Hippocrene dictionary

[micc2]

"... I have also sat with people in
Mexico who were explaining the proper word for coffee to me,
drink-that-prevents-sleep. I believe there is a serious attempt to
express things in Nahuatl without borrowing words. ..."

I believe that there are times when creating non "borrowed" words
becomes elitist.
Such as when the French want to get rid of  "le week end"  in French or
Spanish speakers want to use correo electronico instead of "email"
my experience has been with spanish speakers (here on the frontera) and
my Nahuatl friends from Veracruz that most people opt for the least
amount of
syllables.  Thus technology usually keeps the terms from the society it
came from (like tomatl, chocolatl in the 16th century as they went to
the rest of the world)



Robert Michael Robinson wrote:

> micc2 wrote:
>
>> My experience  has been less than  exciting.
>>
>> Since when did the Nahuas have a word for Czechoslovakia?
>> (Checotlahtocayotl)  auditorium? (nenonotzaloyan, tlacacoyan)
>> American....analyze...anthropologist....
>>
>> I think that this series of dictionaries gives the authors a certain
>> list of words that they must find a  gloss.
>>
>> You can see that the sentiment is if not universal, at least it is a
>> majority view since you can find the book on Abebooks.com for about
>> $10.00 now.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Ian Robertson wrote:
>>
>>> I expect this is old news to lots of you, but I have just become
>>> aware of a
>>> Nahuatl-English/English-Nahuatl dictionary by Fermin Herrera and
>>> published
>>> by Hippocrene books <http://www.hippocrenebooks.com> in 2003. Has
>>> anyone
>>> seen this dictionary and/or have any comments to make about it? Don't
>>> know
>>> how I missed it...
>>>
>>> Thanks, Ian
>>>
>>> Ian G. Robertson
>>> Department of Anthropology
>>> Arizona State University
>>> Tempe, AZ 85287-2402
>>>
>>> phone: 480-965-5110
>>> fax: 480-965-7671
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
> Listeros and Listeras,
> It is important to recall that Nahuatl is not a dead language.
> We may choose to emphasize Classical Nahuatl, the language is still a
> living one.
> One of the advantages of this group is that many of the members are
> doing very serious investigations of modern nahuatl.
> One of the joys of living in New York is the chance to try out my very
> broken Nahuatl while ordering a sandwich in a deli.  For these men it is
> a living language with modern words. I have also sat with people in
> Mexico who were explaining the proper word for coffee to me,
> drink-that-prevents-sleep. I believe there is a serious attempt to
> express things in Nahuatl without borrowing words.
>
> I am sure that there are scholars in this group are much more qualified
> than I to comment on this and hope we get a lively discussion going.
>
> hasta moxtla
>
> R M Robinson
>