234

+ hucha pankata: 'kind of beetle that comes in November and December

when there is stil] drought'

chucha pankataya ‘beetle that comes during heavy rains in

December' (La Paz)

At least one misinterpretation is apparent in
Bertonio's data. In contemporary Aymara awati is '‘herding',
not ‘hunger’, which Bertonio gives as *jawti in
*jach'a jawti and which is awtji in present-day La Paz.

Expressing frustration at not being able to elicit
names clearly corresponding to the months as Europeans
knew them, Bertonio complained

The etymology of these that we have

declared is not understood by all the

same way; nor do the months begin with

the punctuality of ours, because of

their lack of sophistication (policia)

and knowledge. (Bertonio 1603b:182
The Aymaras' detailed knowledge of their agricultural cycle
was evidently lost on Bertonio.

A small set of native Aymara terms for times of

day is the following provided by Vasquez (La Paz/Tiahuanaco):
inti tuyta ‘eight a.m.’ inti ‘sun’
jalsu ‘six to seven a.m.' (i. e., sunrise)
willjta ‘five a.m., when the stars fall'

Bertonio (1603b:185) also gave the term Tanti sunagi.n.kipa.na