Tojolabal (SIL CODE: toj) (Maya) Language Documentation Project

University Of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia MO

Investigators

Abstract

Tojolabal Maya is spoken by several thousand people in the Chiapas state of Mexico, near the border with Guatemala. Although still vital, the language is subject to many pressures. Many of the speakers have moved to urban centers in Mexico and the U.S., some by choice, some due to social and political conflicts. Both groups often abandon their native tongue. With support from National Science Foundation, Dr. N. Louanna Furbee will establish a Tojolabal Language Documentation Center and train a community-based Tojolabal team to document the language. Linguists from abroad and native speakers will collaborate directly, intertwining their understandings of linguistic phenomena from different but mutually informative perspectives. Workshops given by visiting experts, including indigenous scholars, will impart the skills of language documentation and linguistic analysis. This Center will provide new educational opportunities for community members who have had limited access to formal education in the past. Later, the primary team will establish secondary centers in selected Tojolabal communities through which they can extend this education to other speakers. By establishing literacy programs, literary activities, research projects, and language documentation efforts, the team hopes to increase the profile of the language and the perceived value of speaking it.