Skip to main content

Dictionaries of indigenous languages from the Orinoco

Collection - Estate

Handwritten on the title pages of both vocabularies: “H[ernán] Feddema”(1925-2011?), Hernán Fedemma is the presumed author. Dutch Salesian priest, active in Venezuela since 1950, most latterly in Isla de Ratón and Caño Grulla. Among other things, he wrote a grammar of Piaroa and the first vocabularies of Orinoco-Parima languages..

Material: 

  • “Diccionario Piaroa - Español”. Tacked copy of typewritten pages, vocabulary Spanish - Piaroa (78 pages). Grulla and Caracas 1991. No author indicated.
  • “Diccionario Hiwi”. Tacked copy of typewritten pages (cut up), vocabulary Spanish - Hiwi (73 pages). Cano Grulla - Capuana 1992. No author indicated. 

Provenance: Donation from Sabine Duwe-Bendixen to the IAI (2019)

Keywords: Venezuela, Orinoco-Parima, De’áruwa, Piaroa, Híwi, Ethnolinguistics