Intelligibility between Nahuatl dialects

[Frances Karttunen]

To Yaoxochitl,

It's been my experience that Nahuas have been particularly hospitable and
outgoing to me and to my North American colleagues, while being quite
stand-offish to Mexicans.  You can see why.  Once one of my colleagues (who
has many ahijadas in a Nahua area) and I were waiting for a bus in a
miserable dust storm.  A couple of women who were also taking shelter
against the church atrio wall while waiting for the bus asked us if we were
out in the country looking for maids to work for us.  We explained that we
were carrying suitcases and bultos of presents for the godchildren, and
these women helped us on the bus, chatted with us, reminded the bus driver
where to let us off and hoped to meet us again.  After all, we were
traveling by second class bus just like they were.

By contrast, one day when I came back late in the afternoon, my landlady
told me how lucky I was to have been out all afternoon, because a carload of
anthropologists had come looking for me.  She had told them nothing and sent
them on their way.  It took me two days of asking around to figure out who
those anthropologists had been.

I don't know anyone who welcomes people who arrive with the intention of
studying them.  Who likes being an object of study, after all?  But if one
makes oneself useful and also reveals a genuine interest and some ability
with the language, someone usually reciprocates that interest.

Fran

----------
>From: Yaoxochitl at aol.com
>To: nahuat-l at server2.umt.edu
>Subject: Re: Intelligibility between Nahuatl dialects
>Date: Tue, May 16, 2000, 5:14 PM
>

> Mark,
>      Another factor could be that you are an outsider and for that reason,
> the majority of people would not strike up a conversation with you
> regardless of how casual it is.  First, you have to establish trust among
> your informants.  Second, it could also have something to do with your
> ethnic background, in the sense that you are regarded as a "Westerner" in
> their eyes.  Last, given the so-called social stigma attached to Nahuatl,
> could it be that they just do not care to talk to you?
>