Here are some of the ways I have worked (or am working) on things involving the Nawat language:
I first began to study Nawat in 2002.
For two years (2003-2004), during the time when I lived in El Salvador, I designed, ran and coordinated a project for a local university to create a series of textbooks of Nawat as a second language for use in primary schools and to set up a Nawat program in local schools. The name of the textbook series was Ne Nawat Tutaketzalis. Only two of the five projected coursebooks have ever been published because I was not kept on the project long enough to complete the agreed plan, and once I left those who took over failed to continue with production of materials for the remaining levels.
I organised meetings and workshops with native Nawat speakers and Nawat enthusiasts to discuss the way forward for the Nawat language.
With much help from the volunteer staff of TIT (see below), I planned, designed, programmed, organised, prepared, coordinated and taught in the first two yearly intensive training courses for future and practising Nawat language teachers, within the framework of the aforementioned schools programme. These courses lasted for several weeks and gave training in Nawat language and language teaching techniques.
I wrote a monographic study and analysis of a translation by native speakers of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which served as a starting point for Nawat linguistic studies.
I taught a short introductory course on the Nawat language at the university for which I worked.
As part of the aformentioned project, I created and ran an office of the Nawat language in Izalco, the historical and symbolic centre of the Pipil nation, with a staff of three, called Tajkwiluyan Ipal Ne Taketzalis (TIT). This was later disbanded by the university after I left the project.
I played a key role in the creation of a grassroots pro-Nawat association called Iniciativa para la Recuperación del Idioma Náhuat (IRIN) - Te Miki Tay Tupal. The immediate context for this was the refusal of the Salvadorean university for which I worked to support with resources the projects it wished to claim as its own, so that if no alternative way of supporting them had been found these projects would have proved impossible. But the general brief adopted by IRIN was to support all activities in favour of the Nawat language by any means at its disposal. IRIN members included some native Nawat speakers, some non-Nawat-speaking people from the traditional Pipil area, some people from elsewhere in El Salvador and some non-Salvadoreans. It is based in Izalco, where most of IRIN's meetings are held and from where the association is run. Besides keeping the university school project going in its first critical years (a role which has not been acknowledged), IRIN has been responsible for other work of fundamental importance for the language recovery movement including the printing and distribution of Nawat books and materials, and a groundbreaking language documentation project which resulted in obtaining many hours of new audio and video recordings of Nawat-language interviews between native speakers.
I created the Seminario Lingüístico Náhuat which early on addressed important subjects such as the proposal of a standard spelling, internal dialect variation, and the lexicon.
Over the years I have developed a corpus of Nawat texts which form an important basis for Nawat language study, research and development.
I developed a prototype of a database to bring together different Nawat lexical sources, called NawatLex. Later on, I created a new integrated database system of a different kind (NawaCoLex) which brings together in a single framework the Nawat corpus and Nawat lexical sources.
I wrote a series of short books containing easy lessons in Nawat for adults, distributed by IRIN, titled Shimumachti Nawat. Later I developed this material into an online Nawat course called Timumachtikan Nawat, which has been followed by numerous people. More recently this material was again revised and reorganised as a complete book constituting a comprehensive elementary language course titled Timumachtikan! which is available as a free PDF download from this site.
I also wrote a variety of other Nawat language materials which were printed and distributed by IRIN, including a Nawat basic vocabulary and an elementary grammar.
I edited and prepared a trilingual publication by IRIN, a short book of Nawat writings by the native speaker Genaro Ramírez Vásquez: Naja Ni Genaro.
I worked with the team of TIT to create, print and distribute two issues of a local newsletter, partly in Nawat, called Tinemit.
I translated the Biblical book of Genesis from Hebrew to Nawat (printed and distributed by IRIN).
I edited a version in standard spelling of the Nawat content of the largest item in the Nawat corpus, the book published by the German anthropologist Leonhard Schultze Jena, as a separate Nawat-language book titled Tajtaketza Pal Ijtzalku. This is now available for free download from this site.
I advised IRIN from a distance (since I was no longer in the country) on its great language documentation project, mentioned above. Subsequently I supervised and revised the transcription of the recorded interviews. Still later, I supervised the editing and addition of subtitles to some of the interviews, in versions with Nawat and Spanish subtitles respectively, which also entailed translating the transcriptions of those interviews. At the present time I am carrying out a programme to develop these subtitled versions into a supplementary audiovisual Nawat language course based on these authentic materials, called Mukaki, which is found on this site.
I have played a major part in the development in recent years of a busy, dynamic on-line community of people interested in learning Nawat and forming or supporting a Nawat language recovery movement, located on a cluster of groups and pages on Facebook. See the FB group "Salvemos el Idioma Náhuat" for more information.
I am engaged in a project to translate the entire Bible into Nawat. I have completed the translation of the New Testament which is now on line at Ne Bibliaj Tik Nawat. I am currently developing a Nawat New Testament lexicon for NBTN, which has also sponsored the writing of a new Nawat grammar which I am now finishing.
If you are interested in learning more about Nawat, now you can go to the Nawat Resources part of this website by clicking on the tab at the top of this page, or click here.
I first began to study Nawat in 2002.
I organised meetings and workshops with native Nawat speakers and Nawat enthusiasts to discuss the way forward for the Nawat language.
I wrote a monographic study and analysis of a translation by native speakers of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which served as a starting point for Nawat linguistic studies.
I played a key role in the creation of a grassroots pro-Nawat association called Iniciativa para la Recuperación del Idioma Náhuat (IRIN) - Te Miki Tay Tupal. The immediate context for this was the refusal of the Salvadorean university for which I worked to support with resources the projects it wished to claim as its own, so that if no alternative way of supporting them had been found these projects would have proved impossible. But the general brief adopted by IRIN was to support all activities in favour of the Nawat language by any means at its disposal. IRIN members included some native Nawat speakers, some non-Nawat-speaking people from the traditional Pipil area, some people from elsewhere in El Salvador and some non-Salvadoreans. It is based in Izalco, where most of IRIN's meetings are held and from where the association is run. Besides keeping the university school project going in its first critical years (a role which has not been acknowledged), IRIN has been responsible for other work of fundamental importance for the language recovery movement including the printing and distribution of Nawat books and materials, and a groundbreaking language documentation project which resulted in obtaining many hours of new audio and video recordings of Nawat-language interviews between native speakers.
I created the Seminario Lingüístico Náhuat which early on addressed important subjects such as the proposal of a standard spelling, internal dialect variation, and the lexicon.
I also wrote a variety of other Nawat language materials which were printed and distributed by IRIN, including a Nawat basic vocabulary and an elementary grammar.
I advised IRIN from a distance (since I was no longer in the country) on its great language documentation project, mentioned above. Subsequently I supervised and revised the transcription of the recorded interviews. Still later, I supervised the editing and addition of subtitles to some of the interviews, in versions with Nawat and Spanish subtitles respectively, which also entailed translating the transcriptions of those interviews. At the present time I am carrying out a programme to develop these subtitled versions into a supplementary audiovisual Nawat language course based on these authentic materials, called Mukaki, which is found on this site.