Returning Forgotten Voices: Indigenous Language Documentation and Revitalization in Oaxaca, Mexico

Abstract

Abstract: In collaboration with the APS, CNAIR, and the support of a Franklin Research Grant, in 2016 we embarked on the 'Returning Forgotten Voices/ Retornando las Voces a Sus Orígenes ' Project. The aim of this collaborative initiative was to repatriate sound recordings held at the APS since the 1960s, a unique linguistic and ethnographic corpus pertaining to the Oaxacan Chontal Indigenous group, currently considered among the most endangered languages in Mexico. In Total we visited 16 Highland Chontal communities and left about 250 CDs, DVDs, and other forms of digital reproductions. Together with local partners and intellectuals, we were also able to re-introduce a facsimile of a 1922 linguistic description of Tequistlateco Chontal back to that community. A secondary goal of the project was to gather comparable linguistic data for our ongoing multidisciplinary study on linguistic diversifications and regional collective displacements, with the contribution of 51 contemporary Chontal speakers. Finally, we conducted introductory 'Master-Apprentice' workshops in each community, which aimed to spur language revitalization efforts. The project members and Chontal collaborators currently continue with linguistic diversification research and cultural revitalization efforts, with the support of our Mexican partners at the National Institute of Indigenous Languages and the Center for the Study and Development of Indigenous Languages of Oaxaca, and through the LADORES Linguistic Lab at California State University, Los Angeles. In this article we discuss the enduring achievements and challenges of the 'Returning Forgotten Voices' Project, and in particular focus on drawing lessons for similar initiatives in Mexico and beyond.