Nahuatl programs throughout the world

[David Wright]

John:

The heading of your message says "Nahuatl programs in the US," while your
message seems to imply a wider scope. I wrote the following description
before I noticed the phrase "in the US." I considered deleting what I had
written, but then decided to send it on, hoping other colleagues working in
Mexico or in other nations will follow suit, so we can get a more accurate
picture of the teaching of Nahuatl throughout the world. After all,
international borders aren't particularly relevant to teaching and research
(except when Latin American colleagues are denied U.S. visas when they try
to attend a conference in this country, which sadly I've seen happen more
than once).

I've been teaching Nahuatl, specifically the translation of early colonial
documents from Nahuatl to Spanish, in the undergraduate program in History
at the Universidad de Guanajuato, since January 2005. At first the class was
a one-semester course called "Lectura del Náhuatl." When we reformed the
History curriculum in 2007 (the new version being implemented in August
2008), the Nahuatl program was expanded, becoming one of three options (with
Latin and Greek) for accrediting "Lengua Clásica I" and "Lengua Clásica II,"
required of first-year history students. Other participants include students
from other departments and graduate students who need to learn Nahuatl as
part of their thesis or dissertation projects.

Most of the content of "Lengua Clásica I" is grammar; the lessons can be
found in my book "Lectura del náhuatl: fundamentos para la traducción de los
textos en náhuatl del periodo Novohispano Temprano," which began as class
notes and was published in 2007 by the Instituto Nacional de Lenguas
Indígenas. (A revised and expanded version is now in the hands of a
potential publisher; please wish me luck.) In "Lengua Clásica II" the
students work as a team, selecting a chapter from the Florentine Codex and
undertaking a word-by-word phonological and morphological analysis on
five-column tables, then use the results to produce a less literal and more
literary translation. They have the English translation by Dibble and
Anderson to lean on, but this doesn't save them from having to break down
each word into its constituent morphemes to see how it works, explaining any
morphophonological changes. It took me a few years to work out an effective
method for teaching Nahuatl to Spanish translation, but I now find that the
students who show up regularly and do the homework manage to acquire the
skills needed to produce reasonably accurate translations by the end of the
second semester.

Best regards,

David Wright
Departamento de Historia
División de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades
Campus Guanajuato
Universidad de Guanajuato

-----Mensaje original-----
De: nahuatl-bounces at lists.famsi.org [mailto:nahuatl-bounces at lists.famsi.org]
En nombre de IDIEZ
Enviado el: jueves, 01 de septiembre de 2011 19:33
Para: nahuatl at lists.famsi.org
Asunto: [Nahuat-l] Nahuatl programs in the US

Piyali listeros,
	Administrators at Yale are interested in knowing what Nahuatl
programs exist at other universities. Normally I would say, “Reply off
list,“ but I think everyone would like to know exactly where Nahuatl is
being taught.
John

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