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MEXICAN AND CENTRAL AMERICAN INDIAN LANGUAGES
WORK ON THE NATIVE LANGUAGES of Mexico and Central America continues encouragingly.
Very welcome are the dictionaries and grammatical sketches of little-known languages:
Miskito (item bi 89000211); Colette Craig on Rama (item bi 90011747); Norwood,
Von Houwald and Rener on Sumo (item bi 89000226); Dennis and Royce de Dennis
on Tol/Jicaque (item bi 89000219); as well as Hale and Lacayo Blanco on Ulva/Sumo
(item bi 90011868). Others include a Cakchikel dictionary by Blair et al.
(item bi 90011749), Mixtec grammatical sketches by Bradley and Hollenbach (item
bi 89000223), a three-volume colonial Tzotzil dictionary by Laughlin (item bi
90011825), and Ximénez's colonial vocabulary of Cakchikel, Quiché
and Tzutuhil (item bi 89000215).
Works on Mayan hieroglyphics reflect the current vitality of that field: these include the extremely valuable Los Códices Mayas edited by Lee (item bi 89000205); papers by Davoust (item bi 90011743), Ershova (item bi 88003098) and Houston (item bi 88000314); Kurbjuhn's very useful catalog (item bi 90005937); and the several papers of the Journal of Mayan Linguistics (item bi 90011777).
Valuable information and resource material on older stages of several languages appeared: León-Portilla on Cochimi (item bi 88000368); Dedrick on Yaqui (item bi 88000361); Carmack and Mondloch's Quiché Ilocab Título (item bi 88000364); and works cited above by Laughlin (item bi 90011825); and Ximénez (item bi 89000215).
The rather large number of native texts with translation will prove valuable for many fields of study and research (see items bi 88000366, bi 88000361, bi 88000362, and bi 88000368).
A number of works on native American literature appeared: The Popol Vuh (Quiche, Maya) is treated by Dürr (item bi 90011751), Himelbau (item bi 90011774), and López Perén (item bi 89000207), and in articles in the Gossen volume (item bi 90010314). Lacandon myth and oral literature are presented by Boremanse (item bi 88000593), while Jansen treats Mixtec (item bi 88000541). Nahuatl is represented by Garibay (item bi 89000214), and by Karttunen and Lockhart (item bi 90011779).
Finally, three basic reference works deserve special mention: the very useful dictionary of Spanish flora and fauna by L. Schoenhals (item bi 90011866), the extensive study of Nahuatl dialectology by Yolanda Lastra (item bi 88002627) and L. Campbell's volume on Southeastern Chiapas languages which includes basic reference material on many languages, especially Mayan (item bi 90011708).
SOUTH AMERICAN INDIAN LANGUAGES
MOST NOTABLE among the publications during this biennium is Bruce Mannheim's
brilliant study of Southern Peruvian Quechua (item bi 91002357), which is, among
other things, an important contribution to the theory of language and is of
interest to both linguists and anthropologists. The majority of anthrolinguistic
publications annotated are basic references, descriptive works, traditional
and pedagogical grammars, vocabularies and dictionaries. Outstanding examples
are the comprehensive descriptive grammars edited by Derbyshire and Pullum in
their vol. 2 of The handbook of Amazonian languages (item bi 90007921), and
the collection of 18 studies edited by Doris Payne, (item bi 90007922). Other
worthwhile studies were published by Everett (item bi 90011916), Cole (item
bi 90011915), Hardman-de-Bautista (item bi 90005967), Swift (item bi 90005964),
Moore (item bi 90011956) and by Dooley on Tupi languages (item bi 89000696).
We also welcome a few edited republications of colonial language material. Notable
contributions are Angeles' critical review of the 1690 description of Quechua
by Aguilar (item bi 89000694) and a new edition of a 17th-century dictionary
and grammar of Chibcha, a manuscript never printed at that time (item bi 89000673).
There were a number of traditional and pedagogical grammars published in this biennium such as those by Lachnitt (item bi 90005968), Márquez (item bi 90009265), Vásquez (item bi 90005962), and Chávez (item bi 89000684). There were 12 outstanding vocabularies and dictionaries canvassed for this HLAS volume on the following languages: Guarani (items bi 90005966, bi 89000676, bi 89000675, and bi 89000690); Cashibo (item bi 89000686); an especially worthwhile dictionary of Oyampi (item bi 90011918); Mapuche (items bi90-8096 and bi90-5970); Huambisa (item bi 8900691); Aymara (item bi 90005969); Chachapoyan Quechua (item bi 89000699); Piro (item bi 89000689); and others annotated below. Studies dealing with political, demographical and educational topics including sociolinguistic information were also abundant and are exemplified by the following authors and editors: Hernández (item bi 89000187), Zolezzi (item bi 89000189), Dacunda (item bi 89000685), Fauchois (item bi 89000682), Tempski (item bi 89000698), Plaza (item bi 89000688), López (item bi 89000695), Silva (item bi 89000700), Romero (item bi 89000692), Montaluisa (item bi 88001563), and Vries (item bi 90009266).
Comparative and historical studies were few, the exceptions being three notable works by Rodrígues (item bi 89000683), Cerro-Palomino (item bi 90011911), and Spires (item bi 89000191). Narratives and myths have been omitted here as they belong to the folklore section, however, one good work included is the one edited by Wilbert and Simoneau (item bi 89000671).