During the years 1787 and 1788, officials of the Spanish crown began to circulate an order from the king to recompile vocabularies of Spanish colonies in the Philippines and the Americas. In some cases, this meant the copying of old books from the early part of the eighteenth century. However, this royal order also included the translation and recording of vocabularies from as many new languages of the Spanish colonies as possible. In Central America, the translation of a predetermined list of a few hundred Spanish words into local languages of the colony was put into the hands of the University of San Carlos in Guatemala City and the provincial fathers of the Dominican and Franciscan orders. Language instructors were responsible for writing the words of the indigenous languages and their Spanish equivalents, while priests, who were well versed in the languages spoken natively throughout the colony, were to be...
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
