An Online Nahuatl Lexical Database: Bridging Past, Present, and Future Speakers

FAIN: PD-50010-09

University of Oregon (Eugene, OR 97403-5219)
Stephanie G. Wood (Project Director: December 2008 to December 2013)

The preparation of a multilingual dictionary of the Nahuatl language.

With years of experience collaborating on the Nahuatl language and managing large grants, the Wired Humanities Project at the University of Oregon and academic teams in Mexico are proposing to create a multilingual, no-cost, Nahuatl lexical database with unparalleled dimensions. The database will include the first-ever monolingual dictionary of Nahuatl with its own online interface. We are choosing Eastern Huastecan Nahuatl for the core dictionary because it will serve the largest number of living Nahuatl speakers, but also because we can enhance it with comparisons that will serve speakers of other endangered dialects of the language. We will also provide Spanish translations that bilingual speakers can offer and access through an additional online interface. To this modern Nahuatl written material we will add Classical examples, extracting attestations from recently published colonial manuscripts and studies of the same, with their Spanish and English translations and commentaries. It is our sincere goal to bridge the gap between Modern and Classical Nahuatl and bolster native speakers' literacy and access to the unparalleled cultural legacy that potentially thousands of manuscripts written in Nahuatl can represent. Finally, this lexical database will have the enhancement of audio files pulled from focus group discussions where university students who are native speakers come together to consider word usage and meanings across dialects and capture vital contextualizing language and ethnographic examples.

Associated Products

Nahuatl Dictionary (Web Resource)
Title: Nahuatl Dictionary
Author: Stephanie Wood
Author: John Sullivan
Author: Eduardo de la Cruz Cruz
Author: Abelardo de la Cruz de la Cruz
Author: Delfina de la Cruz de la Cruz
Author: Victoriano de la Cruz Cruz
Author: Sabina Cruz de la Cruz
Author: Ofelia Cruz Morales
Author: Catalina Cruz de la Cruz
Author: Manuel de la Cruz Cruz
Abstract: An open-access trilingual (Nahuatl, English, and Spanish) dictionary of early and contemporary Nahuatl. The early Nahuatl includes primarily examples from manuscripts from the central highlands of Mexico. The contemporary Nahuatl is primarily Eastern Huastecan Nahuatl, with a focus on the contributions of native speakers from Chicontepec, Veracruz.
Year: 2007
Primary URL: http://whp.uoregon.edu/dictionaries/nahuatl/index.lasso
Primary URL Description: This URL is subject to change, possibly to another URL at the University of Oregon, and possibly off campus.

Tlahtolxitlauhcayotl; Chicontepec, Veracruz (Book)
Title: Tlahtolxitlauhcayotl; Chicontepec, Veracruz
Author: John Sullivan
Author: Eduardo de la Cruz Cruz
Author: Abelardo de la Cruz de la Cruz
Author: Delfina de la Cruz de la Cruz
Author: Victoriano de la Cruz Cruz
Author: Sabina Cruz de la Cruz
Author: Ofelia Cruz Morales
Author: Catalina Cruz de la Cruz
Author: Manuel de la Cruz Cruz
Abstract: This is a monolingual dictionary of contemporary Eastern Huastecan Nahuatl. The same dictionary is a part of our online, open-access Nahuatl Dictionary, but this version is intentionally monolingual, directed toward native speakers.
Year: 2016
Publisher: IDIEZ and University of Warsaw, Faculty of "Artes Liberales"
Type: Other
ISBN: 978-83-63636-5
Copy sent to NEH?: No

Early Nahuatl Library (Web Resource)
Title: Early Nahuatl Library
Author: Stephanie Wood
Abstract: An open-access digital collection of early Nahuatl manuscripts with images of the pages, transcriptions, and English translations. We also have some introductions and some Spanish translations. This collection was built, in part, with the idea of harvesting word usage and translations for the online Nahuatl Dictionary that was funded by the NEH-NSF Documenting Endangered Languages grant.
Year: 2013
Primary URL: http://enl.uoregon.edu
Primary URL Description: This is a website at the University of Oregon.

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