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ANTECEDENTS
The Nahuatl Learning
Environment is a long-term project on Nahuatl language and culture in
the Balsas River Valley of central Guerrero, Mexico. The project director
is Jonathan D. Amith
GRANTS
Generous support was
provided by the U.S. Department of Education, International Research
and Studies Program (2001; grant P017A010051 for 2002-3), for the
preparation of the online dictionary and sound files. The preparation
of sound files was also supported by a Foundation for the Advancement
of Mesoamerica Studies grant "A cultural and pedagogical lexicography
of modern Nahuatl" (2001). Continuing support for development of
pedagogical tools for teaching Nahuatl has been provided by Yale University,
Council on Latin American and Iberian Studies and the University
of Chicago, Center for Latin American Studies, both through
their respective Title VI National Resource Center programs for Latin
America, funded by the U.S. Department of Education. Corpus material
development (both digital recording and transcription) has been supported
by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0504164 (2005-8)
and by the institutions listed in the following paragraph.
Educational and outreach
work in Nahuatl communities, particularly the development of material
that for use in bilingual schools and the training of native speakers
in language documentation activities in San Agustín Oapan, Ameyaltepec,
and neighboring villages has been supported by two Ford Foundation
grants: "Nahuatl Language Documentation and Literacy" (2002)
and "Community and School Outreach for Nahuatl Education and Literacy."
Initial outreach activities among native speakers was supported by the
Fideicomiso para la Cultura México/USA for the "Nahuatl
Transcultural Learning Project" (2001).
Ethnobotanical work
was first supported by the Hewlett Foundation, through the University
of Chicago Center for Latin American Studies (2000-3). Subsequent
work has been supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities
Fellowship (2002) and the National Science Foundation under Grant
No. 0504164 (2005-8). The Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerica
Studies has supported work in ethnobotany and zoology under the grant
"Nahuatl Cultural Encyclopedia: Botany and Zoology" (2004).
Beside itsinstitutional
support, the Linguistic Data Consortium, University of Pennsylvania,
has included work on Nahuatl in two grants. The first was a National
Science Foundation grant to Steven Bird for the development of Hyperlex2
(a precursor of JLex, the program now used to construct the lexicon used
on this site). Through this work the initial Website was developed and
the headwords recorded and segmented. Subsequently, funds from a U.S.
Department of Education, International Research and Studies Program
grant to the Linguistic Data Consortium (P017A050040, "Teaching and
Learning Linguistically Complex Languages", 2005) has been applied
to developing a Nahuatl corpus, morphological transducer, and graphical
interface for text annotation.
INSTITUTIONAL
SUPPORT
The Linguistic Data
Consortium, University of Pennsylvania, has provided extremely strong
support to this project, contributing funds, computational and technical
support, server space, and constant encouragement. Particular thanks are
due to Steven Bird, without who's efforts and support this project could
not have advanced. Mark Liberman and Chris Cieri were likewise instrumental
in making my one-year stay at the LDC fruitful and enjoyable. At the LDC
David Graff, Kazuaki Maeda, Andy Cole, and Kevin Walker were helpful beyond
the call of duty. To all these individuals goes my sincere appreciation.
The Yale Intensive
Nahuatl Summer Language Institute has been greatly helped by the strong
support of the Yale Council on Latin American and Iberian Studies, Yale
Summer Programs, and the University of Chicago Center for Latin Americann
Studies, all of which have contributed financial and administrative resources
not only to the Nahuatl Summer Language Institute, but to the development
of the learning tools that are here presented. Beatriz Riefkohl and Gil
Joseph at Yale's CLAIS have been overly supportive since the Summer Institute
first began as have the various directors and administrators of Chicago's
comparable program, particularly Claudio Lomnitz and Kelly Gallagher.
At Yale Summer Programs my thanks are to the present director, Bill Whobrey
and to Donna McGuire.
México-Norte
has provided excellent administrative support for the Ford Foundation
and encouragement for the continuing effort to work with indigenous communities
in Mexico on language and cultural documentation as well as community-based
education. Greta de León, executive director of México-Norte,
has made the acceptance of the Ford Foundation grant possible. Bill Merrill's
work in the Tarahumara has provided a constant inspiration for the work
I am undertaking here.
NAHUATL
CONSULTANTS AND RECORDINGS
My greatest debt is
to the many individuals in Ameyaltepec, San Agustín Oapan, and
neighboring villages who have taught me their language over many years.
During my initial stay in Ameyaltepec my principal teachers were Pánfilo
Lorenzo, Luis Lucena, and Gabriel de la Cruz, all deceased. Living space
was lent to me by Juan Celedonio and Honorio Jiménez. In Oapan
my teacher has been Florencia Marcelino. Victórico Jiménez
generously delayed moving into his house for over a year when I lived
there.
The sound recordings
of headwords linked to this dictionary were made by Florencia Marcelino
and her husband Inocencio Jiménez (both of Oapan) and by Cristino
Flores (Ameyaltepec).
NAHUATL
LANGUAGE DOCUMENTATION AND LITERACY TEAM
The Ford Foundation
has supported the development of a Nahuatl Language Documentation and
Literacy Workshop. Participants in this workshop include Inocencio Díaz
(Ameyaltepec), Roberto Mauricio (Oapan), Emiliana Domínguez (Oapan),
and Jeremías Cabrera. At different times Uriel Guerrero and Floresta
Domínguez also participated.
COMPUTATION
AND DESIGN
Jonthan Dick was the
major developer of the computational infrastructure for the Nahuatl Learning
Environment: Lexicon. This includes a program designed to convert Shoebox
files (exported to XML) to MySQL and then to query the database and produce
the output that appears on the screen. His help has been invaluable.He
also designed the XSLT templates for the display of the XML database.
Mike Maxwell has produced the morphological transducer (using the Xerox
Finite State Toolkit) that generates inflectional paradigms and parsers
words. These projects are ongoing.
The home page, the
head pages for the Lexicon, Grammar, and Encyclopedia; and the Botany
& Zoology page were designed by Jun Lee when he was a graduate student
at Yale University. They have only been slightly altered as the overall
content changes. An attempt has been made to continue his excellent design
ideas throughout the NLE. The Botany Family Index page and subsequent
pages in this section are being designed by Jennifer Fairman in part on
the basis of ideas suggested by Jun Lee's original designs for the higher
levels and J. Amith's input in art selection. The Stories section of the
NLE : Encyclopedia was designed by J. Amith.
ARTWORK
Artwork is credited
on the individual pages.
PHOTOGRAPHY
The photographs, unless
otherwise indicated, are by Jonathan Amith. No photographs may be used
for commercial purposes.
BOTANY
FIELDWORK AND IDENTIFICATION
An initial collection
was carried out from 15 Sept. to 15 Oct. 2001. The Nahuatl language consultants
during this period were Silvestre Pantaleón (Oapan), Asención
Marcelo (San Juan Tetelcingo), and Inocencio Díaz and
Honorio de la Rosa (Ameyaltepec). The field botanists were Eduardo
Domínguez and Geoff Hall. A subsquent field session
was carried out in August 2003 with the botanist Jorge Rojas. Nahuatl
consultants were Artimio Domínguez, Joaquín Herrera, Roberto
Mauricio, Avelino Nava, and Silvestre Pantaleón (all of Oapan)
and Faustino Claudio, Inocencio Díaz, Faustino Claudio, and Honorio
de la Rosa (all of Ameyaltepec). Nelly Diego of the Facultad de
Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, is the
expert on Guerrero flora and has been a constant help throughout the botany
project. Determinations of species were provided by the following individuals:
Pedro Acevedo (Smithsonian, Sapindaceae); Christiane Anderson
(U. Michigan, Malpighiaceae: Galphimia); William Anderson
(U. Michigan, Malpighiaceae); L. Aragón and A. Carillo
(COTECOCA, Poaceae) Sandy Atkins (Kew, Verbenaceae); Dan Austin
(Florida Atlantic University and The Desert Museum, Colvolvulaceae); Susan
Barber (U. Oklahoma, Verbenaceae); Paul Berry (U. of Wisconsin,
Euphorbiaceae); C. C. Berg (Oslo, Moraceae, Urticaceae); Attila
Borhidi (UNAM, Rubiaceae); Manuel Castro (UNAM, Colvolvulaceae);
Robert Bye (UNAM, Solanaceae); Robert W. Cruden (University
of Iowa, Iriridaceae and Alliaceae); R. Cruz (UNAM, Leguminosae);
Douglas Daly (NYBG, Burseraceae); Tom Daniels (California Institute
of Science, Acanthaceae); Nelly Diego (UNAM, Apocynaceae, Bombacaceae,
Cyperaceae, Hydrophyllaceae, and others); Valentina Diego-Escobar
(UNAM, Mimosaceae); Eduardo Domínguez (UNAM, various); V.
Diego-Escobar (UNAM, Mimosaceae); Larry Dorr (Smithsonian,
Sterculiaceae); Vern Durkee (Cornell, Acanthaceae); Robert Faden
(Smithsonian, Commelinaceae); G. Flores (UNAM, Caesalpiniaceae);
M. Flores (UAM, Bromeliaceae); Rosa María Fonseca
(UNAM, Acanthaceae, Anacardiaceae, Celastraceae, Cuscutaceae, Flacourtiaceae,
Fouquieriaceae, Hernandiaceae, Loasaceae, Onagraceae, Sapindaceae, Sapotaceae,
Urticaceae); Paul Fryxell (U. Texas, Austin, Bombacaceae, Malvaceae,
Sterculiaceae); Abisaí García (UNAM, Agavaceae);
Beatriz González (UNAM, Asteraceae and Aristolochiaceae);
Socorro González (Univ. Durango, Cyperaceae, gen. Eleocharis),
María Goreti Campos-Ríos (Centro de Investigación
Científica de Yucatán, Boraginaceae); Shirley Graham
(MOBOT, Lythraceae); Martha Gual (UNAM, Tiliaceae); Ray
Harley (Kew, Lamiaceae); Andrew Henderson (NYBG, Aracaceae);
Colin Hughes (Oxford, Leguminosea: Leucaena); Hugh Iltis
(U. of Wisconsin, Capparaceae); Robert Kiger (Hunt Institute
for Botanical Documentation, Papaveraceae); Jaime Jiménez (UNAM,
Euphorbiaceae); Larry Kelly (NYBG, Aristolochiaceae); Job Kuijt
(Univ. of Victoria, Loranthaceae); André Laurênio
de Melo (Univ. Federal Rural de Pernambuco, Euphorbiaceae: Sebastiania);
(Ron Liesner (MBOT, Flacourtiaceae, Rhamnaceae, Ulmaceae); Esther
León Velasco (UNAM, Malpighiaceae); Gwilym Lewis (Kew,
Leguminosea: Caesalpinioideae); Lúcia Lohmann (MBOT, Bignoniaceae);
Julio Lombardi (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Vitaceae);
David Lorence (NTBG, Rubiaceae); Lucio Lozada (UNAM, Asclepiadaceae,
Caesalpiniaceae, Caricaceae, Hernandiaceae, Loranthaceae, Meliaceae, Moringaceae,
Nyctaginaceae, Opiliaceae, Passifloraceae, Polygonaceae, Rhamnaceae, Rosaceae,
Sterculiaceae, Zygophyllaceae); Harry Luther (Bromeliad Identification
Center, Bromeliaceae); John MacDougal (MBot, Passifloraceae);
D. Martínez-Bernal (UNAM, Mimosa, gen.); Martha Martínez
(UNAM, Euphorbiacea); Zenaida Martínez Torres (UNAM, Bignoniaceae);
Andrew McDonald (U. Texas, Colvolvulaceae); Rosalinda Medina
Flores (UNAM, Burseraceae); John Mickel (NYBG, Pteridaceae);
John Mitchell (NYBG, Anacardiaceae); Robbin Moran (NYBG,
Pteridaceae); Lytton Musselman (Old Dominion University, Cuscutaceae);
Cecilia Navarro (UNAM, Lythraceae); Michael Nee (NYBG, Cucurbitaceae,
Solanaceae); Helga Ochotorena-Booth (UNAM, Fabaceae); José
Panero (U. Texas, Asteraceae); Terry Pennington (Kew, Sapotaceae,
Meliaceae); Susana Peralta (UNAM, Verbenaceae); Paul Peterson
(Smithsonian Institution, Poaceae); Armando Ponce (UNAM, Malvaceae);
Duncan Porter (Virginia Tech, Zygophyllaceae); Lucen Raz (NYBG,
Dioscoreaceae); Heimo Rainer (Universität Wien, Annonaceae);
(Lourdes Rico (Kew, Leguminosae); Jorge Fernando Rojas Gutierrez
(UNAM, Asteraceae, Scrophulariaceae); Leia Scheinvar (UNAM, Cactaceae);
Beryl Simpson (U. Texas, Krameriaceae); Mario Sousa (UNAM,
Caesalpiniaceae, Fabaceae, Mimosaceae); Richard Spellenberg (NMSU,
Nyctaginaceae); Warren Stevens (MBOT, Asclepiadaceae); Charlotte
Taylor (MBOT, Rubiaceae); Leticia Torres-Colín (UNAM,
Fabaceae); Gordon Tucker (Cyperaceae); Susana Valencia (UNAM,
Fagaceae: Quercus); Cássio van den Berg (Universidade
Estadual de Feira de Santana, Orchidaceae); Grady Webster (Univ.
California, Davis, Euphorbiaceae); and Ernesto Velázquez
(UNAM, Pteridaceae, Selaginellaceae).
ORNITHOLOGY
Initial identifications
were carried out with specimens in the Museo Zoológico, Facultad
de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, with
Nahuatl consultants Roberto Mauricio and Epifanio Ramírez (Oapan)
and Cristino Flores and Honorio de la Rosa (Ameyaltepec). Adolfo Navarro,
an expert on Guerrero avefauna, organized the sessions and selected from
the collection those specimens most likely to be found in the Balsas River
valley. Subsequently field identifications were made with a team from
the UNAM and, subsequently, by Manuel Grosselet.
ENTOMOLOGY
Identification of
approximately 120 insect specimens is being coordinated by Alonso García
Aldretete, an entomologist at the Instituto de Biología, Universidad
Nacional Autónoma de México.
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