Nahuatl Cultural Encyclopedia: Botany and Zoology, Balsas River, Guerrero

Textual Documentation: Audio and Transcription

Digital recording of Nahuatl ethnobiological knowledge has continued throughout the term of the FAMSI grant. A more recent focus has been on insects, after extensive recordings on plants (approximately 50 hours) and birds (approximately 10 hours) had been achieved. Although a complete catalogue of material is in development, probably over 75 hours of material have been recorded. These are being selected for transcription and, eventually, online presentation in the Nahuatl Learning Environment: Cultural Encyclopedia. The recordings are according to archival best practices: 48KHz sampling rate, 16-bit. A Sonifex Courier digital recorder is used with an ATM-75 cardiod headset microphone.

Transcriptions are developed in a three-stage process. First, native speakers who have been trained in Nahuatl language documentation are given a digitally recorded text to transcribe using the program Transcriber. The time-coded transcription is then proofread. Second, the resulting time-coded transcription is exported to a text format. It is again proofed and also edited for "publication" and distribution to most end users (i.e., punctuation marks are added and paragraphs divided). Third, the now formatted and proofed text is reimported into a time code for line-by-line playback through a Web interface. A software program called Webscriber is being developed for this purpose. Dozens of hours of material is in one of the three stages of transcription and textual presentation.

Audio files and textual material will be permanently archived at the Archive of Indigenous Languages of Latin America (University of Texas). A more interactive presentation is presently being developed for uploading at the Linguistic Data Consortium, University of Pennsylvania.

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