KEEPING A LANGUAGE ALIVE
Scholars (linguistis, anthropologists, etc) have long had a patent interest in Latin American contexts and regions. The Anthropological and Linguistic focus on Latin America is hence pervasive throughout academic institutions globally. One such region of interest is Mexico, not only the country Mexico, but also Mexican diasporic communities throughout the world.
To acccomplish this, these academic institutions are developing resources that aid in the revitalizing and in the maintaining of heritage languages. For example, the University of Albany, at its Anthropology Department and Institute for Mesoamerican Studies, has developed a digital dictionary, which is available online, of Copala Triqui lexical sets, aiming to preserve the language. This language has experienced attenuation as an increasing number of Copala Triqui speakers move away from the region in the mountains of Oaxaca, in Mexican state.
The extent to which this immigrant group has adhered to its heritage language has appeared to decay over successive generations. Here, the first generation has very little loss, where subsequent generations exhibit increasing loss and hence attenutation.
At the University of Albany, schoalrs have made many efforts to work with their local Triqui community, which has a population of approximatley 1000 people.
The lexical set incorporates recordings of phonoligical patterns, and styles of speech which can not easily or in any way be transcribed, and which must be recorded.
Many if not all members of the diasporic community globally understand that such projects are significant, as they must make every effort to retain the language. This mindset is one of all members of the Triqui community in upstate New York, for example.
People from within the dispersed community also attempt to work with these schoalrs, in order to collaborate on building these language resources. Here, the two parties collaborate to produce materials in the Triqui language, both as linguistic material and as narratives on the cultural heritage and its language, in a broadre sense,
More so, many Triqui people immigrate to their final destinations on foot, particularly in North America, and hence, either reside in other regions for a length of time, or break off and remain in those regions. This also fragments the attempts to retain cultural heritage.