Otomí Bible History (3)

**List: Otomí Ministry the Bible ( the Bible ) Otomí... OTOMI. "THE Otomi language is spoken in the states of Queretaro, San Luis Potosi, Guanajuato, Tamaulipas, and part of Zacatecas, all of which form part of the federal republic of Mexico.   About 200,000 inhabitants of the state of Mexico are likewise said to speak this language as their vernacular tongue. The Otomi Indians, like the other natives of the Mexican republic, make an outward profession of Roman Catholicism, but they are said to be the least civilised nation in this portion of the American continent.   Even at the time of the Spanish conquest, when they were found intermixed with the Mexicans and the Tlascalans, their social position was inferior to that of the rest of their countrymen,-- an inferiority which has been attributed by some to the peculiar mechanism of their language, by which, it is said, the developement of their intellectual faculties has been impeded.    The Otomi language is remarkable for its monosyllabic structure, and for some curious though remote affinities apparently connecting it with the Chinese.   Although we find words of two, and even three, syllables in its vocabulary, these have all been proved to be compounded words, of which each of the component syllables has a distinct meaning, and may be used as a separate word.   The nouns and verbs have no inflection.   The plural of nouns is distinguished by the use of the prefix ya, of which the singular form is na; e.g. na ye, the hand, ya ye, the hands.   In abstract nouns, expressing some quality of the mind, the prefix na is converted into-sa.   The verb, having no inflections of its own, is conjugated by the aid of about fourteen particles, by some authors regarded as pronouns.   By means of these particles or pronouns, not only the persons and number, but even the variations of tense are indicated; and in this respect Otomi differs from all other American languages.   It possesses, however, many grammatical features in common with them; and all the peculiarities which, at first sight, might seem to isolate it from the American group, may be clearly traced to the monosyllabic character of its structure.    An attempt to procure a version of the Scriptures in this language was made by Mr. Thomson, agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society, during the years 1828 and 1829, but no portion of the design appears to have been as yet accomplished.   Further efforts have been impeded by the political condition of the Mexican republic."--The Bible of Every Land. (1860, Second Edition)   Samuel Bagster   [Info only: James Thompson, a Scottish Baptist per JCT.] OTOMI.--1860   S. Bagster   [Info only: n.d. THE LORD'S PRAYER unknown.]

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