Fighting the odds to keep Indian tongues alive (fwd link)

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Fighting the odds to keep Indian tongues alive

By FRANK BAJAK (AP) – 2 hours ago
Google News

HUAMPAMI, Peru — In his first year at San Marcos University, Hermenegildo Espejo
barely spoke, and certainly not in class.

His Spanish was rudimentary, his accent an embarrassment. Classmates in Lima, a
two-day trip from his Amazon home town, laughed at his grammatical stumbles,
his odd pronunciation.

"I didn't understand anything. I couldn't pronounce words well," the 22-year-old
Peruvian Indian recalls, wincing as he gazes out a taxi window on a rutted
jungle road near his home.

Six years later, Espejo is a thesis away from an undergraduate degree in
linguistics at Peru's top public university. And while his Spanish is now
excellent, it is not his priority. He aspires to produce the first unified
grammar of Awajun, his native tongue.

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