Members of the Ch’ol documentation project convened June 7th and 8th at CIESAS-Sureste in San Cristóbal de las Casas for a workshop focused on file management and transcription, organized by Juan Jesús Vázquez Álvarez and Jessica Coon, and with ELAN and audio file editing tutorials by Justin Royer and Sandra Cruz Gómez.

the group at work transcribing

Groups traveled from Oxolotán Tabasco (led by Nicolás Arcos López) and Yajalón, Chiapas (led by Bernabé Vázquez Sánchez). Altogether, they had collected more than 30 hours of Ch’ol recordings during the first phase of the project. During phase 2, they will select their favorite narratives to transcribe and translate. At the end, all materials will be uploaded to the Archive of Indigenous Languages of Latin America (AILLA).

Workshop 2 participants, back row: Bernabé Vázquez Sánchez, Juan Jesús Vázquez Álvarez, Sandra Cruz Gómez, Nicolás Arcos López, Félix López López, Jessica Coon, Justin Royer, Morelia Vázquez Martínez Front row: Patricia López Vázquez, Nilda Gúzman López, Lourdes Méndez Sánchez, Matilde Vázquez Vázquez

We had a great first workshop in Oxolotán last week, with active participation from students in the Universidad Intercultural’s Lengua y Cultura program. The university’s article, and more pictures from the event, can be found here. We’re looking forward to continuing the collaboration!

UIET article on workshop

Our first workshop on Ch’ol documentation is coming up! We’ll be in Oxolotán on February 9th at the Universidad Intercultural de Tabasco. The workshop is open and will introduce participants to the motivation and goals of language documentation, along with recording basics. Stay tuned for a similar workshop in Yajalón, Chiapas!