#multidialectal

[speaknahuatl]

What is a Multidialectal Nahuatl Language Class?

What is a dialect?

A form of a language that people speak in a particular part of a country or region, containing some different words and grammar, etc.:

-regional dialect: the various regional dialects are still spoken locally.

-in dialect: The poem is written in northern dialect.

What does multidialectal mean?

Using more than one dialect which is a form of a language that people speak in a particular area.

-a multi-dialectal environment.

-it is difficult for newcomers to adapt to the multilingual and multidialectal nature of Mesoamerican Indigenous Languages.

What is a Multidialectal Nahuatl language class?

A multidialectal approach to learning Nahuatl involves considering and respecting the various dialects spoken across Nahuatl-speaking regions, rather than focusing on just one dialect, such as Classical Nahuatl. This approach is in contrast to older methods that primarily focused on CN (Classical Nahuatl), which is more formal and no longer spoken. For this reason, it is not always applicable to everyday conversations.

What about Classical Nahuatl?

In the past and in the present, people believed and still believe that learning CN was and is the ideal way because it's the language in "its purest form" and that it's the "mother dialect." However, that is far from the truth because CN is a central dialect that was compiled under the authority of Spanish friars for the purpose of evangelization (spreading their beliefs). Furthermore, CN is taught as a classical language, as a dead language and the methods used are only for purposes of reading literature thus can also be called Literary Nahuatl. Because of this, it has limitations, as it is not useful in everyday situations, making it difficult to understand and communicate in informal settings.

Does a multidialectal approach mean learning all dialects at the same time?

No. The multidialectal approach to Nahuatl recognizes the language as a diverse collection of dialects that vary based on social, cultural, and geographic contexts. This approach aims to raise students' awareness of the language's diversity, allowing them to learn various dialects starting from one base dialect. It also incorporates differences in word usage, meanings, and regional variations, acknowledging that each region, city, and town has its own unique version of Nahuatl.

How does the multidialectal approach to learning Nahuatl address classroom concerns and challenges?

Implementing the multidialectal approach involves adhering to these principles, addressing common concerns, and overcoming challenges in the classroom. Overall, it provides a more flexible and practical way to learn Nahuatl, tailored to the diverse needs of Nahuatl-speaking communities, language revitalizers, and individuals seeking to reclaim their own dialects.

What We Do

We are a collective of language workers: learners, teachers and revitalizers. Besides teaching and learning, we work in language revitalization projects and offer trilingual translation services: Nahuatl, English & Spanish. To stay up-to-date with our offerings, please go here: https://linktr.ee/speaknahuatl.

Sources

•https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/multidialectal

• https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/dialect

• https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/multidialectal

• https://emmatrentman.com/2022/01/14/does-a-multidialectal-approach-mean-teaching-all-of-the-dialects/

• Teachers at Speaknahuatl.com

Instagram Version: https://www.instagram.com/p/C32ki1Ayw4u/?igsh=Mmxxb3owcDl1c3U5

[knuckle]

I found out from my mom that Cantonese speaking people do actually say 你好吗 more casually than mandarin speakers and I'm thinking a lot about regional difference and its influence on English speakers perception of standard Mandarin as I'm sure a good amount of earlier translation work also came from multidialectical (?) speakers who could speak it with fluency but had a different colloquial frame of reference

[rainonsand]

Do you have more than one accent?

I love accents, and am particularly impressed when people who are multidialectical can not just code switch, but *modulate* their accent to various degrees, under their conscious control.

Outside of what I see on tv and online, I don’t have a lot of exposure to consciously or unconsciously modulating accents outside of my immediate family. My mom grew up in Baltimore, MD and moved to Southern California 35 years ago. She now speaks naturalized Californian accent as her default, but when she’s on the phone with family back east her Baltimore accent comes back on a dime, and drops just as unconsciously. It can also come back in degrees rather than full force in moments of play, humor, or emphasis. I myself range unconsciously between Valley Girl and general Californian accent, but I likewise unconsciously slip into slight leaning toward Baltimore on a phrase or word for humor or emphasis. I can hear the Valley Girl, but Californian is “invisible” to me, it sounds like standard accent until someone points out to me a particular word or phrase that sounds different between the two. I certainly can’t choose to speak more valley girl or more californian or more standard, except for a caricatureized valley girl which is far more exaggerated than when I’m speaking it naturally.

[ed141bischooling-blog]

Being Bilingual in the U.S

Let’s take a road trip around the US, stopping for gas at places like Texas, Alabama, New York, Maine, Chicago and more. What's different? Did a little lightbulb flicker when people began to speak? It did for me! The U.S. is filled with people speaking different languages, dialects, and accents. Just in English, there are so many varieties of this language, like mentioned in the film “American Tongues”. Once someone starts speaking it seems to be that someone else has something to say about it, it’s “one of the important ways we size each other up” (American Tongues). If we do this regularly to English speakers, imagine how bilingual speakers get “sized up” in our society today!?

One account of being bilingual in the US can be seen through Quan’s “The Girl Who Wouldn't Sing”. Sharing feelings of being inadequate, having to deal with mind blocks when speaking, and in whole feeling like they’re stuck between two worlds, expressing that “I freeze and am unable to think clearly. Minutes pass as I struggle to receive my thoughts until I finally manage to say something. But it never comes close to expressing what I mean” (13). Being bilingual in the U.S also causes confusion. In Zentella’s “Growing Up Bilingual” she mentions how being bilingual had been such a source of strength, so she wanted to know why it it is considered a problem, especially for Spanish speakers. This article dives into how language and community are tied together while also sharing that children from this study “integrate linguistic features of several worlds sometimes defy traditional language conventions, or blur the boundaries of their re-configurations.” (3). Zentella continues this conversation by mentioning that these kids from el bloque “co-author and co-interpret conversations against a multicultural and multidialectical backdrop” (3).

If anything shouldn’t bilinguals be in a way praised for having the ability to co-author, co-interpret, and understand the reconfigurations from both languages? Even for Quan, she realized how much love, community, and comfort is brought by knowing one’s native language, when tutoring a bilingual family. Our languages, it gives us a voice. We need to stop “sizing each other up” and instead recognize the multitude of benefits being bilingual provides us both here in the U.S. and around the world.

[acnposts]

Code meshing, on the other hand, while also acknowledging standard principles for communication, encourages speakers and writers to fuse that standard with native speech habits, to color their writing with what they bring from home. It has the potential to enlarge our national vocabulary, multiply the range of available rhetorical styles, expand our ability to understand linguistic difference and make us in the end multidialectical, as opposed to monodialectical.

Young “Nah, We Straight: An Argument Against Code Switching”

[language-variations-blog]

Literature

1.    Prescriptive vs descriptive linguistics

According to Fromkin, Rodman & Hyams (2003) prescriptive linguistics is concerned with the way individuals use language; moreover, it attempts to make laws about how linguistics should be. Meanwhile, descriptive linguistics does not try to impose the rules of the language. Its unique function consists on describing the language’s norms people already know, and it is an unconscious linguistic knowledge or ability speakers possess (p. 28).    

1.1.   Langue vs parole

As Holmes (1992) claims, there are two kinds of language. The first one is the vernacular language which usually refers to the informal way of speaking. This term is similar to parole and it may have a more appropriate variety known as standard language (which is the second kind of language). This type is clearly related to langue, and it is defined as the prescriptive mode in which individuals should express their ideas. In other words, this is the acceptable usage of language (pp. 81-83).  

There can be confusion between what is correct in a language and what is exemplary. Correctness has to do with the rules or guidelines of an abstract linguistic system, meanwhile exemplariness refers to what has come to be approved by a language with the substantiation of historic nature, therefore, it is often encouraged because it benefits linguistic unity which guarantees intercomprehension and vitality of a language. It is possible to consider certain expressions to be incorrect when they are not built according to what an abstract linguistic system has established. However, there cannot be an incorrect language; what abounds are dialects, slangs, constructions and vocabularies that are not precisely incorrect but that are not exemplary to certain speakers who belong to a determined region or cultural level, reflecting the relativeness of what is correct/exemplary in a language (Moreno de Alba, 1999, pp. 52-53).

2.   Sociolinguistics

Holmes (1992) defines sociolinguistics as a branch of linguistics that studies the relationship between language and society. Sociolinguistics is interested in explaining the reasons people speak in different ways in certain contexts. Besides, it is concerned with recognizing the social functions of language and how this aspect is used to communicate a meaning. As the author says, language gives a variety of ways of saying the same thing, and the choice of one manner instead of another is a clue to non-linguistic data (pp. 1-4).

2.1.   Language maintenance and standardization

A language that is recognized by society has been subject to a diachronic process of language maintenance; it is the process of maintaining a particular form of language in a population where there is a wide linguistic diversity to make communication difficult. The process of maintenance can be carried out by overt legislation or by imposing the linguistic norms of elite social groups through education and literacy. The imposition of linguistics norms by powerful social groups can be included in the term of language standardization because it is the process of maintaining certain forms of language. The principal consequence of standardization is that variability is resisted and suppressed, creating a tendency to structural uniformity in language (Coulmas, 2008, p. 52).

2.2.   Language change and social factors

As Cazden (1994) states, language is an instrument of socialization and becomes a tool for the person to communicate and it is heavily influenced by the evolution of society in the form of loan words, slang, etcetera. Coulmas (2008) says that language is variable, and it is in a state of change, no matter the time we look at it. Change can be fast or slow, but language is always dynamic because it is a social and sociocultural phenomenon (p. 52). As the author says language is changing in all areas of structure (phonology, grammar, semantics, and vocabulary). But, there are people that made efforts to study the mutability of language because they want to create a standard language. However, these efforts to control language change have a limited success. There are many social factors that can change language, like macrolinguistics, simplification, social networks, demography, etcetera (Coulmas, 2008, p. 81).

2.2.1.   Macrolinguistics

Coulmas (2008) mentions that macrolinguistics involves language structure, and conscious decisions, institutionally promulgated as a part of language planning programs. There are different types of changes in macrolinguistics, one of them is the process of standardization. It is when a single dialect is put forward as the official norm for a multidialectal area. For instance, the introduction of loan words from one language into the other, and the assimilation of grammatical partners are dominated by the language that has the most social value when two or more languages come into contact (pp. 82 - 83).

As Coulmas (2008) says, other changes are pidginization and creolization, in which contact between languages result in a new language with a simplified grammar, these processes do not involve institutional actions and the vocabulary is created by society (pp. 82 - 83). Pidginization is the process of creating a new language called pidgin, it is a combination of two or more languages. This new language has the function of satisfying the needs of communication between groups of people that do not share the same language, but it does not use in any society as an official language. When the new language (pidgin) is enough developed and a society starts to use it as an official language, it becomes a creole language (Centro Virtual Cervantes, 2017).

2.2.2.   Microlinguistics

Coulmas (2008) states that microlinguistics is when people start to imitate the linguistic changes that are initiated by a person or by a small group; in some cases, innovation can be extended through an entire society. The innovation or new concept can be conscious or unconscious. Conscious changes are easily pinpointed, but in unconscious changes it is impossible to identify the initiating individuals or the paths of imitation (Coulmas, 2008, p. 83).

2.2.3.   Simplification

According to Coulmas (2008) simplification is when people unconsciously switch to a simpler vocabulary due to speakers finding it difficult to pronounce, because of this, prescriptivists consider the simplification process as a result of laziness. Also, people have a tendency to simplify structure in grammar by analogy (p. 84); which, according to Real Academia Española (2017), is the process which linguistic forms are created or modified to others that are similar.

2.2.4.   Social class and gender

According to Holmes (1992) men tend to use more colloquial language than women in every social class. Men prefer to employ vernacular or colloquial language because they appear to be more masculine using the connotations this kind of language has. On the other hand, women use more standard language than men regardless of the social group they belong to. Therefore, the gender doesn’t seem to be as important as the class membership in relation to the language’s use (pp. 168-169).  

There are three possible explanations to understand this linguistic behavior. The first of them could be that women are more aware of the fact that the way they speak indicates their social status, that is, girls use a standard speech as a manner to claim a high social status. The second one is that society expects a better behavior from women than from men, so they must speak more correctly because they are being models for children´s speech. The third explanation suggests that people who are subordinate must be polite; in this case, the female gender is supposed to be a subordinate group so it has to speak respectfully. Also, another version of this theory says that females use standard language to avoid offending others (Holmes, 1992, pp. 171-173).  

2.2.5.   Social networks

Linguists have the creed that language changes diffuse through social networks. Holmes (1992) uses the term ‘networks’ to refer to the informal relationships people get involved with on a regular basis. Any person can be a channel for spreading new language forms from one group to another. Besides, two concepts are introduced to describe different types of networks: density and plexity. Density alludes to whether the members of a person’s network are in touch with each other independently of that person (if that’s the case, the network is dense); whereas, plexity classifies the people´s relationships which they are entangled with other individuals (p. 202).

A relationship can consist of two categories. The first one is a uniplex relationship in which the social connection takes place in a unique area, for example, at work. The second category is a multiplex relationship in which a person can interact with others through several dimensions like at work, at church, in the neighborhood, etc. Because of all this, it is expectable that people are influenced by the individual’s speech of the social network they are linked to; moreover, if a person belongs to more than one network, he/she will unconsciously change his/her language depending on the context (Holmes, 1992, pp. 203-204).

2.2.6.   Demography

Demographic factors are very relevant for a language shift. Holmes (1992) establishes that language changes tend to occur faster in some groups than in others, being a crucial element the number of speakers (pp. 66-67). A language shift usually goes to the language of the dominant group in a specific area, so it’s likely that minority groups will find themselves under increasing pressure to adopt the dominant group language (Holmes, 1992, p. 60).

According to Kandler (2009) the number of interactions between different groups has risen due to the current phenomena such as globalization, urbanization and extensive migrations. All these factors have caused the need of a common way which people can communicate with each other. Besides, the author remarks that the lexicons of these groups have been consequently changed to reflect this modernization process (p. 181).  

3.   The varieties of Spanish

Lipski (2012) explains that the Spanish spoken in Spain is fractured into regional and social dialects, the main division is between north and south, and they are primarily phonetic. On the other hand, Lipski states that Spanish in America has a different division. Dialects are often defined by each country; therefore, people classify Spanish in Mexican Spanish, Argentine Spanish, Colombian Spanish, etc. However, this categorization cannot be maintained due to the absence of a consensus that can show how many Spanish dialects actually exist in America (pp. 3-4).

When it comes to lexicon, Lipski (2012) points out the oversimplification the varieties of Spanish in Latin America suffer when they are categorized, because of how extensive they are. Through the years, Latin American Spanish has borrowed terms and items from other dialects like Native Americans and colonists. This interchange of words has even lead to keep some words that are out of use in the origin language. What makes the classification even harder to succeed is the mixing of dialects through geographical displacements (pp. 19-20).

4.   The term ‘está padre’

From a linguistic and grammatical perspective language is a unit; it is a set of signs and rules. But if we look at it from the point of view of people, it is diverse. Because geographical, historical and sociocultural factors make many different ‘languages’ from the same language, but they have the same purpose: communication (Consellería de educación y ordenación universitaria, 2013). Sociolinguistics studies show that the same linguistic phenomenon (phrase, expression or word) can have many different interpretations in different communities, like the term ‘está padre’. It is different in each community due to the use of the language is conditioned by geographical, sociocultural and historical factors (Centro Virtual Cervantes, 2017).

4.1.   Meaning and variations

According to Wardhaugh (2006) if we look at any language, we will discover that people make constant use of the different possibilities offered to them (pp. 4–5); This is called linguistic variation. Moreno Fernandez (as cited in Guerrero & San Martín, 2013) claims that linguistic variation is defined as the alternative use of different forms to say the same thing, people can find it in all levels of language: phonetics, grammar and lexicon. An example of linguistic variation is all the possible forms to say ‘está padre’. According to Diccionario Breve de Mexicanismos (as cited in Academia Mexicana de la lengua, 2015) the word ‘padre’ means that something is good, pretty, cool or admirable.

[speaknahuatl]

FREE Nahuatl Class Tickets, Mon, Jul 1, 2024 at 4:30 PM | Eventbrite

[speaknahuatl]

𝗠𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶𝗱𝗶𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗡𝗮𝗵𝘂𝗮𝘁𝗹 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝘀: 𝗕𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀 + 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗺𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗲 Temachtiani: Cuitlahuac Arreola Martinez @kwitlawak 🗓️Jun. 30 thru Sep. 2, 2024 ⏰Intermediate Sundays 12:00 p.m. PT ⏰Beginner Mondays 4:30 p.m. PT ⏺️ Recordings available 𝙄𝙣𝙛𝙤 & 𝙍𝙚𝙜𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣: https://speaknahuatl.com/registernow ____________________________________________________

𝗝𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼 𝗡𝗮𝗵𝘂𝗮𝘁𝗹 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗕𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀 Temaxtiani: Chris Cuauhtli @chris.cuauhtli @jalisco.nahuatl 🗓️Jul. 2 thru Sep. 3, 2024 ⏰Tuesdays 6:00 p.m. PT ⏺️Recordings available 𝙄𝙣𝙛𝙤 & 𝙍𝙚𝙜𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣: https://speaknahuatl.com/mexicano 𝙁𝙤𝙧 𝙄𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙢𝙚𝙙𝙞𝙖𝙩𝙚, 𝙞𝙣𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙢𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙨𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙫𝙞𝙖 𝙚𝙢𝙖𝙞𝙡.

[speaknahuatl]

Understanding Language Translation and Translation Work at Speaknahuatl: Spanish, English and Nahuatl

What is language translation?

Language translation is the act of changing written words from one language to another language using different computer-assisted tools like translation memory. Translators have the ability to examine text or other written documents to make sure it is an accurate translation. Translators focus on written works like blogs, news articles, websites, etc.

What is language translation?

Language translation is like transforming words on paper, website, medical document, etc. from one language to another. For example, let’s say a Spanish speaker received a medical letter in English. This is where a translator can help by changing all the words to Spanish. This work may involve using software, cross-referencing other documents and referencing multiple dictionaries to make sure the translation is correct. 

What are our mother tongues and dialects, as well as those we've acquired through learning?

Nahuatl (Multidialectal including Huasteca, Classical, Central and Western)

Spanish (Dialect: Mexican, Northwestern/Bajacaliforniense) 

English (Dialect: American, California) 

Mexican Spanglish (Borderland: Southern California/Northern Baja) 

What languages do we translate?

Nahuatl 

Spanish

English 

Mexican Spanglish

What is the rate per word?

The cost is 30 cents (USD) for each word.

How can you request a written language translation?

Send us an email to [speaknahuatl@gmail.com] with following:

1) What language(s) do you want us to translate this text to?

2) Provide us with the word(s), sentence(s) or paragraph(s) you'd like us to translate

3) Due date: when do you require this translation to be completed?

What happens after this? 

4) Donation options will be provided via email

5) Once donation is received, the translation will be sent by the due date in PDF format

What We Do

We are a collective of language workers: learners and teachers. We work in language revitalization projects and offer trilingual translation services: Nahuatl, English & Spanish. To stay up-to-date with our offerings, please go here: https://linktr.ee/speaknahuatl.

Form Version: https://tiny.one/tlajtolkuepa

IG Version: https://www.instagram.com/p/C5B4QhPBynT

[speaknahuatl]

If you joined any of our semester online or in-person courses, your tuition for our Tonalko 2024 Beginners course is FREE! This applies whether you took regular one-on-one sessions (2018-2021), participated in group classes (2018 to present), or regularly attended our volunteer teacher-led courses at Pasadena City College or LA Plaza (2018-2024). Your ATTENDANCE is your reciprocity to the learning experience. How? Email us at speaknahuatl@gmail.com with subject "Nikneki nimomachtis." We look forward to seeing you again! Timoittaseh. 👋🏼

Multidialectal Nawatl - Beginner Mondays

🗓️Sep. 30 – Dec 9, 2024

⏰Time: 6PM PT / 8PM CT

⏳1 Hour/Week

💻10 Classes

📝10 Hours total

[linguistlist-blog]

TOC: Applied Pragmatics Vol. 2, No. 1 (2020)

2020, iii, 120 pp. Table of Contents Articles Learning pragmatics through tasks: When interaction plays a role Júlia Barón, M. Luz Celaya, and Mayya Levkina pp. 1–25 Proficiency effects on L2 Arabic refusals: Appropriateness, linguistic strategies and multidialectal practices Khaled Al Masaeed, Naoko Taguchi, and Mohammed Tamimi pp. 26–53 Email requests in an ELF academic setting: “Good luck to you, Doctor Judit…” Judit Dombi pp. 54–79 Using a corpus in creating and ev http://dlvr.it/RTjz8Y