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Documenting different genres of oral narrative in Cora (Uto-Aztecan)

  • Verónica Vázquez Soto
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Language Documentation
This chapter is in the book Language Documentation

Abstract

This paper discusses genres of oral literature in Meseño Cora, an indigenous language of Nayarit, Mexico, and their inclusion in teaching textbooks as well as grammars and dictionaries. Both texts presented here were taken from a single narrator and collected during specific narrative festivals. “The Rabbit” illustrates níukari hí’iwahkari or ‘word playing’, a genre targeted for children, it uses dialogue and Spanish borrowings extensively. “The Birth of Corn” belongs to the níukari míme’ekan or ‘ancient word’ genre which is characteristic of creation myths. It has almost no Spanish loan words and employs prose instead of dialogue. This genre also uses different vocabulary and many cultural symbols also present in Cora daily life.

Abstract

This paper discusses genres of oral literature in Meseño Cora, an indigenous language of Nayarit, Mexico, and their inclusion in teaching textbooks as well as grammars and dictionaries. Both texts presented here were taken from a single narrator and collected during specific narrative festivals. “The Rabbit” illustrates níukari hí’iwahkari or ‘word playing’, a genre targeted for children, it uses dialogue and Spanish borrowings extensively. “The Birth of Corn” belongs to the níukari míme’ekan or ‘ancient word’ genre which is characteristic of creation myths. It has almost no Spanish loan words and employs prose instead of dialogue. This genre also uses different vocabulary and many cultural symbols also present in Cora daily life.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Contributors ix
  4. Preface xiii
  5. Part 1. Praxis and values
  6. Language documentation 3
  7. The linguist’s responsibilities to the community of speakers 25
  8. Language documentation 37
  9. Part 2. Adequacy in documentation
  10. Adequacy in documentation 51
  11. Necessary and sufficient data collection 67
  12. Documenting different genres of oral narrative in Cora (Uto-Aztecan) 75
  13. Constructing adequate language documentation for multifaceted cross-linguistic data 89
  14. Part 3. Documentation technology
  15. Valuing technology 111
  16. Using the E-MELD School of Best Practices to create lasting digital documentation 133
  17. Sharing data in small and endangered languages 147
  18. Representing minority languages and cultures on the World Wide Web 159
  19. Part 4. Models of successful collaborations
  20. Beyond expertise 173
  21. Models of successful collaboration 193
  22. Working with language communities in unarchiving 213
  23. Saving languages, saving lives 221
  24. Language documentation in the Tohono O’odham community 231
  25. Documentation of pragmatics and metapragmatics 241
  26. Part 5. Training and careers in field linguistics
  27. Training graduate students and community members for native language documentation 255
  28. Native speakers as documenters 275
  29. part 6. Conclusion
  30. Language documentation and field linguistics 289
  31. Selected online resources 311
  32. Name index 315
  33. General index 337
https://doi.org/10.1075/z.158.10sot

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Contributors ix
  4. Preface xiii
  5. Part 1. Praxis and values
  6. Language documentation 3
  7. The linguist’s responsibilities to the community of speakers 25
  8. Language documentation 37
  9. Part 2. Adequacy in documentation
  10. Adequacy in documentation 51
  11. Necessary and sufficient data collection 67
  12. Documenting different genres of oral narrative in Cora (Uto-Aztecan) 75
  13. Constructing adequate language documentation for multifaceted cross-linguistic data 89
  14. Part 3. Documentation technology
  15. Valuing technology 111
  16. Using the E-MELD School of Best Practices to create lasting digital documentation 133
  17. Sharing data in small and endangered languages 147
  18. Representing minority languages and cultures on the World Wide Web 159
  19. Part 4. Models of successful collaborations
  20. Beyond expertise 173
  21. Models of successful collaboration 193
  22. Working with language communities in unarchiving 213
  23. Saving languages, saving lives 221
  24. Language documentation in the Tohono O’odham community 231
  25. Documentation of pragmatics and metapragmatics 241
  26. Part 5. Training and careers in field linguistics
  27. Training graduate students and community members for native language documentation 255
  28. Native speakers as documenters 275
  29. part 6. Conclusion
  30. Language documentation and field linguistics 289
  31. Selected online resources 311
  32. Name index 315
  33. General index 337
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