Mexico compiles visual dictionaries of indigenous languages (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

Mexico compiles visual dictionaries of indigenous languages

www.chinaview.cn 2005-03-18 10:01:46
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-03/18/content_2712873.htm

    MEXICO CITY, March 17 (Xinhuanet) -- The old Indian languages and
dialects of the different indigenous groups living in Mexico are being
collected by linguists of the National Anthropology and History
Institute (INAH) and included in visual trilingual dictionaries.

    The INAH said on Thursday in a statement that these dictionaries
will contain Spanish and English translations to indigenous languages,
combined with images.

    By the end of the year, there will be dictionaries for the languages
of Chontal (which is spoken in Tabasco), Oreme (in northMexico),
Zapoteco (in Juchitan, Oaxaca), Popoluca and Tepehua (in Veracruz),
Huastec (in Veracruz, San Luis Potosi), Nahuatl (in central Mexico),
Tepehuan (in north Nayarit and south Sinaloa), Mame (in Chiapas) and
Chichimeco Jonaz (in Guanajuato). Only 800 people speak Chichimeco
Jonaz.

    Linguist Benjamin Perez said that in average each of the
dictionaries will contain 4,000 terms "that illustrate the
presentvitality of the language and its users," as well as manners to
approach everyday life of the different ethnic groups.

    A seminar on visual dictionaries is underway in Mexico City,
to"attain a reappraisal of the Indian languages and to make their users
aware of the languages' importance, beauty and complexity," according to
the expert.

    The project is supported by the National Autonomous University of
Mexico, the Latin Union and the Pompeu Fabra University of Barcelona of
Spain. Enditem