Mixtec
Click here to access dictionary
Senior Editors: Stephanie Wood and Roberto Santos
Consulting Editors: Ronald Spores, Kevin Terraciano, and Maarten Jansen
Principal Data Entry: Katie Schuff and Michael Arellano
Translation Assistance: Araceli Ortiz
Website Design: Ginny White, Jamil Jonna, Aaron Lopez
Launch date: Spring 2009
Objectives: As envisioned by the Wired Humanities Projects of the University of Oregon, in collaboration with the Centro Cultural Tlaxiaco, Roberto Santos, its Director, and native speakers from the Mixteca, this dictionary will be a continuously expanding, online, searchable, and (eventually) trilingual dictionary (Mixtec-Spanish-English) that includes early (colonial) and modern Mixtec (endangered).
The dictionary’s databases include fields that support a wide range of orthographies and sources, so that users will most easily be able retrieve a rich array of information, including translations into various languages (all authored by native speakers) and examples of usage in excerpts from historical documents from New Spain. The dictionary incorporates vocabulary from the work of colonial-era priests, harvests terms from the recent translations of colonial manuscripts (originally written by indigenous notaries and scribes, 1540-1800), and will elicit language from modern speakers, all under the interdisciplinary guidance of scholars with specializations in linguistics, language teaching, anthropology, and history. It is our policy not to mine more than 10% (Fair Use) of any published work of recent times without permission. The work of Latin American history Professor Kevin Terraciano at the University of California, Los Angeles, has been central to the harvesting we have conducted so far. We have also recently received permission from Maarten Jansen to include his study of Alvarado.
This multipurpose tool is intended to document and preserve language, help re-establish literacy for modern speakers, train them for professional work, and pave the way for the translation of manuscripts for the historical and cultural-heritage benefits they will offer the world. For further information, please contact: Stephanie Wood, swood (at) uoregon.edu, tel. (541) 346-5771.
The online Mixtec dictionary had its first major leap forward thanks to the generosity and dedication of WHP intern Katie Schuff, a graduate from Oregon State University who now lives in Utah.
We are earnestly seeking funds to expand this project and involve more native speakers, including perhaps Carmen Montes and her team in Yanhuitlan and Mixtec youth on scholarship (las becarias and ex-becarias) at the Casa de la Mujer in Oaxaca.
