Date of Award
Fall 2025
Document Type
Thesis
Terms of Use
© 2025 Lillian E. Chan. This work is freely available courtesy of the author. It may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license. For all other uses, please contact the copyright holder.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Linguistics Department
First Advisor
Brook Danielle Lillehaugen
Abstract
This thesis presents a translation from Colonial Valley Zapotec to English of the five poems based on the biblical Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary found in the 1766 Christian catechism attributed to Dominican friar Leonardo Levanto. I analyze the construction of the linguistic strategies revealed by the translation (periphrasis, semantic bifurcation, neologisms, calques, and metaphors) as well as examine the extent to which these constructions were poetic innovations versus drawing on already-established language. Together, the translation and analysis of the Levanto (1766) Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary poems illustrate how language was used as a tool for evangelization in colonial Oaxaca, Mexico while at the same time constituting a means of resistance to total assimilation through its facilitation of the blending of Christianity with pre-existing Zapotec language and culture.
Keywords
linguistics, Zapotec, translation, Oaxaca, Mexico
Recommended Citation
Chan, Lillian E. , '26, "Colonial Christianity: The Language of Evangelization Through the Levanto 1766 Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary Poems" (2025). Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards. 1062.
https://works.swarthmore.edu/theses/1062