research lines

Regional

Andean rites, Quechua and Aymara ritual language, Andean oral literature, Quechua and Aymara compound words,South Italian dialects, American Spanish, American archaeology.

GENERAL

Linguistics

XVI century linguistics, language contact, taxonomies, synaesthesia, place names, names of person, language ideology, metalanguage.

Anthropology

 Theories of ritual behaviour, divination, anthropological theories of language.

Courses taught

University of Saint Louis (2016-2017)
  • General linguistics
  • Discourse analysis
  • Semantics 
  • Pragmatics
  • Sociolinguistics
  • Spanish in the Americas
  • History of Latin America
University of Bonn (2006-2016)
  • Anthropological Linguistics
  • Quechua language (beginners)
  • Quechua language (intermediate)
  • Quechua language (advanced)
  • Quechua literature
  • The endangered languages of the world
  • Introduction to the Pidgin and Creole languages
  • Colonial dictionaries as a source of knowledge on the Native American cultures
  • Introduction to the ancient American studies
  • Linguistics and the reconstruction of the ethnic migrations in the ancient American continent
  • Theories of ritual behaviour
  • Ritual language

some instances of magic-religiousritual language

text I.
kind of text: request
language: Italian, with some items from a South Italian dialect (Neapolitan spoken by a sicilian woman)
place - date: Procida (Naples) - 1604

From: Romeo, G., Magia e stregoneria a Procida. Tre storie del Sei-Settecento. Napoli: Dante & Descartes, 2015, p. 86.

O calamita, io te comando che mi facci dare denari dalo mio amico

Oh magnet, I command you to let my husband give me money

text II.
kind of text: Offering
language: Quechua (Central)
place - date: Cajatambo (peru) - 1656
dedicated to the Andeanindigenous deities "Raupoma" (puma of snow) y "Choquerunto" (golden grain)

From: Duviols, P., Procesos y visitas de idolatrías. Cajatambo, siglo XVII. Lima: PUCP, 2003, p. 783-784.

1. Ninap tukun, ninap qallun, ninap puchun, ninap katun: 2. kayta mikuy, kayta upyay, rupasqa yaya, lawrasqa yaya, 3. allin mikuy kananpaq, allin yaku kananpaq.

Fire’s flower, fire’s tongue, fire’s excess, fire’s rest: 2. eat this, drink this, burned father, eaten father, 3.so that there will be fine food, so that there will be enough water.

text III.
Kind of text: cursing
language: popular  Latin
place - date: Minturno (Latina, Italy) beginning of Christian era

From: Stolz, F. / Debrunner, A.  / Schmid, W., Storia della lingua latina. Bologna: Pàtron, 1993, p. 105.

1.Dii iferi, vobis comedo, si quicqua sactitates habetes, ac tadro Ticene Carisi: 2. Quodquod agat, quod incidat omnia in adversa. 3. Dii iferi, vobis comedo: 4. ilius memra, colore, figura, caput, capilla, umbra, cerebru, frute, supercilia, os, nasu, metu, bucas, labra, verbu, vitu, colu, iocur, umeros, cor, pulmones, itestinas, vetre, bracia, dicitos, manus, ublicu, visica, femena, cenua, crura, talos, planta, ticidos. 5. Dii iferi, si illa videro tabescete, 6. vobis sacrificiu libens ob anuversariu facere dibus parentibus ilius (voveo).

1. Gods of beyond, if you have supernatural power, I trust you with Tycene Carisi: 2. so that she finds adversity, whatever she does. 3. Gods of hell, I deliver you 4. her limbs, colour, aspect, head, hair, shadow, brain, forehead, eyelashes, mouth, nose, chin, mouth, lips, voice, liver, shoulders, heart, lungs, entrails, stomach, arms, fingers, hands, navel, bladder, sex organs, shin bones, heels, soles and fingers of the feet. 5. Gods of beyond, if I see her die, I (promise you I will let) her rich relatives celebrate a yearly ceremony.

text IV.
Kind of text: divination (introductory call of spirits)
language: southern Quechua
March 2012, Cuzco (own field research audio-recording)

Voice: ritual specialist J. Q. (from Qero, dept. of Cuzco, Peru)

1. Aver kunanqa kakushanki.
Apukuna, Awkikuna.
Aver kakushanki Qeru Apu,
Apu Wamani […],
Wawrani kakushanki, hinata kapushanki.
A ver

2. Ausangate, Hayangate,
 […] Yanantiy,
Machupicchu, Yanapicchu,
Salasaray, Pitusaray,
hampuy […]
[…] Pachatusan, Pachakamaq


3. Tukuy Apu Peru [...] kay, kay panaypa surtinta

kunanqa willayway, imacha surtin kashan u imapicha frakasupi kashan.

Tukuyta kunanqa. A ver

4. Hallpa mama, willayway, aver
kay panayta surtinta willaway.
Surtinta kunanqa qhawasaq. A ver

1. Let’s see, you are here now.
Lords of the mountains, ancestors.
Let’s see, you are here, Lord (of Mountain) Qeru,
Lord Wamani (...)
(and) Wawrani, here are you too.
Let us see (he blows onto three coca leaves).

2. Ausangate (mountain Lord), Hayangate (mountain Lord),
(…) the supplementary (mountain Lords)
Machupicchu, Yanapicchu,
Salasaray, Pitusaray,
come here from far,
Pachatusan, Pachakamaq (he blows onto the coca leaves).


3. All Peruvian Lords of mountains (…) the fortune of this, of this sister

now tell me, what (her) fortune is or what events are there.

Everything now (tell me). Let us see (he blows onto the coca leaves).

4. Mama coca, tell me, let us see
tell me the fortune of this sister.
Now I will see the fortune. Let us see (blows onto the coca leaves).

 comparison of ritual texts and contexts

Based on the model of Hymes, D., Foundation in Sociolinguistics: an Ethnographic Approach - Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 1974

speech event's components 

s. (scene)

p. (participants)

e. (ends)

a. (act sequences)

k. (key)

i. (instrumentalities)

n. (norms)

g. (genres)

text iV.

kind of text: 

divination

  1. confined place
  2. ritual fabrics on a table
  1. ritual specialist
  2. client (as an audience)
  3. spirits (addressee)

knowledge of the human world and its relevant actions and events (e.g. work, love, harvest)

  1. invocation of supernatural beings
  2. request of information to the coca leave

serious, careful

  1. coca leaves
  2. voice of the ritual specialist
  1. A (ritual specialist)speakes to B (mountatin Lords and ancestors) and C (coca leaves)
  2. D (client) hears.

ritual (magic-religious)