'Totatzine'

[Amapohuani at aol.com]

Leonel and Listeros:

Just a comment re the Pater Noster.

There are various versions (usually only slight variations) of the Pater
Noster, Ave Maria, Salve, and Credo in a number of colonial Nahuatl
publications. Some of these are accompanied by contemporary Spanish
translations. One such version appears on p. 162 of John "Fritz" Schwaller's
and my critical edition of Don Bartolome de Alva's confessionario of 1634
(going by the Nahuatl, it appears to be the the Pater Noster you are
analyzing). Fritz and I have our own English version but as Arthur J. O.
Anderson once wrote me, there is no one way to translate such texts. And
Frances is giving you excellent guidance in any case.

My own guess re the various Nahuatl versions of the four prayers is that each
time a colonial nahuatlato and his Nahua aides/teachers needed one or more of
the prayers they simply did it again themselves without feeling bound to
copy, word for word, the efforts of their predecessors.  As far as I can
tell, this was common practice in many ecclesiastical texts.

Also, in his ARTE of 1571, fray Alonso de Molina (in the second part or
"book") has a section on the first part of the Pater Noster, analyzing it
element by element. If this has already been mentioned, excuse the
superfluous comment.

Good luck with your studies.

Ye ixquich.
Barry