KU Linguist Documents Dying Mayan Language (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

KU Linguist Documents Dying Mayan Language
Posted Monday, August 21, 2006 :: infoZine Staff

With $315,000 federal grant

Lawrence, Kan. - infoZine - Ch'utyaty. Uj-ch'ujña'. Chan.

These words for sun, moon and sky may sound unusual to native English
speakers, but for children living in Tila, Mexico, the Chol language is
first nature. The language is at least 1,000 years older than English,
but it is dying along with an estimated 3,500 other human languages.

To begin efforts to document those languages, Clifton Pye, professor of
linguistics at the University of Kansas, has received a $314,999 grant
from the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the
Humanities.

The Documenting Endangered Languages project will allow Pye to use video
and sound technology to record Chol and two other languages spoken by
children in Mayan communities in Guatemala: Mam, in San Ildefonso
Ixtahuacan, and Q'anjob'al, in Santa Eulalia.

"The documentation of children learning these endangered languages will
preserve a unique product of human intellectual achievement as well as
support a deeper understanding of how children acquire language," Pye
said while on expedition in Guatemala.

Pye said those communities are undergoing rapid political and economic
changes. Those modern influences are leading to the extinction of their
language.

"At present, many men between 17 and 40 years of age have migrated to
the United States from towns and villages throughout Mexico and
Guatemala," said Pye. "The last decade has brought a greater intrusion
of Spanish into remote Mayan communities in the form of satellite and
cable television programming."

Pye said the research presents challenges for him and his group of
researchers, often in danger of bandits and major storms.

"We persist in this endeavor because each investigator recognizes the
inherent scientific importance of documenting language development for
the first time in their communities," he said.

The National Science Foundation and National Endowment for the
Humanities gave more than $5 million in awards in 12 fellowships and 22
institutional grants to document more than 50 languages.

Article link:
http://www.infozine.com/news/stories/op/storiesView/sid/17230/