UCLA Language Materials Project

[Mike Salovesh]

Grant Barrett wrote:
>
> This is from the Scout Report http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/
>
> UCLA Language Materials Project http://www.lmp.ucla.edu/default.htm
>
> The Language Materials Project Website from UCLA provides
> learning materials for Less Commonly Taught Languages throughout the
> world. The site categorizes more than 3,500 resources covering 80
> languages, allowing users to specify the language and the type of
> resource they are seeking.

I salute the UCLA Language Materials Project: they're doing work that is
of major value, and they're doing it well.  What follows is less a
complaint than it is a suggestion for where they might next turn their
attention.

On visiting their site on the Web, I found the contrast between their
self-description and their actual practice somewhat jarring. They  say
that they are "Committed to helping you locate teaching and learning
materials for Less Commonly Taught Languages throughout the world. . ."
So I tried to see what might be available for the Indian languages of
North, Central, or South America. Their 80 languages don't include a
single one. (They do list Haitian, by which I suppose they mean Haitian
Creole.  That makes me wonder why they don't list the English Creole of
Nicaragua's Caribbean coast, or any other New World creoles.)

It isn't as if nobody were teaching Native American languages.  The
Language Materials Project people might have done well by talking with
their UCLA colleagues associated with the UCLA Center for Latin American
Studies, for example, where they could have learned the following.

Central Mexican Nahuatl and Nahua are taught at universities in the U.S.
and Mexico.  Excellent materials for teaching Nahuatl, which has served
as a kind of lingua franca in many parts of Mesoamerica for centuries,
have been published by the U of Texas Press.

In the Mayan family, Robert Laughlin has published a great series of
books through the Smithsonian Institution that provide massive resources
for teaching the variety of Tzotzil spoken in Zinacantan, Chiapas,
Mexico.  Laughlin's "Great  Dictionary" of Zinacanteco Tzotzil is a
masterpiece, and his introdctory sections on how he made that dictionary
ought to be required reading for anyone who is thinking of committing
the sin of lexicography. (Largely because Bob Laughlin made it happen,
there now is a growing body of literature written by native speakers of
Tzotzil, published with the help of Cultural Survival, among other
organizations.)

As for other languages of the Mayan family, I know of U.S., Mexican, and
Guatemalan university courses in Yucatec, Quiche, Cakchikel, and
Kek'chi. There are extensive materials, including textbooks, word lists,
grammars, films, and audio recordings which can be used in teaching
these languages.  (They are hard to find, and it would be a great help
to would-be teachers to have some good, central listing of what is
available and how to get hold of it for each language.)

Quechua is widely spoken, and widely taught, in several countries along
the west coast of South America.  Guarani is said to be so ubiquitous in
Paraguay that it's spoken as a second language by many members of the
middle and upper classes.

I cite this handful of the many languages of the Americas to encourage
the UCLA Language Materials Project to work on fulfilling their promise
of dealing with languages throughout the world.

-- mike salovesh           <salovesh at niu.edu>                PEACE !!!

P.S.:  Thanks to Grant Barrett for reminding the list of the Scout
Project. Their service is a fantastic help in bringing obscure sites to
public attention, and in providing enough information about those sites
that we can make informed choices about which ones to visit.