Resumen

ESTRADA FERNANDEZ, Zarina. Contributions from Matthäus Steffel to the knowledge of the Jesuit’s school about Tarahumara. Cuad. Lingüíst. Col. Méx. [online]. 2021, vol.8, e212.  Epub 06-Dic-2021. ISSN 2007-736X.  https://doi.org/10.24201/clecm.v8i0.212.

The grammar of Tarahumara written in Latin by Matthäus Steffel (1799) has been analyzed or mentioned in few historiographic studies about Missionary Linguistics that address languages spoken in Mexico. The manuscript has not been published yet. This contribution faces at least three main questions: (a) What are the arguments to include this work within the specialized field of Colonial or Missionary Linguistics of New Spain? (b) What are the main features that let us include this work as part of it?, and finally, (c) Is it still possible to refer to Matthäus Steffel as a jesuit, even though the Society of Jesus (Latin Societas Iesu) had been abolished 26 years before the author finished his work? The present study refers to the main historical context of this grammar and describes some of its gramaticographic properties in order to argue in favor of a grammar that despite the fact that it was written by an author educated at the College of Tepotzotlán, the intention of the author, and the work itself must be considered not really as a missionary grammar, but as a part of studies with ethnographic perspective; therefore, assuming a critical and reasonable spirit it is possible to include it within the Enlightenment century. Finally, at the end of this present work we show an author’s statement that allows us to consider him as a Jesuit.

Palabras llave : linguistic historiography; Tarahumara grammar; missionary linguistics; Jesuit priest.

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