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language of the Lupaca kingdom in the early 17th century.
These data and Bertonio's analyses must be carefully
reinterpreted, however, in the light of techniques of
contemporary linguistic scholarship and recent discoveries
concerning Aymara language and culture. A review of
individual forms attested by Bertonio (for example, verb
derivational and inflectional suffixes) shows many forms
identical with some in general use today, others in use
in only one or a few present-day Aymara dialects, and
still others not attested in modern Aymara but extant
in other Jaqi languages. In some cases the semantics
of a form have shifted since Bertonio's time, if his
translations may be taken as accurate. But that is a
problem: reviewing Bertonio's Aymara sentences with
Juana Vasquez has revealed that most of them are unac-
ceptable. At best they sound translated; at worst they
are perceived as simply incorrect even when archaic or
unknown terms are replaced by contemporary terms. The
book contains no native Aymara texts--no sentences form-
ing a narrative that might have been spoken in the
language by native speakers--but only translations from
Spanish or Latin of isolated words, phrases, or sentences.
Bertonio's grammatical analysis of the language
missed many important features because of its focus on
Spanish categories. Nevertheless, Bertonio was a care-

ful observer and tireless organizer of his material.