Doña Bárbara - Vocabulary questions

Question

En la paneta gobierna el patrón, viejo baquiano de los ríos y caños de la llanura apureña, con la diestra en la horqueta de la espadilla, atento al riesgo de las chorreras que se forman por entre los carameros que obstruyen el cauce, vigilante al aguaje que denunciare la presencia de algún caimán en acecho.

From what I understand, the beginning is describing a man who steers and has control of the boat in the paneta, and he is like a guide that is very familiar with the river and the caños (which I read are wetlands?). I just cannot figure out what "apureña" means. I tried the translation tool here, and it gave me "Apure plains" for "llanura apureña". I would think if it were a place, "apureña" would be capitalized.

The next part where it says that he is attentive to the risk of chorreras (which the dictionary says are like waterfalls or places where the water runs much faster due to some decline?) that form in the carameros. That has to be some part of the river, but I cannot find it in the dictionary.

Any help would be great!

Thank you guys! All of you were a great help. :D - NikkiLR, Aug 25, 2010

Answer 1

I didn't look at exactly what this PDF is. I ran across it googling your words. Anyway, if you look at the footnotes on the bottom of page 5 and page 6 (Part 1) those terms ( paneta, chorreras, carameros), are defined. Also if you read farther down on page 6 from where your text is, you will see Apure capitalized as if it were the name of a place.

Hope this helps. I was too lazy to figure out if this is an e-book of the novela or what.

Doña Barbara

Oops! You can't direct link to pdf's. Plug this URL into your browser navigation bar. Looking at the URL it should take you right to where it found your text. You might find this copy with footnotes useful in your reading.

http://books.google.com/books?id=cBaP05BMdDIC&pg=PA6&lpg=PA6&dq=río+caramero+chorreras&source=bl&ots=K4gmk1yW7D&sig=M-7OWF0od_WDX6dMgnrSRkLPClQ&hl=en&ei=hm11TMnlMoPGlQek5bnRAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q&f;=false

Yes, it did help out. Thank you very much! - NikkiLR, Aug 25, 2010

I was reading it from a different site, but the one you found is so much better with the footnotes! That will really make things so much more easy. :D - NikkiLR, Aug 25, 2010

Answer 2

Hi;

I search in the rae and find what Apureña means, and it's a adjetive, Gentilitious. well even when spanish is my mother tongue this text is very complicated because is too regional, but almost all that you think is right. i think if there is someone from Venezuela in the forum maybe he could give you a better translation.

Saludos

Ahh... now "llaura apuerña" makes sense. Thank you. - NikkiLR, Aug 25, 2010

Answer 3

The word "apureña" is from the State of Apure, in Venezuela. In Spanish we do NOT capitalize nationalities or similar words, so it should be lower case.

The word "caño" is a word used for a kind of river. This meaning is used only in Venezuela.

Chorrera is similar to stream (of water)

"Carameros" is probably related to El Caramero, another place in Venezuela, but I am not sure.

Whatever you are reading is very advanced (even for the average native) and contains too many references that are likely to be unknown outside of Venezuela.

That is true... the auther is from Venezuela, but they say that this is one of the best works of literature, so I figured I would give it a try. .) - NikkiLR, Aug 25, 2010