Call for help with Nahuat-Pipil project

[John F. Schwaller]

Date: Thu, 20 Feb 2003 08:11:09 -0800 (PST)
From: Alan King <alanrking1 at yahoo.com>
Subject: Call for help with Nahuat-Pipil project


I posted a few months ago, asking for information about the Pipil or Nahuat
or Nawat language of El Salvador. Thanks in part to the responses I
received, I made a lot of progress and achieved many of my objectives. I am
now writing once again to ask for help, but of a somewhat different kind.

I will state once again that I am a linguist with many years' experience
working mainly with European minority languages, Basque in particular.
However, I have now moved to El Salvador and have begun work on the largest
native language here, Pipil or Nahuat, which as many of you will know, is
very closely related to Nahuatl, of which some consider it to be a dialect.

The project I am involved in aims specifically to create a series of
children's teaching materials of/in Nahuat. In a more general way, of
course, the objective is to contribute significantly to the language's
revitalization, which is in imminent danger of extinction as the last
fluent speakers pass away. To be able to achieve both of these ends, much
work needs to be done (on extremely limited resources!) in a variety of
fields, including linguistic research since the language is still
imperfectly documented.

The project I am involved in is still in the earliest stage but plans are
fairly ambitious. We hope to involve a number of people, both native Pipils
and other specialists who may be able and willing to contribute some of
their time, expertise and work to this worthy cause. The project has
institutional support and interest from a variety of quarters, including
indigenous, national and international organisations.

If anybody reading this message thinks they might be able to help, please
drop me a line (probably privately would be best) in either English or
Spanish, and I will be glad to discuss further. All kinds of assistance
will be useful, but I was thinking in particular of: a) anybody who has
actually worked on Pipil/Nahuat; b) possibly Nahuatl specialists who think
their linguistic knowledge may be relevant to research on Nahuat; c)
anybody with experience in projects of a similar nature concerning other
languages who would like to share their wisdom.

Many regards,

Dr. Alan R. King (Universidad Don Bosco, Soyapango, El Salvador)
Alan King <alanrking1 at yahoo.com>