The Word Tree: Revitalizing Indigenous Languages in Abya Yala - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1477331999 ISBN 13: 9781477331996

Verlag: University of Texas Press, 2025

Inhaltsangabe

A collaborative effort to address some of the chronic issues affecting the preservation and revitalization of indigenous languages.

What does it mean to "revitalize" an indigenous language when approximately 6,700 of the nearly 7,000 left in the world need protection? Where to begin? Each language offers a sense of history, identity, and belonging within society to the people actively using it. The Word Tree begins by hearing directly from those still communicating in some of these less dominant languages, from Achi'es to Zapotec, and offers the metaphor of a tree whose political roots sustain the trunk of education that will bear the fruit of learning languages anew. Whether describing the tension between indigenous and state-recognized languages; the process of linguistics displacement resulting from migration; or the value of locally focused efforts in a cultural cooperative, these nine essays offer fresh and useful perspectives.

The Word Tree is the result of a collaboration between the National Autonomous University of Mexico and the University of Texas at Austin. Gathering diverse concerns, experiences, explorations, proposals, and perspectives on the revitalization of some of the continent's most imperiled indigenous languages, the contributors aim to introduce their struggle for existence to a modern world. From south to north, the Quecha or Runasimi, Maya, Zapotec or Diidxaza, Chatino, Mephaa or Tlapaneco, Miteco, Mixe or Auukj, and Nahuatl languages exist in all their vast complexities and contexts. At its most fundamental level, this book is a call to develop alternative paths for human existence in which caring for one another is the consensus.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Adela Pineda-Franco is the Lozano Long Endowed Professor in Latin American Literary and Cultural Studies, and director of the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies (LLILAS) at the University of Texas at Austin. She has authored and co-edited numerous books, among them the award-winning Steinbeck y México: Una mirada cinematográfica en la era de la hegemonía estadounidense.

Socorro Venegas is the director of publications and editorial development at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). She is the author of several works of fiction, including La memoria donde ardía, Vestido de novia, and the award-winning novel, La noche será negra y blanca.

Tanya Huntington is an artist and author whose published works include Martín Luis Guzmán: Entre el águila y la serpiente and a poetry collection, Solastalgia. She is currently a member of the Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte and managing editor of Literal: Voces latinoamericanas.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: University of Texas Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2025
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1477331999
• ISBN 13: 9781477331996
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 144
• Herausgeber: Pineda-Franco Adela, Venegas Socorro
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Mare Nostrum Group B.V.; gpsr@mare-nostrum.co.uk; ; Doelen 72; Breda; 4831 GR; Niederlande