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Evidence for a Native-Speaking Nahuatl Author in the Ayer Vocabulario Trilingue

2003; Oxford University Press; Volume: 16; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/ijl/16.2.99

1477-4577

Mack L. Clayton,

Spanish Linguistics and Language Studies

Ayer manuscript 1478 (Anonymous n.d.) in the Newberry Library in Chicago is a trilingual Spanish‐Latin‐Nahuatl dictionary based on Antonio de Nebrija's Vocabulario de romance en latin of 1516 with the addition of Nahuatl equivalents. The title Vocabulario trilingüe has led some to believe that it is a work of the Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún. This paper argues that in fact, internal evidence suggests that the dictionary was not written by or for Spanish religious, but rather that it is a passive dictionary for Nahuatl speakers, and that the Nahuatl equivalents were most likely written by a native Nahuatl‐speaking author.