{"id":404,"date":"2012-11-08T11:43:33","date_gmt":"2012-11-08T16:43:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/research\/?p=404"},"modified":"2019-11-20T11:51:59","modified_gmt":"2019-11-20T16:51:59","slug":"preserving-indigenous-languages-in-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bsu.edu\/research\/2012\/11\/08\/preserving-indigenous-languages-in-mexico\/","title":{"rendered":"Preserving Indigenous Languages in Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"

What is of human derivation, reflective of the richness of a culture, often elusive\u2014not recorded, and according to the National Geographic Society\u2019s\u00a0Enduring Voices Project<\/em><\/a>, disappearing at the rate of one every 14 days? The endangered languages of our planet.<\/p>\n

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Cover of \u00bfChu aj\u00edn an min\u00e1ti? \/ \u00bfEs una tortuga tu mam\u00e1? English translation: Is Your Mother a Turtle?<\/p><\/div>\n

The survival of languages, which allow us rare and fragile glimpses into a culture, is dependent on linguists working to preserve them. Carolyn MacKay and Frank Trechsel professors in the\u00a0Department of English<\/a>, are doing just that.<\/p>\n

\u201cLanguage encodes all sorts of cultural knowledge. It includes songs, stories, origin myths, and all sorts of vocabulary that is unique to a specific town, ecosystem, and environment,\u201d says MacKay.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of that information about the culture is tied up in the language. You cannot really study another culture through translation because it is the original language that reveals the culture. From the community standpoint, loss of a native language very frequently entails loss of native culture as well.\u201d MacKay began her research on endangered languages during her master\u2019s work at the\u00a0Universidad de las Am\u00e9ricas<\/a>\u00a0in Cholula, Mexico. She then pursued a doctorate in linguistics at the\u00a0University of Texas<\/a>, where she first began her research on the Mexican Indian languages\u2014Misantla Totonac and Pisaflores Tepehua. Trechsel began working on indigenous languages of the Americas with research on Quiche Maya, the subject of his University of Texas dissertation.<\/p>\n

Since 1988, MacKay and Trechsel have been working together to produce materials that will help native speakers of Totonac and Tepehua languages maintain their language and culture.<\/p>\n

This process of language documentation and preservation is laborious. Since 1999, MacKay and Trechsel have spent every summer in Puebla and Veracruz, Mexico, compiling vocabulary and phrase lists and recording as much about the languages as possible.<\/p>\n

After several weeks of recording, they begin the arduous task of data transcription and analysis. They estimate that, for every 10 minutes of oral recording, it takes roughly six hours working with native speakers to transcribe it accurately and completely.<\/p>\n

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Cover of Jon paataa’wan\u00e1’ qa’t\u00edilh waalh jon pavore\u00e1l \/ ‘El tapacamino y el pavo real’ English translation: The Peacock and the Whip-poor-will.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThese are unwritten languages, many of which haven\u2019t been described or documented at all,\u201d says Trechsel. \u201cSeveral of them are endangered in the sense that this is probably the last generation of native speakers. We\u2019re trying to produce materials that will encourage the members of these communities to preserve and maintain their languages for future generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through the production of bilingual Totonac-Spanish and Tepehua-Spanish children\u2019s books, MacKay and Trechsel have been able to share their work with the communities where these languages are spoken. They have focused on publishing traditional stories and folktales and have developed orthographies in both languages for practical and educational use. One of their primary language consultants in Pisaflores, Agust\u00edn Santiago Cuervo, provided the color illustrations. To date, five children’s books have been produced and are being employed in both homes and schools in the communities of Yecuatla and Pisaflores, Veracruz:<\/p>\n

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