A NOTE ON THE READINGS
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. As we read 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.
Looking at the Text
Transcription
This passage contains a question and a reply. For more on how the Timucua language formulates questions, see Lesson 4.
1. P. Hachaqueniqe Christiano lesiro chimante?
2. R. Dios ano nahiabota, anohubasota haueleta. Acu iniheti ininona natenimanista hiti pahama nacalubalenolehauema, haba qualesta siromanta, Acu mine qiemitono tera carema ninametenta heromanta, Christiano lesiro nimantela.
We begin by breaking the words of the first sentence into morphemes (word parts). This allows us to understand the structure of the language in detail. The first row is the original Timucua, the second row is the words broken down into their component parts, and the third row gives a meaning for each part. The last row of the table gives an approximate translation of each Timucua word, combining all the parts of the word, and below the table we provide a colloquial English translation.
Quick Note: In the 17th century, the letter ſ, known as long s, was a printing variant for s. In our transcription, we replace the long ſ with standard s. You can read more about it here.
One Sentence at a Time
Let’s look carefully at each word of each sentence.
| Hachaqueniqe? | Christiano | lesiro | chimante? | |||||
| Hacha | -queni | -qe | Christiano | -le | -siro | chi | mani- | -te |
| what | to:be | and:DS | Christian | cop | desid:SS | 2:abs | want | Present |
| why | Christian | to be | you want? |
Now let’s try to do the same thing with the second Timucua sentence. Though there is a period halfway through the sentence, this period does not in fact mark a stand alone sentence. Not only was punctuation (such as periods or capitalization) quite arbitrary in 17th century materials, these texts were often compiled and printed without the help of Timucua speakers and writers. In this example, the punctuation is clearly a colonial imposition and not part of the Timucua language. On the contrary, the Timucua language tells us to ignore the period and capitalization and connects the two clauses of the sentence together.
| Dios | anonahiabota | anohubasota | haueleta | |||||
| Dios | ano | nahiabo | -ta | ano | hubaso | -ta | -haue | -leta |
| God | honorific | know | -and:SS | honorific | love | tns | irrealis | purpose |
| God | know and… | love and… | in order to |
The next part of the text is just one long section. First, let’s break it up into four parts separated by main verbs. This language, like many Native languages, has many clauses linked together. In Timucua, the suffix -ta often connects clauses that have the same subject, while –qe links clauses with different subjects. The final declarative suffix -la marks the end of the clause chain. When sentences are this long, it is helpful to break them down further into clauses.
- You can see that each clause has its own verb underlined.
Acu iniheti ininona natenimanista
hiti pahama nacalubalenolehauema, haba qualesta siromanta
Acu mine qiemitono tera carema ninametenta heromanta
Christiano lesiro nimantela.
You will note that in this sentence all the main verbs are mani, for more on this important verb see lesson six.
- Now we rearrange the spaces in the sentences, so we can better identify each word and look them up in the dictionary (https://www.webonary.org/timucua/).
Acu iniheti inino
na nate nimanista
hiti pahama nacalubalenolehauema, habaqualestasiro manta
Acu mine qiemitono teracarema ninametentahero manta,
Christianolesiro nimantela.
- Now we think about meanings of the words, marking the key suffixes and prefixes. Take a look at our quick guide if you need extra help.
Acu iniheti inino-na nate ni-mani-s–ta
hiti paha-ma na-calubalenole-haue–ma, habaquales-ta–siro manta
Acu mine qie-mitono tera-care–ma ni-na-meten-ta–hero manta,
Christiano-le–siro ni-man-te–la.
- Now we look up the word roots in the dictionary (https://www.webonary.org/timucua/):
| Acu | iniheti inino-na | nate | ni-mani-s–ta |
| This | evil deeds-my | pardon | I-want-for-and:SS |
| hiti | paha-ma | na-calubaleno-le-haue–ma | habaquales-ta–siro | man-ta |
| evil | house-the | at-punishment-be-will-the | be:far:away:from-want | want-and:SS |
| acu | mine | qie-mitono | tera-care-ma | ni-na-meten-tahero | manta | |
| this | honored | son-his:honored | good:ones:the | for:him:to:count:me:with-want | want-and:SS |
| Christiano-le–siro | ni-man-te–la |
| Christian-to:be | I:want-indeed |
All Together Now!
In Timucua:
Hachaqueniqe Christiano lesiro chimante?
Dios ano nahiabota, anohubasota haueleta. Acu iniheti ininona natenimanista hiti pahama nacalubalenolehauema, haba qualesta siromanta, Acu mine qiemitono tera carema ninametenta heromanta, Christiano lesiro nimantela.
Expressed in English:
Why do you want to be a Christian?
To know and love God, and I want to be pardoned for my sins, and (I) want to be far away from the evil house where there should be punishment (Hell) and (I) want his honored son to count me with the good ones, and I want to be a Christian.”