If I were a bit smarter I’d have tried a couple of alternative spellings before posting this. There’s a good chapter by Anthony Reid dealing among others with Sakender in Implicit Understandings: Observing, Reporting and Reflecting on the Encounters Between Europeans and Other Peoples in the Early Modern Era (ed Stuart B Schwartz) in which…
José Mena Aguado is apparently being punished on the basis of article 7.31 of the Ley Orgánica del Régimen Disciplinario de las Fuerzas Armadas, which requires neutrality of soldiers with respect to the various political alternatives. Since article 8.1 of the constitution requires the armed forces to defend Spain’s territorial integrity and the constitutional order,…
If Javanese portray their common folk as cowards and fools, here’s a different view, taken from Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo, Historia general y natural de las Indias (1535 – 1557): This Indian [in the Columbian sense] was from Java but had married on Machian/Makian/Maquiem/Maquieu/Matjan [in the Moluccas; one of the four islands to which cloves…
I had an interesting chat (ie I listened) with someone the other night about the social position of musicians in the Middle Ages. I didn’t really buy his idea of the musician as The Other–at least not in Spain–but what he told me about Moorish and Jewish musicians in Christian society (as opposed to, for…
The other day I serendipited upon a review in Bijdragen tot de taal-, land- en volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië (1853) of Abraham Benjamin Cohen Stuart‘s translation of what sounds like an absolutely brilliant Javanese epic poem dealing with the life and loves of one Baron Sakendher, Geschiedenis van Baron Sakendher. Een Javaansch verhaal van vertaling, aanteekeningen…
These (from Carlos Westendorp Plaza) are OK: Autodate – type of potatoes Queque – cake Quineguar/chineguar – King Edward potatoes (the d -> g swap is interesting; it reminds me of some Andalusian dialects in which you get b -> g (abuelo -> aguelo) etc And this is a killer: Cambuyonero – Someone who trades…
MJ suggests that “adventures, devices and hoaxes” is a better translation of “aventuras, inventos y mixtificaciones” than “adventures, inventions and mystifications.” I think that’s a bit hard on C19th Spain’s greatest scientist ;o)
La Vanguardia really does struggle at times. Here‘s roughly what Juan de la Mota of S&P said yesterday: El consejero delegado de la entidad en España, Juan de la Mota, explicó hoy en rueda de prensa que, aunque todavía quedan muchos detalles por definir, la calidad crediticia de las autonomías debería salir beneficiada de estos…