Transcribed

This is a vocabulary of some 515 words and phrases compiled by Dutch explorers and military men on a reconnaissance mission to Chile from their territories in Brazil. The expedition set out in January 1643 with Hendrik Brouwer as its admiral. The vice-admiral was one Elias Herckmans, Governor of Parahyba, who, upon Brouwer’s death in August 1643, took over the entire expedition. As the most senior officer on the expedition and chief negotiator with the local population, the vocabulary is attributed to him. The details of the process of elicitation, however, are unclear.

Spellings in the transcription are from the 1647 Latin publication of the vocabulary, included in Caspar van Baerle’s “Rervm per Octennivm in Brasilia Et alibi nuper gestarum, Sub Praefectura Illustrissimi Comitis I. Mavritii, Nassoviae, &c. comitis, nunc Vesaliæ gubernatoris & equitatus fœderatorum Belgii Ordd. sub Avriaco ductoris, historia”.

The numbering is from the 1907 edition of the vocabulary by Rodolfo R. Schuller (El Vocabulario Araucano de 1642-1643 con Notas Críticas i Algunas Adiciones a las Bibliografías de la Lengua Mapuche. Santiago de Chile, Editorial Cervantes, Bandera 50.)

The transcription is given in columns. The Mapudungun lemmas are given in the Alfabeto Mapuche Unificado, using forms from Augusta’s dictionary (1916), where an equivalence was found. Question marks represent words where a plausible equivalent in other sources was not found. Do get in touch if you have (reasonable) suggestions!

Huge thanks to Roberto Bahamonde Andrade (RBA), Belén Villena (BV) and Carlos Leiva (CL) for their many useful suggestions on a number of the entries.

We are also enormously grateful to Constanza Martínez, who has provided us with her Spanish translation of the Latin gloss throughout.