Cultural and Pedagogical Lexicography of Modern Náhuatl

Introduction

As with the 2001 recordings, given the high cost of renting professional sound recording studios in México (approximately $20–40 US/hour) and the necessity of close contact with the computational linguists at the Linguistic Data Consortium, University of Pennsylvania, who designed the program for time-coding the transcript of each recording session and for subsequent segmenation, tagging, and linking, it was determined that the most cost-efficient and secure way to ensure high quality taping would be to take advantage of the professional recording facilities and technical assistance offered pro bono by Haskins Laboratory in New Haven. This year (2002) the recording was done directly to hard disk and the results burned on CD. This facilitated the transfer to the LDC server and subsequent segmentation and tagging of the sound files. Given the high cost of the project (approximately $10,000, not including any reimbursement to Amith), to complete the Ameyaltepec recordings it was necessary to supplement the remaining money of the FAMSI grant ($1,500) with additional funds from the following institutions and grants:

• Center for Latin American Studies, University of Chicago, which earmarked part of its Title VI funding for Náhuatl recordings (this covered transportation, housing and per diem expenses of Cristino Flores);

• Jonathan Amith, who applied part of his funds from an International Research and Fellowship Program, U.S. Dept. of Education, to the recording project (this covered additional honorarium for Cristino Flores as well as some travel and per diem);

• Steven Bird, Linguistic Data Consortium, University of Pennsylvia, who applied part of his National Science Foundation grant (this covered the entire cost of uploading, segmentation, tagging, linking, CD burning, etc.).

Since the time the Oapan Náhuatl recordings of the summer 2001 were carried out (the status of research when the interim report was submitted), the following advancements have been made, as outlined in the next two sections of this final status report.

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