The nineteen Pueblos of New Mexico encompass a wide variety of cultures and languages. In eleven of the Pueblos, older members of the communities still speak the heritage Tanoan language. Very little is known about the sound systems, vocabularies, and grammatical structures of these intricate and complex languages; they are among the least documented of all Native American languages spoken in the United States. With the support of the National Science Foundation, Dr. Melissa Axelrod will conduct fieldwork to learn more about one of these languages, the Tewa language spoken at Nambe Pueblo. Among the goals of this project is the production of a multimedia archive and database of texts and audio-video recordings of Nambe Tewa, including conversation, narratives, and demonstrations of traditional acitivities. In addition, the project will develop both an electronic and print dictionary and grammar of the language. The broader impacts of this NSF-funded project arise from this development of an electronic corpus of natural Nambe discourse. Most of the corpora of natural discourse that are now available for linguistic research are dedicated to English and to European languages, and the use of this kind of data in linguistic study has led to the reconsideration of some long held views about grammatical structure and about language processing. The database developed in this project will be the first corpus of natural discourse in any Native American language, and it is thus a unique opportunity to understand the structure and usage of this language and also to gain further insight into the range of possibilities for human language structure and cognition. For the academic community, and for the PI and graduate students involved in the project, the project provides an invaluable research and learning opportunity. The NSF funding also supports a training program that will prepare native language teachers and community members to expand the archive and develop pedagogical materials for younger members of the community who wish to know more about the language and culture. The intellectual merits of the research center on its ability to thus combine scientific research, providing scholars with access to a previously undocumented language, with recognition of the importance of speakers, their community, and their sociocultural heritage. The project answers the challenge to linguists to develop research endeavors that contribute to scientific endeavors while also engaging and serving the native speech community. The project will insure both participation and leadership of a group which has long been underrepresented in American science. The success of this project among speakers may encourage opportunities to document and understand other Tanoan languages and other New Mexico Pueblo languages.
