Documentation of Pisaflores Tepehua
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Research Year:  2002
Culture:  Totonac
Chronology:  Classic to Contemporary
Location:  Veracruz, México
Site:  Pisaflores Tepehua

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Abstract
Final Report
Publications and grants resulting from FAMSI support

Abstract

The goal of this project was to yield a sufficient corpus of linguistic material to support the description and analysis of Pisaflores Tepehua, an endangered and undocumented Totonacan language, spoken in Pisaflores, Veracruz in México. The main publication to result from this project will be a linguistic sketch of Pisaflores Tepehua, El Tepehua de Pisaflores, to appear in the series Archivo de Lenguas Indígenas de México (Archive of the Indigenous Languages of México), published by the El Colegio de México in México City.

During June and July of 2002, the investigators conducted linguistic fieldwork in México, interviewing native speakers of the language and eliciting the data to be included in El Tepehua de Pisaflores. This material consists primarily of a lexicon, a list of roughly 1000 diagnostic phrases, and several narratives and conversations. All sessions with native speakers were recorded on paper and on analog and digital audio tape. Once the materials had been recorded, we asked several speakers to assist in the task of producing accurate and detailed phonetic transcriptions. We spent the academic year 2002-2003 reviewing and analyzing the Tepehua materials, checking for errors in transcription and/or translation, identifying the principal grammatical structures in the language, and converting the digital recordings into more usable and accessible CDs. We concentrated on isolating and identifying the relevant phonological and morphological units of the language and describing their distribution and patterns of co-occurrence. At this point, the recordings have been transcribed in broad phonetic transcription, and we are analyzing the underlying forms which will be published with inter-linear glosses in both Spanish and English. One major objective is to ensure that all Tepehua materials which result from this project are translated into both English and Spanish.

Pisaflores Tepehua is the only Totonacan language about which virtually nothing is known. Through FAMSI’s support, the documentation that results from this project will be of value to linguists, anthropologists and the community of Pisaflores itself.

Submitted 04/04/2003 by:
Carolyn J. MacKay
cjmackay@bsu.edu

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