Note on the texts
Most Timucua language materials come from 17th century religious texts, and thus these texts are primarily concerned with telling Catholic stories and expressing European view points. In this lesson we discuss the Timucua version of the Biblical story of Judith beheading Holofernes. (You can read more about this famous story: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Beheading_Holofernes_%28Caravaggio%29)
As we read and explore these texts, we must think about the colonial contexts in which they were produced and not take them as literal representations of Timucua people, beliefs, or experiences. Working through these deeply religious, Spanish, and colonial materials requires care and nuance.
Timucua version of Judith Beheading Holofernes
Reading Timucua
- First, we begin by transcribing the text. The image captures only part of the story.
Olofernes Capitani yabocabaleta. Betulia, Diosi hica acoma ate, vquasiro manta, hibuatequa, minemate, soldado ynibiti mate, quene, hicama, yobochiqequa apaluletaqe napatirota, ona, ecanihabema anecotamoqeqere hica ma ybine ybita hoyatequa, ypelota, ypututa yborotamoqe, ybinemano, hicama, echehabeti ona ybine piluta, halacota, nyhimohabele naquenemano, iri, toroqe maha Betulia hicama anocarema ateleta vquata napilibontequa, nitocohabela manta, nasotechula hacu Betuliahicama, Diosimelabobota Iudic nia vbualeta anocobaqualeta hicama tocota Olofernes, minota chitomima cochota soldo caremichu Olofernes nihela ocotomoqe.
- Now let’s look at the first sentence. Note that the original punctuation of the text is a European imposition on the Timucua language. In other words, just because there is a period or a capital letter does not mean that the sentence is over.
Olofernes Capitani yabocabaleta Betulia, Diosi hica acoma ate, vquasiro manta, hibuatequa.
The literal translation is “A prideful Captain Holofernes wanted to take slaves and dwell in Betulia, God’s great city.”
How did we get to that translation?
First we looked for the verbs… in Timucua they tend to be at the end. This sentence has the verbs: uqua (take), man(i) (want), and hibua (sit/dwell).
Then, we looked at the affixes in the sentence. Since Timucua, like many Native languages, contains many affixes, identifying them helps to quickly piece apart the affixes from the root words. Take a look at our quick guide if you need extra help.
Here the affixes are bolded:
Olofernes Capitani yabocabaleta Betulia Diosi hica acoma ate, vquasiro manta hibuatequa.
Now we looked-up the root words in the dictionary: (https://www.webonary.org/timucua/):
| Olofernes | Holofernes (personal name) |
| Capitani | Captain, borrowed word from Spanish |
| yabocaba | prideful |
| Betulia | Betulia (personal name) |
| Diosi | God (Dios borrowed word from Spanish) |
| hica | town |
| acoma | great |
| ate | slave |
| uqua | take |
| mani | want |
| hibua | sit/dwell |
So a word gloss for this sentence would be:
| Olofernes | Capitani | yabocabaleta | Betulia | Diosi | hica | acoma | ate | vquasiro | manta | hibuatequa |
| Holofernes | Captain | prideful:indef | Betulia | God | town | great | slave | take:want | want | dwell:so:that |
- Now let’s break apart the other sentences in this story. Highlighting the verbs and affixes, and providing a word-gloss for each section
| mine-mate | soldado | ynibiti-mate | quene | hica-ma | yobo-chiqequa | apalu-le-ta–qe | patiro-ta |
| honored:person-and | soldier | many:and | and:the | the:town | stone:? | wall-to:be-and | with-surround-and:SS |
| ona | ecani-habe-ma | aneco-ta-mo-qeqere | hica-ma | ybine | ybita | hoya-tequa, |
| affirm | will:enter | prevent-them:and-then | town-the | water | river | go:plural:so that |
| ypelo-ta | yputu-ta | yboro-ta-mo-qe | ybine-mano | hica-ma, | eche-habe-ti | ona | ybine | pilu-ta | halaco-ta | nyhi-mo-habe-le |
| crush:and | fight:and | destroy:they:DS | water-topic | town-the | enter-may-not | indeed | water | be:thirsty | be:dry | die-they:may:be |
| naquene-mano | iri | toro-qe maha | Betulia | hicama | anocarema | ateleta | vquata | na-pilibon-tequa | ni-toco-habela | manta | naso-te-chu-la– hacu |
| doing:this | enemy | lack-and | Betulia | town-the | people-plural | slave-indef | take | with-reside-so that | I:came:out-may | thinking | do:like:but |
This sentence posed a lot of questions for us, since it has some complicated grammar and words whose meanings are not entirely clear. More details can be found at the end of the lesson.
| Betulia | hica-ma, | Diosi | melabo-bo-ta | Iudic | nia | vbua-leta | ano | cobaqua-leta | hica-ma | toco-ta | Olofernes | mino-ta | chito-mi–ma | cocho-ta | soldado-care–michu | Olofernes | nihela | ocotomo-qe |
| Bethulia | town-the | God | have:mercy-them | Judith | woman | a-widow | person | a-chaste | town-the | came | Holofernes | arrive | head-their-the | cut | soldier-plural-previously:mentioned | Holofernes | die | heard-they-DS |
Putting all the new translations together:
“A prideful Captain Holofernes wanted to take slaves and in order to dwell in Betulia, God’s great city. He and many soldiers put stones to be a wall and (those stones) surrounded the city. Indeed, they prevented the water of the river from entering. They broke, fought, and destroyed (the water supply) so that the water would not enter (the town) and indeed the water dried-up and they were going to die. (So the enemy) thought: “Without it (the water), the people of the town of Betulia will be taken and made slaves and come out to us but God had mercy on them in the city of Betulia, and Judith, a chaste widow, came out of the village and arrived at Holofernes and cut off his head and the soldiers heard that Holofernes died.”
Timucua Notes
This passage uses –qe & –ta to demarcate different subjects. For more on the Timucua grammatical practice see our Lesson 3: Changing Subjects
In this passage, there are not many adjectives. But Judith and Holofernes both get opposing descriptions.
- Judith is describe as: nia vbualeta ano cobaqua, a widow woman, a chaste person
- Holofernes is Capitani yabocabaleta, a Captain who is prideful
We also struggled with the fifth sentence in the text. Part of the problem was that some of the words used, like pilibo, are rare and we do not know fully how they are used. Moreover, the order of the verbs is unclear. The people of Betulia were described first as enslaved and then as residing. What is the relation between these verbs? And finally, the entire sentence seems to represent someone’s thoughts. We are still working out exactly how the Timucua grammar reflects inner monologue and textual quotation.
Reading these texts can be challenging and we certainly still have many questions. But hopefully these reading lessons will provide models and approaches for accessing Timucua language materials.