This project documents Wounmeu (NOA), a Chocó language of Central and South America, via the analysis of sixty years of recorded myths and legends from Colombia and Panama. There are approximately 7,000 adult Wounaan in Panama and the same number in Colombia according to the last censuses. The research goals of this project have been co-determined with the aid of Wounaan leaders and esteemed story-tellers in Panama. They include 1) preparation and archiving of audio recordings of Wounaan myths and legends, 2) documentation and analysis of the Wounaan language and culture through transcription and translation of the myths and legends, 3) a Wounmeu-Spanish dictionary, 4) training of native speakers in language documentation, and 5) dissemination of the research results.
This research reflects the speaker community's passionate interest in language documentation and conservation as they experience their children's loss of language fluency. It documents a small and understudied language, Wounmeu, one of only two languages in the Chocó language group. For language documentation, this project draws on an uncommon historical depth of cultural and linguistic materials spanning sixty years. It makes available and permanently archives these historic audio recordings. Central to this project is the training of Wounaan, a historically underrepresented group, in language documentation and dissemination. Wounaan will be the main workforce in this project, and project researchers will train Wounaan in linguistic skills, cultural and language documentation, materials development, and computer skills. In addition, this research will greatly enhance the infrastructure available to Wounaan via the Foundation for the Development of Wounaan People in Panama, including computing and internet availability. The project also provides training for a joint anthropology and linguistics graduate student. Conference papers and articles will report on linguistics and collaborative language documentation.
This project of University of Georgia, University of Arizona, and the Foundation for the Development of Wounaan People documented the small and understudied language Wounaan Meu in collaboration with language speakers and their organizations. The language is of particular interest as one of two language groups in the Choco language family of Panama and Colombia. The project approached documentation by working with an uncommon depth of linguistic and ethnographic materials, 60 years of audio recordings in Wounaan Meu. This project thus makes significant contributions to linguistics via sociolinguistic, grammar, and vocabulary documentation of an understudied language of a small language group, and to anthropology by providing context for a large collection of recorded myths and stories It also contributes to the research methodologies of both fields via its collaborative framing. The project met all of its objectives. The project has digitized and permanently archived 347 audio recordings in two countries: the Archive of Indigenous Languages of Latin America (University of Texas, U.S.A), and the Biblioteca Nacional de Panamá (Panama), and continues to work with the Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango (Colombia) to deposit materials there as well. In addition, a subset of 70 recordings were linguistically transcribed and translated, and also deposited as 537 digital files in AILLA. Access to these recordings and transcriptions and translations comply with best practices in indigenous language documentation, as all are available via password permission from the Congreso Nacional del Pueblo Wounaan. Those transcriptions and translations contributed to the making of a grammatical sketch of the language, and a 5,000-word Wounaan Meu – Spanish dictionary. Additional research products include Wounaan Meu keyboard managers, and Wounaan Meu alphabet cards for classrooms. In addition, the project coordinated with Panama’s Ministry of Education in the development of the state curriculum in Wounaan Meu, and the training of Wounaan teachers in the orthography and grammar of their language. The project trained five Wounaan in linguistic transcription and translation, Native American linguistics, and hardware and software (Toolbox, ExpressScribe, PowerPoint) use, and one joint anthropology/linguistics doctoral student at the University of Arizona. Project results were disseminated via three conference papers, one published article, a website, state Ministry of Education curricular materials in Wounaan Meu, Wounaan Meu trainings to teachers, and through the 2011 and 2013 meetings of all Wounaan villages in Panama, known as the Wounaan National Congress.
