Digital Fluency & Participatory Research: The Chuxnabán Mixe Online Dictionary

1. Digital Fluency & Participatory Research: The Chuxnabán Mixe Online Dictionary Carmen Jany Cal State San Bernardino (cjany@csusb.edu) WAIL 2009

2. The Project • Trilingual (Spanish/English/Chux Mixe) multimedia online dictionary • Chuxnabán Mixe: Endangered Mexican indigenous language spoken in one village in Oaxaca • Using technology & involving the community

3. This talk • Chuxnabán Mixe • Participatory research & Web-based technology • The Online Dictionary • Challenges & Next steps • Conclusions

4. Mixe Languages • Mixe territory: 290 communities in Oaxaca, 19 municipalities • Each community with a different variety • Classification of Mixe varieties still unclear due to limited documentation • Mixe-Zoque language family • Mixe varieties differ mostly in their vowel systems (plain, aspirated, glottalized) • Very few published grammars and dictionaries of the Mixe languages

5. Chuxnabán Mixe • Spoken by 900 people in one village • Endangered Language: • Education/Literacy in Spanish • No literacy/educational materials • Limited language documentation • Migration to cities & the US • Language ideology: Spanish/English represent progress/economic growth • Fieldwork/documentation since 2006 • Orthography established in 2008

6. San Juan Bosco Chuxnabán, 2008

7. San Juan Bosco Chuxnabán, 2008

8. Canseco Family

9. Web-based technology for language documentation/maintenance • Language materials made available more widely and faster • Constant updates/corrections possible • Can include sound files and picturess • Internet has reached remote villages in Mexico (including Chuxnabán) • Attracts young people • Community and other researchers can easily participate

10. Web-based technology and Digital Fluency • Online materials promote two types of literacy • Literacy in the traditional sense: Reading & writing in Mixe • Digital Fluency: People become more comfortable using technology (Huffaker 2004; Resnick 2002)

11. Web-based technology and Participatory Action Research • Participatory Research (Benedicto et al. 2002) • Goal: Reduce the power imbalance between researcher and speaking community • How: Community members are actively involved in research with the benefit of self-empowerment • Secondary goal/effect: Foster an environment for native linguists to emerge • This project: Combines new technology with participatory action research (blog)

12. Trilingual online dictionary: Goals • (1) Document the lexicon and grammar of Chuxnabán Mixe • (2) Create literacy materials in order to facilitate language maintenance • (3) Involve the community in the process • Four main components • a) Illustration and explanation of established orthography • b) Description of phonetics and phonology to facilitate pronunciation • c) Searchable dictionary database for searches in Mixe, Spanish, English, & Semantic class • d) Blog for community members to send/post updates

13. Target audiences • Mixe community in Oaxaca • Mixes living elsewhere • Linguists/researchers working on Mixe • Technical details • Website: Dreamweaver • Dictionary Database: MySQL • Blog: www.blogspot.com • Online Dictionary http://flan.csusb.edu/~cjany/Mixe/

14. Illustration/explanation of orthography • Users literate in Spanish/English, but not Mixe • Certain sounds represented in a unique way • Main orthography page • All letters of the alphabet; each letter opens a link to another page with: • a) Set of words where letter occurs in initial, medial, and final position if applicable • b) Set of sound files linked to sample words • c) Additional explanations of how and why letter has been chosen to represent the sound

15. Description of phonetics & phonology • Links to two tables with phonemes: vowels and consonants • Tables following International Phonetic Alphabet Chart (IPA symbols) • Notes & explanations where practical orthography differs • Each symbol linked to new page with sample words and sound files • Allophones, variations of a sound, included • Tool may be less valuable for speakers, but important feature for researchers and linguists (& teachers for pronunciation)

16. Searchable Trilingual Dictionary • Users search in English, Spanish, Chuxnabán Mixe • Target word appears with corresponding two translations and is accompanied by a phonetic transcription • Each entry is also linked to an audio file and a picture • Database can also be searched by semantic category (plants, animals, food, etc) (for teachers and linguists examining word structures)

17. Blog • Community members can send updates and/or corrections • Allows community to actively engage in the language documentation process • Allows community to take control of the data contents • Community refers to people in the village and heritage speakers elsewhere • In development: needs implementation and evaluation

18. Possible additions • Description of other parts of the grammar(morphology and syntax) • Sound files from multiple speakers for each word • Examples with entire sentences where the target words are used • Page with narratives, their transcriptions and sound files, as well as explanations, if needed • Learning modules, games for pedagogical purposes

19. Technical challenges • Unicode characters • Database issues (import/export) • Blog (goes to external archive) • Other challenges • Getting the community involved • How to handle updates posted on blog

20. Conclusions • Language maintenance efforts can benefit from more active use of web-based resources • Web‑based language materials give a voice to linguistically peripheral groups • Multimedia facilitates the fast and easy acquisition of information • Project aids literacy development as well as digital fluency • Useful tool for speakers, teachers, and researchers • Project represents one possible way in which participatory research can be combined with the enhancement of digital fluency

21. References Benedicto, Elena et al. 2002. Fieldwork as a Participatory Research Activity: The Mayangna Linguistic Teams. Berkeley Linguistics Society Proceedings No. 28. 375-386. Christie, P. et al. 2000. Taking Care OfWhat We Have. Participatory Natural Resource Management On TheCaribbean Coast Of Nicaragua. Managua and Ottawa: Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo de la Costa Atalántica and International Development Research Center. Hinton, Leanne and Ken Hale. 2001. The Green Book of Language Revitalization in Practice. San Diego: Academic Press. Hoogshagen Noordsy, Searle And Hilda Halloran Hoogshagen. 1997. Diccionario Mixe de Coatlán Oaxaca. Summer Institute of Linguistics. 2nd edition (1st edition 1993). Mexico.

22. References Huffaker, D. 2004. Spinning yarns around a digital fire: Storytelling and dialogue among youth on the Internet. First Monday 9:1. INEA (Instituto Nacional para la Educación del los Adultos). 1994. Ayuk Ja’jy Y’ayuujk. Libro del Adulto, Población Mixe (Parte Baja), Oaxaca. Resnick, M. 2002. Rethinking Learning in the Digital Age. In: G. Kirkman ed. The Global Information Technology Report: Readiness for the Networked Word. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Schoenhals, Alvin and Louise C. 1982. Vocabulario Mixe de Totontepec. SIL. 2nd edition. Hidalgo, Mexico. Van Haitsma J. D. and Willard Van Haitsma. 1976. A Hierarchical Sketch of Mixe as spoken in San José El Paraíso. Summer Institute of Linguistics 44. Mexico.

23. Thank you! ¡Dios kujuuyëp!