CHAPTER 9

MISSIONARY, PATRON, AND RADIO AYMARA

9-] Introduction

Missionary, Patr6n, and Radio Aymara are trans-
lation dialects not specific to any one region. That is,
they are the result of translation from Spanish (or
English) into Aymara, sharing a tendency to impose Spanish
(or English) categories and patterns, both grammatical and
cultural, upon Aymara. Missionary and Patr6n Aymara have
their roots in the 16th century; Radio Aymara is a later
development. As indicated in 2-4.12, until very recently
all materials published in Aymara were of the Missionary
-or Patrén varieties.

Missionary Aymara, identifiable by its idiosyn-
cratic use of certain syntactic linkers and lexical items,
by weakening of the human/nonhuman and data source postu-
lates, and by a rigorous marking of plural, occurs in
sermons, translations of religious texts, and several
published grammars of the language, as well as in the
everyday speech and storytelling of persons active in
institutionalized religion. |

Patro6n and Radio Aymara overlap Missionary to some

extent. Patrén Aymara, which occurs both in writing and

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