Regina woman seeks to save language (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

Regina woman seeks to save language
Pamela Cowan

Regina Leader-Post
Saturday, May 15, 2004
http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/features/onlineextras/story.html?id=50657340-e16a-4e79-b8f4-338fbbfc3f37

REGINA -- Lindsay Weichel left for Guatemala this week to help preserve
an endangered Mayan language and way of life.

"The preservation of Indian languages is vitally important," said
Weichel. "If you lose the language, then the culture dies, too. You
lose an entire way of thinking. You don’t just lose grammar; you lose
an entire way of describing the world around you."

Now that she’s completed the first year of her master’s degree in
linguistics at the First Nations University of Canada, Weichel is
enthused about exploring Pokomchi, a Mayan language she will learn from
native speakers in San Cristobal.

"There’s never been work done on this language in English," she said. "I
will be writing a description of the language’s grammar. The only data
available to me in Canada about Pokomchi was this old grammar written
70 years ago by a priest who didn’t really know anything about
linguistics, so he kind of compared it to Latin and it’s not alike at
all."

Documenting Pokomchi grammar will form the basis for Weichel’s master’s
thesis. She speaks Spanish, so she will look for an interpreter
bilingual in Spanish and Pokomchi and enlist his help in interviewing
two or three native speakers.

She’ll begin by learning culturally significant words that have one
meaning - such as man, woman, corn or water.

"You start with words so that you can get all the sounds, all the
consonants and vowels that make up the language and then, after that,
we’ll go on to phrases," she said.

Guatemala’s high level of illiteracy poses some challenges.

"If you’re illiterate, it changes the way you view language - it changes
the way you view sounds and spellings," she said.

The 22-year-old received a $17,500 grant from Social Sciences and
Humanities Research Council of Canada and $4,000 from the University of
Regina. A portion of the money will be used to pay each speaker $10 a
day, the standard rate of pay for speakers.

English-speaking missionaries working in Guatemala helped arrange
accommodations for Weichel with a local family. Prior to leaving for
Guatemala earlier this week, she tried to prepare for culture shock.

"I’m a really conservative dresser, but I had to buy a whole new
wardrobe because I’m not conservative enough," she said. "All my
clothes must be below the knee so, out of respect, I bought a bunch of
new skirts and capri pants."

Once Weichel completes her master’s thesis, she plans to return to
Guatemala.

"I want to do my PhD on the same language - they need a dictionary so,
hopefully, I’ll get to work on that. You can’t write a dictionary until
you understand the grammar."


© Regina Leader-Post 2004