Cover not available

Article published In: Historiographia Linguistica: Online-First Articles

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB
authorization required

The category of preposición in early missionary grammars of Aymara (Bertonio 1603 and Torres Rubio 1616)

Between inflection and suffixation

 | Università degli Studi di Palermo | Università degli Studi Guglielmo Marconi
Published online: 9 July 2026
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/hl.00196.nar
Abstract
In this contribution, I investigate the conceptual and terminological relation between ‘prepositions’ (preposiciones) and a set of suffixes, mainly case markers, in Bertonio, Ludovico. 1603. Arte y grammatica muy copiosa de la lengua aymara. Roma: Luis Zannetti.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar and Torres Rubio, Diego de. 1616. Arte de la lengua aymara. Lima: Francisco del Canto.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar Aymara grammars. These morphemes are classified as prepositions or inflectional markers, or even both at the same time. This overlap is motivated by the typological differences between the language described, Aymara, and the metalanguage, Latin, since the former does not feature a full equivalent to Latin prepositions and encodes most grammatical relations by suffixation. The analysis reveals that the distinction between prepositions and case markers is established on functional grounds and based on the comparison with Latin categories.
Résumé
Dans cette contribution j’étudie la relation conceptuelle et terminologique entre les « prépositions » (preposiciones) et un ensemble de suffixes, principalement des marqueurs de cas, dans les grammaires aymaras de Bertonio, Ludovico. 1603. Arte y grammatica muy copiosa de la lengua aymara. Roma: Luis Zannetti.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar et Torres Rubio, Diego de. 1616. Arte de la lengua aymara. Lima: Francisco del Canto.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar. Ces morphèmes y sont catégorisés comme prépositions ou marqueurs flexionnels, voire les deux à la fois. Ce chevauchement s’explique par les différences typologiques entre la langue décrite, l’aymara, et le métalangage, le latin, car la première ne dispose pas d’un équivalent complet des prépositions latines et code la plupart des relations grammaticales par suffixation. L’analyse révèle que la distinction entre prépositions et marqueurs de cas s’établit sur des bases fonctionnelles et repose sur la comparaison avec les catégories latines.
Zusammenfassung
In diesem Beitrag untersuche ich das konzeptuelle und terminologische Verhältnis zwischen „Präpositionen“ (preposiciones) und einer Reihe von Suffixen, hauptsächlich Kasusmarkern, in den Aymara-Grammatiken von Bertonio, Ludovico. 1603. Arte y grammatica muy copiosa de la lengua aymara. Roma: Luis Zannetti.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar und Torres Rubio, Diego de. 1616. Arte de la lengua aymara. Lima: Francisco del Canto.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar. Diese Morpheme werden als Präpositionen oder Flexionsmarker klassifiziert, mitunter als beides zugleich. Die Überschneidung ist durch die typologischen Unterschiede zwischen der beschriebenen Sprache, dem Aymara, und der Metasprache, dem Lateinischen, bedingt, da das Aymara kein vollständiges Äquivalent zu lateinischen Präpositionen aufweist und die meisten grammatischen Beziehungen durch Suffixe kodiert. Die Analyse zeigt, dass die Unterscheidung zwischen Präpositionen und Kasusmarkern funktional begründet ist und auf dem Vergleich mit lateinischen Kategorien beruht.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Prepositions and case markers in missionary grammars of Aymara
    • 2.1Ludovico Bertonio’s Arte y grammatica muy copiosa de la lengua aymara (1603)
    • 2.2Diego de Torres Rubio’s Arte de la lengua aymara (1616)
  • 3.Inflection and affixation in modern Aymara
    • 3.1The inflectional system of modern Aymara
    • 3.2Nominal suffixes (and beyond) in modern Aymara
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (59)
References
A. Primary sources
Álvares, Manuel. 1572. De Institutione Grammatica Libri Tres. Olyssipone [Lisbon]: Ioannes Barrerius, Typographus Regius.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Anonymous. 1614 [1586]. Arte y vocabulario en la lengua general del Peru llamada Quichua, y en la lengua Española. Lima: Francisco del Canto.
Bertonio, Ludovico. 1603. Arte y grammatica muy copiosa de la lengua aymara. Roma: Luis Zannetti.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
GL = Keil, Heinrich, ed. 1855–1880. Grammatici Latini. Voll. I–VIII1. Leipzig: Teubner.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
González Holguín, Diego. 1607. Gramatica y arte nueva de la lengua general de todo el Peru llamada lengua Qquichua, o lengua del Inca. Lima: Francisco del Canto.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Huerta, Alonso de. 1616. Arte dela lengua quechua general delos Yndios de este Reyno del Piru. Lima: Francisco del Canto.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Molina, Alonso de. 1571. Arte de la lengua mexicana y castellana. México: Pedro Ocharte.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nebrija de, Antonio. 1981 [1481]. Introductiones latinae. Salamanca.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Olmos, Andrés de. 1993 [1547]. Andrés de Olmos, Arte de la lengua mexicana. Concluido en el convento de San Andres de Ueytlalpan, en la provincia de la Totonacapan que es en la Nueva Espana. [Manuscript, 1547] ed. by Ascensión Hernández de León-Portilla & Miguel León-Portilla, Miguel (éd.). Madrid: Ediciones de Cultura Hispánica.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rincón, Antonio del. 1595. Arte mexicana. México: Pedro Balli. Sanctius [Brocensis], Franciscus (Francisco Sánchez de las Brozas). 1587. Minerva sive de causis linguae latinae. Salamanca: Renaut.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Santo Tomás de, Domingo. 1560. Gramatica o arte de la lengua general de los Indios de los reynos del Peru. Valladolid: Francisco Fernández.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Torres Rubio, Diego de. 1616. Arte de la lengua aymara. Lima: Francisco del Canto.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1619. Arte de la lengua quichua. Lima: Francisco Lasso.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
B. Secondary sources
Adelaar, Willem F. H. 1993. “La categoría del plural inclusivo en las lenguas americanas: interpretación y realidad”. España: ¿Ruptura 1492? ed. by Maxim P. A. M. Kerkhof, Hugo de Schepper & Otto Zwartjes, 207–216. Amsterdam & Atlanta: Rodopi. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(with the collaboration of Pieter C. Muysken). 2004. The Languages of the Andes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bartolotta, Annamaria. 2022. “Grammatica latina e innovazione nella linguistica missionaria: il contributo di Ludovico Bertonio (1557–1625)”. Ubi homo, ibi lingua. Studi in onore di Maria Patrizia Bologna ed. by Laura Biondi, Francesco Dedè & Andrea Scala, 11. 45–63. Alessandria: Edizioni dell’Orso.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
, ed. 2025b. The Emergence of Syntactic Categories in the History of Linguistics: From Medieval to Modern Age. Palermo: Palermo University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Belardi, Walter. 1990. “Aspetti del linguaggio e della lingua nel pensiero degli Stoici. 2, Il senso originario di casus rectus”. Rendiconti dell’Accademia dei Lincei. Scienze Morali, Storiche e Filologiche 9:1(1). 15–25.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Booij, Geert. 2000. “Inflection and derivation”. Morphology. An International Handbook on Inflection and Word-Formation ed. by Geert Booij, Christian Lehmann, Joachim Mugdan, Wolfgang Kesselheim & Stavros Skopeteas, 11. 360–369. Berlin & New York: De Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2006. “Inflection and derivation”. Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics ed. by Keith Brown, 51. 654–661. Oxford: Elsevier. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Breva-Claramonte, Manuel. 2007. “The European linguistic tradition and early missionary grammars in Central and South America”. History of Linguistics 2005. Selected Papers from the Tenth International Conference on the History of the Language Sciences (ICHOLS X), 1–5 September 2005,Urbana-Champaign, Illinois ed. by Douglas A. Kibbee, 236–250. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Calvo Pérez, Julio. 2000. “Las gramáticas del Siglo de Oro quechua: originalidad y diversidad”. Las gramáticas misioneras de tradición hispánica (siglos XVI–XVII) ed. by Otto Zwartjes, 125–204. Amsterdam & Atlanta: Rodopi. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Case, Justin. 2020. “Were there ever any adjectives? The recognition of the absence of an autonomous adjective class in Tupi-Guarani as demonstrated in the earliest missionary grammars”. Missionary Linguistic Studies from Mesoamerica to Patagonia ed. by Astrid Alexander-Bakkerus, Rebeca Fernández Rodríguez, Liesbeth Zack & Otto Zwartjes, 139–155. Leiden & Boston: Brill. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cerrón-Palomino, Rodolfo. 1997. “La primera codificación del aimara”. La descripción de las lenguas amerindias en la época colonial ed. by Klaus Zimmermann, 195–257. Frankfurt am Main: Vervuert/ Madrid: Iberoamericana.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2000. Lingüística aimara. Lima: Centro de Estudios Regionales Andinos Bartolomé de Las Casas.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Coler, Matt. 2014. A Grammar of Muylaq’ Aymara. Aymara as Spoken in Southern Peru. Leiden & Boston: Brill. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dressler, Wolfgang U., Willi Mayerthaler, Oswald Panagl & Wolfgang Ullrich Wurzel. 1987. Leitmotifs in Natural Morphology. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Esparza Torres, Miguel Ángel. 2007. “Nebrija y los modelos de los misioneros lingüistas del náhuatl”. Missionary Linguistics III. Morphology and Syntax. Selected Papers from the Third and Fourth International Conferences On Missionary Linguistics, Hong Kong/Macau, 12–15 March 2005, Valladolid, 8–11 March 2006 ed. by Otto Zwartjes, Gregory James & Emilio Ridruejo, 3–40. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2016. “Elogio de la lengua nativa y planteamiento metalingüístico en las gramáticas misioneras: el ejemplo de Domingo de Santo Tomás”. Revista de Investigación Lingüística 191. 15–33.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haspelmath, Martin. 1996. “Word-class-changing inflection and morphological theory”. Yearbook of Morphology 1995 ed. by Geert Booij & Jaap Van Marle, 43–66. Dordrecht: Kluwer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haverling, Gerd. 2003. “On prefixes and actionality in Classical and Late Latin”. Acta Linguistica Hungarica 50:1/2. 113–135. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kortmann, Bernd. 1998. “Adverbial subordinators in the languages of Europe”. Adverbial Constructions in the Languages of Europe ed. by Johan van der Auwera & Dónall P. Ó Baoill, 457–561. Berlin & New York: De Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nardi, Edoardo. 2025a. “Notes on the verbal classification in Antonio Ruiz de Montoya’s Arte de la lengua guarani”. Il ruolo del metalinguaggio nelle nuove grammatiche nazionali e missionarie ed. by Paola Cotticelli Kurras & Federico Righi, 189–220. Roma: Il Calamo.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2025b. “Verbal categorization(s) in missionary grammars of South American languages (16th–17th century): transitivity and verbal valency”. Beiträge zur Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaft 35:1/2. 238–268.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nigrelli, Castrenze. 2023. “Rapporti di reggenza? Una descrizione ambivalente nella tradizione grammaticale tardoantica e medioevale”. InVerbis 13:1. 99–124.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2025. “On preposition-case relation in missionary grammarians and their predecessors: between terminological legacy and innovation”. The Emergence of Syntactic Categories in the History of Linguistics: From Medieval to Modern Age ed. by Annamaria Bartolotta, 241–269. Palermo: Palermo University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Peetermans, Andy. 2020. The Art of Transforming Traditions. Conceptual Developments in Early Modern American Missionary Grammar Writing. PhD dissertation: Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.
Ramat, Paolo & Davide Ricca. 1994. “Prototypical adverbs: on the scalarity/radiality of the notion of ADVERB”. Rivista di Linguistica 6:2. 289–326.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Romagno, Domenica. 2003. “Azionalità e transitività: il caso dei proverbi latini”. Archivio Glottologico Italiano 881:21. 156–170.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2022. “Aspects of the verbal domain in Greek and Latin: changing valency and actionality”. Variation, Contact and Reconstruction in the Ancient Indo-European Languages: Between Linguistics and Philology ed. by Domenica Romagno, Francesco Rovai, Michele Bianconi & Marta Capano, 290–332. Leiden: Brill. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ronzitti, Rosa. 2013. “Antico indiano víbhakti- e greco πτῶσις: preistoria di due diverse metafore della flessione nominale”. Linguistica e Filologia 331. 7–34.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rousseau, André, ed. 1995. Les préverbes dans les langues d’Europe. Introduction à l’étude de la préverbation. Lille: Presse Universitaires des Septentrion.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Scalise, Sergio. 1988. Inflection and derivation. Linguistics 26:4. 561–582. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Segovia Gordillo, Ana. 2012. Contribución a la lingüística misionera americana: la obra gramatical de Diego González Holguín. PhD dissertation: Universidad de Valladolid.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Squeri, Elena. 2025. “L’eredità del problema filosofico di referenzialità e definitezza nella grammatica antica: gli ὀνόματα κύρια e προσηγορικά nella τέχνη γραμματική”. Rivista Italiana di Filologia e Istruzione Classica 153:1. 37–71. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Štekauer, Pavol. 2015. “The delimitation of derivation and inflection”. Word-Formation: An International Handbook of the Languages of Europe ed. by Peter O. Müller, Ingeborg Ohnheiser, Susan Olsen & Franz Rainer, 11. 218–235. Berlin & Boston: De Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van Loon, Zanna & Andy Peetermans. 2020. “Wide-lensed approaches to missionary linguistics: the circulation of knowledge on Amerindian languages through sixteenth-century Spanish printed grammars”. Missionary Linguistic Studies from Mesoamerica to Patagonia ed. by Astrid Alexander-Bakkerus, Rebeca Fernández Rodríguez, Liesbeth Zack & Otto Zwartjes, 54–80. Leiden & Boston: Brill. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van Marle, Jaap. 1996. “The unity of morphology: on the interwovenness of the derivational and inflectional dimension of the world”. Yearbook of Morphology 1995 ed. by Geert Booij & Jaap Van Marle, 67–82. Dordrecht: Kluwer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zimmermann, Klaus, ed. 1997. La descripción de las lenguas amerindias en la época colonial. Frankfurt am Main: Vervuert/ Madrid: Iberoamericana.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zwartjes, Otto, ed. 2000. Las gramáticas misioneras de tradición hispánica (siglos XVI–XVII). Amsterdam & Atlanta: Rodopi. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2019. “Diego de Basalenque’s linguistic work on Matlazinca: the “Tratado de las partículas” (1640) and the parts of speech”. Grammaticalia. Hommage à Bernard Colombat ed. by Jean-Marie Fournier, Aimée Lahaussois & Valérie Raby, 53–62. Lyon: ENS Éditions. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2020. “Between grammars and dictionaries: the ‘Tratado de las partículas’ (treatise on particles) in Diego de Basalenque’s work on Matlatzinca”. Missionary Linguistic Studies from Mesoamerica to Patagonia ed. by Astrid Alexander-Bakkerus, Rebeca Fernández Rodríguez, Liesbeth Zack & Otto Zwartjes, 82–135. Leiden & Boston: Brill. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue