Semi-literate scribes or initiators of Andean bilingual Spanish: The case of the copyist of Cristóbal de Molina

This paper intends to show that a close reading of the only copy available of the manuscript Account of the Fables and Rites of the Incas (Ritos fábulas de los incas), written originally by Cristóbal de Molina, makes it evident that the Spanish used by his anonymous copyst could well belong to an incipient and semiliterate scribal. In order to support this hypothesis, four issues are discussed: the constant gaps in the process of copying, the blunders in reading the Spanish text, the difficulties in identifying Quechua words, and the evidence showing the bilingual Spanish of the copyist.