Documenting endangered Tseltal cultural activities: an ethnographic and discursive audiovisual corpus

The Endangered Language Documentation Programme (ELDP) provides grants worldwide to for the linguistic documentation of endangered language and knowledge. Grantees create multimedia collection of endangered languages. These collections are preserved and made freely available through the Endangered Languages Archive (ELAR) housed at the library of SOAS University of London.

This project will gather an audiovisual corpus of 300 hours (100 hours transcribed and translated, 50 hours fully annotated) of endangered speech practices (prayers, speeches related to traditional handicraft and agriculture) in four dialects of Tseltal, a Mayan language of Chiapas, Mexico. These practices are now disappearing along with a wealth of specialized vocabulary. A team of seven persons ?four linguists (two with PhD, including the principal applicant, and two Tseltal MA students), one ethnologist, and two technical assistants? will work in partnership with local groups, giving to them twenty training workshops. Two persons from these groups will be fully trained. Primary investigator: Gilles Polian

Project Details


Location: Mexico, Mexico, Philippines, Central America, South-Eastern Asia, Mexico, Asia, Americas, United States of America Organiser(s): Endangered Languages Documentation Programme Project partner(s): Ciesas-Sureste Funder(s): Arcadia Funding received: £71,363.00 Commencement Date: 01/2003
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