The UAlbany effort — a partnership with a local Triqui community estimated to be between 600 and 800 strong — builds on existing efforts to preserve the language by incorporating translations into and from English in addition to Spanish, Broadwell said.

The dictionary includes recorded pronunciations for many of the translations in part because the language — part of a family of indigenous Mexican languages very different from Spanish — includes eight tones that are difficult to convey in writing, Broadwell said.

“It’s important because for us we don’t want to lose our language,” said Roman Vidal Lopez of Latham, a leader in the local Triqui community who has lived in the Albany area since 1989. “That’s the real reason. We try to share and keep (it) alive.”

Lopez, for whom English is a third language, said he first met Broadwell 11 years ago. Since then the two have collaborated with others on two books in Triqui — one retelling an ancient legend about the birth of the universe and another called “Words of counsel for the Triqui people.”

Lopez said many of the Triqui people in the Capital Region arrived here by way of California, where they immigrated fleeing violence at home and initially worked picking grapes, avocados, tomatoes and other crops. Here, many in the Triqui community — like himself, a longtime employee of the ’76 Diner in Latham — work in the restaurant industry, he said.