El vocabulario sechurano de Richard Spruce

Abstract

This paper makes accesible a new transcription of Richard Spruce’s vocabulary of the Sechura language. Collected in the mid-19th century by the British botanist, it constitutes one of only two sources of data for this language of northernmost Peru. A comparison of the original with previously published versions shows serious errors in transcription, in particular in those of Otto von Buchwald and Jacinto Jijón y Camaaño. The article also discusses the probable circumstances of data collection and the publication history of the hitherto known version, and concludes with some first observations on the significance of Spruce’s wordlist for elucidating the linguistic history of the region, in particular with regard to the question of the linguistic situation at Olmos.