In this paper we review the relation betwwwn politics, language planning and metalinguistic reflections about the Mapudungun language in the first half of the 17th century in Chile. This was a decisive time as the strategies and planning of the spiritual conquest of the indigenous people were being discussed and planned out. Luis de Valdivia, a Jesuit from Granada, was the main proponent in explaining the defensive war. Valdivia’s work can be considered missionary linguistics, and within it one can differentiate between metalinguistics and religious instruction.
In this paper we focus on his metalinguistic writings and we describe his Arte y gramática (1606), a piece which we understand as a methodological, systematic way of implementing the defensive war, and as a result of the institutionalization of the predominating discourse of the Catholic Church and the Spanish throne in order to conquer Latin America.
Keywords:
missionary linguistics, Luis de Valdivia, “Arte y gramática”, Mapudungun language, political linguistics
Cancino Cabello, N. (2014). The Missionary Linguistics of Mapudungun in 17th Century Chile and the Institutional Work of Luis de Valdivia. Lenguas Modernas, (42), Pág. 11 – 29. Retrieved from https://rchd.uchile.cl/index.php/LM/article/view/32231
