66

understood. The distinction of personal and nonpersonal
knowledge is recognized, however, for the first time.
The importance of morphemic vowel length and morphopho-
nemic vowel dropping is also understood and the reader
is urged to write as he speaks, although this injunction
is not always followed in the examples given in the text.
The role of sentence suffixes (called enclitics) is well
covered. But while the Manual has its strengths, never-
theless the message conveyed by the book is that learning
to read and write Aymara is merely a means toward learning
to be fully literate in Spanish and not a worthy end in
itself. This attitude is clear in a discussion of the
embedding of direct quotes in Aymara: the reader who
wishes to write a more involved style is urged to consult
a good Spanish grammar or to observe the style of writers
in that language (Ross n.d.:121).

Two subsequent teaching grammars of Aymara owe
much to Ross. Paul Wexler and his associates attempted
in Beginning Aymara: A course for English speakers (1967)
to write a linguistically sound pedagogical grammar of
Aymara specifically for English speakers. Intended for
Peace Corps volunteers, this grammar was based on research
carried out in Bolivia by three American field workers
who spent a short time there aided by three Aymara native
speakers from La Paz who were bilingual in Spanish. It

is of value primarily as an example of what happens when