The Gift of Languages. Unusual Uses and Ideologies of Language in the Evangelization of Tucumán

Abstract

In this paper we inquire about some colonial manifestations of the gift of languages, mysterious fables in relation to languages, speakers and listeners. Although the cases are few, they show beliefs, representations and actions with and on the language that deserve to be considered since they manifest linguistic ideologies that, from another perspective, provide explanations about hegemonies and colonial strategies of submission. We are interested in discursive questions of the religious domain, not from a representational perspective, which evaluates the accommodation of the discourse to some reality, but from a pragmatic one. For this reason, we do not consider the truth value of these discourses but, rather, their functions and effects in the field of non-discursive practices. We explore, in particular, missionary and political discursive practices, recognizing ties between these and the ideologies of native languages. We identify different meanings of the expression ‘gift of languages’, and establish its coincident features. We interpret these occurrences in the field of ideologies about regional languages. The gift of languages, either as the ability to learn many languages quickly and competently, or as the ability to speak a language that everyone can understand, whatever language the listeners speak, has allowed entry into ideologies and practices of evangelization. The considerations pertain to the Viceroyalty of Peru, and more specifically, to the Government of Tucumán at the end of the 16^th century and the first decades of the 17^th century, although they could possibly be extended to other regions and times of colonial America.