within
that area. In his work, Muysken pays particular attention to contact between Quechua
and Spanish, both from a historical and from a synchronic point of view (e.g., second
language acquisition). In some parts of theEcuadorean highlands, contact vernaculars
have developed inwhich a Spanish lexicon is combined with Quechua grammatical
endings. These most unusual 'mixed languages' are called Media Lengua (the varieties
recorded near Salcedo, Cotopaxi province, and near Saraguro, Loja province) or
Catalangu (in Canar province).
Muysken's concern is not limited toQuechua-Spanish contact vernaculars but also
extends to the creole languages that have developed in theNew World as a result of
Afro-European contacts. Such an approach makes itpossible to view the development
of contact vernaculars and Creoles in the perspective of a general theory of language
contact. A case similar inmany ways to that of theMedia Lengua is that ofMichif, a
French-Cree contact vernacular spoken by a part of theMetis population inCanada
(Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Alberta) and in theU.S. (North Dakota and Montana).
Michif is the object of a projected investigation by Peter J. Bakker.
Syntactic theory and, in particular, generative syntax in its successive phases of
development (Extended Standard Theory, Government and Binding) have played a
leading role inMuysken's research on several modern varieties of Quechua. He has
worked on syntactic change in Ecuadorean Quechua, causatives and stative-like
passives in several Peruvian dialects and, together with Claire Lefebvre of UQAM,
Montreal, on nominalizations inCuzco Quechua. Simon C. van de Kerke's ongoing
research on the syntactic implications of verbal affixes in Bolivian Quechua comple
ments Muysken's work on the interaction of morphology and syntax in Cuzco and
Puno Quechua. Speakers of Bolivian Quechua residing in theAmsterdam area contri
bute to van de Kerke's work.
As a student at the General Linguistics Department of theUniversity of Amster
dam, Lucie de Vries made a comparative study of the language policies pursued by the
Bolivian, Ecuadorean and Peruvian governments with respect to Quechua.

Other South American Language Studies

Annette Veerman-Leichsenring (ZWO, associated with the Comparative Linguistics

on Popoloca, a
Department of Leiden University) is carrying out descriptive work

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 language of theOtomanguean language family spoken near Tehuacan in the state of
Puebla, Central Mexico. Popoloca is a tonal language with a functional distinction of
three tonal registers, neutralized before a homosyllabic glottal stop. A particularly
interesting characteristic of the Popoloca language is the phonetic decomposition of
intervocalic consonants and consonant clusters distributed across two syllables under
the influence of stress.Monosyllabic nouns are provided with a tone-bearing proclitic
element, the so-called /protetica, which permits a disyllabic phonetic realization of
such nouns. Popoloca verbs are highly irregular and corresponding irregularities can
sometimes be identified in other Otomanguean languages, a fact which holds promise
for the reconstruction of this family.
Another Otomanguean language, Otomi of Queretaro state, Mexico, has been
studied during recent years by Ewald Hekking (formerly of theUniversity of Quereta
ro and now associated with the Spanish Department ofUtrecht University). Hekking's
research is sociolinguistic in nature and addresses social processes conducive to
language loss and language death.
In 1976, Aert H. Kuipers, Ineke Smeets and the present author initiated work on a
descriptive analysis of the Araucanian or Mapuche language of southern Chile. At
first, two Mapuche speakers residing in the Netherlands, Luis Quinchavil (who has
been reported missing inArgentina since 1981) and Rafael Railaf, supplied thedata for
this project. Subsequently, the collected materials were expanded with fieldwork data
obtained near Temuco by Ineke Smeets. Mrs. Smeets is currently preparing a gramma
tical description of theMapuche language for publication.
In 1984, the present author started work on theGuarani language of Paraguay with
the assistance of Lincoln Silva Lopez, a Paraguayan author and journalist residing in
the Netherlands. Since Guarani is a relatively well described language, we have
directed our efforts toward composing educational materials, including an overview in
Dutch of Guarani grammar, and toward controversial topics of special linguistic
interest, such as prosodic nasality. Excerpts of Silva's Guarani poem Mboi jagudicha
inakava (The Dog-headed Snake') have appeared inDutch translation.

Other Scientific Activities

As a student of Amerindian linguistics at Leiden, Pirn van Sambeek made a highly

original contribution to Dutch linguistic studies by tracing 127 Dutch lexical items
borrowed from native American languages.
Amerindian languages provide excellent material for the development and testing of
hypotheses pertaining to linguistic theory. Linguistic properties can only lay a claim to
universality when native American languages are taken into account. Among the
native American languages discussed in recent Dutch linguistic literature are Inuit
(Reineke Bok-Bennema, Groningen), Jacaltec (Eric Hoekstra, Groningen), Yawelma
ni (Roland Noske, Amsterdam), Piro (Wim Zonneveld, Utrecht) and Guarani (Harry
van der Hulst, Leiden, and Norval Smith, Amsterdam). The comparative construction
in a number of Amerindian languages has been studied by Leon Stassen of theGeneral
Linguistics Department, University of Nijmegen.
Two Mayan languages (Ch'ol and Yucatec) have been the object of an educational
project carried out jointly by the staffand students of theDepartments of Amerindian
Languages and Precolumbian Archaeology at Leiden University. The purpose of this
project was to attempt to correlate recent advances indeciphering Maya hieroglyphs
with linguistic evidence from Yucatec and Ch'ol. At the present time, a critical
evaluation is being made of existing translations of colonial Mayan texts, such as the
Book of Chilam Balam of Tizimin. The present author has discussed Ch'ol data in a
comparative essay on transitivity in several Amerindian languages.

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 The analysis of literarywork and historic sources written in indigenous languages of
theNew World is gradually gaining in importance in theNetherlands. The following
account is a mere sampling of ongoing activities. Nahuatl theatre and Aztec historio
graphy have been the object of several publications by Rudolf A.M. van Zantwijk,
formerly of the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Amsterdam, and now at
Utrecht University. Maarten E.R.G.N. Jansen of the Archaeology Department of
Leiden University is currently preparing the publication of colonial historic texts
written in theMixtec language. Jansen's study of the Codex Vindobonensis, a 16th
century manuscript narrating the history of theMixtec kings of Tilantongo, isa major
contribution to the field ofMeso-American pictographic writing. Peter L. van der Loo
has demonstrated the continued existence among present-day Mexican Indians of
religious concepts, such as those described in the Codex Borgia, another important
pictographic manuscript from Central Mexico.
To Jansen we also owe a Dutch translation of the colonial Inca drama Ollantay. The
Spanish version of the autobiography of Gregorio Condori Mamani, a peasant of
Cusco, Peru, was published inDutch by Meulenhoff publishers. The translator was
Mariolein Sabarte Belacortu. The present author is currently engaged in a Dutch
translation of theHuarochiri document, also forMeulenhoff. The Huarochiri docu
ment is a Quechua textwritten about 1600 according to the instructions of the idolatry
fighter Francisco de Avila. The Huarochiri document is our principal source of
information on ancient Peruvian religion.
Analytic work on native American myths includes Edmundo Magana's publications
on Amazonian Indian mythology (CEDLA), Rob de Ridder's research on the struc
ture of the Popol Vuh and Tom Zuidema's work on Andean mythology.

Courses

At present, only Leiden University offers regular courses in American Indian lan
guages. Students can choose between three curricula, Languages and Cultures of Latin
America (sub-curriculum Indian Cultures), Amerindian Comparative Linguistics and
Precolumbian Archaeology. The study of at least one American Indian language is a
compulsory part of each programme. For theAmerindian Comparative Linguistics
curriculum, three native American are In recent years, courses
languages required.
have been given inSurinam Carib (byHoff), Mixtec (byMrs. Perez, a native speaker of
that language) and inAyacucho (Peruvian) Quechua, Ecudorean Quichua, Guarani,
Mapuche, Ch'ol and Yucatec (by the present author). Quechua language and literature
is taught on an annual basis. An introductory course inNew World ethnolinguistics is
offered every two years. Until recently, van Zantwijk has taught Classical Nahuatl at
the University of Amsterdam.
In recent years, there has been increasing cooperation between the various branches
of American Indian Studies at Leiden. It is now felt that neither linguists nor archaeo
logists and anthropologists can operate in the New World without being concerned
with the life and culture of present-day native American communities. Knowledge of
the language used by such communities has come to be considered a prerequisite for
understanding their cultural and religious concepts.

Willem Adelaar teaches in theComparative Linguistics Department, University of Leiden, and has been engaged
in research in native American languages since 1967. His research experience includes linguistic fieldwork in
Peru and descriptive work carried out with speakers of native American Languages residing in theNetherlands.
He has published monographs on two central Peruvian dialects of Quechua (Tarma Quechua, 7977; Morfologia
del quechua de Pacaraos, 1987).

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