The language policy carried out by the colonial administration of hispanic America is directly linked to the catechism of the Catholic Church. When the decision of which languages to use for catechism was taken (in this case the general languages) a debate arose among the missionary orders about whether or not these languages were able to transmit the Christian doctrine. The evangelization process brought about the production of grammar books, bilingual dictionaries and spelling suggestions for these languages. This article focuses on the translation policies defined by the Church Councils. These included the resemanticization of ethnic terms defining the Entities and andean religious practices. The Spanish translation of lexical entries in dictionaries of that period, as well as the adoption of certain Spanish words into indigenous languages, reveal the nature of the demonizing process that was carried out.
translation; translation; linguistic historiography; lexicography; indian languages; linguistic politics
