post by Brook
After helping Helen and Alex get settled, I left Oaxaca to spend some time in California. I knew I was leaving them in good hands in their internship and with their amazing host family. And I will be back soon to spend the rest of the summer in Oaxaca.
But for now, I'm in Southern California. What might be surprising, is that I'm also doing fieldwork on Zapotec here. There is a large community of Zapotec people in the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area. The last three days in particular have involved lots of freeways (the 101, the 405, the 5) and lots of Zapotec. I've worked with my long-time Zapotec teacher Roberto Antonio Ruiz (a speaker of Tlacolula de Matamoros Zapotec), with another long-time Zapotec teacher and friend, Victoria Lopez (a speaker of San Lucas Quiaviní Zapotec), and I got to hear a variety of Zapotec I had never heard before, when I met Moisés García Guzmán, from Tlacochahuaya. Moisés is involved in a project using and teaching his language on YouTube. Check out his and his friend's wonderful project here. This kind of work is so inspirational and important and I was happy to meet Moisés in person and talk about Zapotec.
Talking about Zapotec-- and in Zapotec-- at UCLA. After helping Helen and Alex get settled, I left Oaxaca to spend some time in California. I knew I was leaving them in good hands in their internship and with their amazing host family. And I will be back soon to spend the rest of the summer in Oaxaca.
But for now, I'm in Southern California. What might be surprising, is that I'm also doing fieldwork on Zapotec here. There is a large community of Zapotec people in the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area. The last three days in particular have involved lots of freeways (the 101, the 405, the 5) and lots of Zapotec. I've worked with my long-time Zapotec teacher Roberto Antonio Ruiz (a speaker of Tlacolula de Matamoros Zapotec), with another long-time Zapotec teacher and friend, Victoria Lopez (a speaker of San Lucas Quiaviní Zapotec), and I got to hear a variety of Zapotec I had never heard before, when I met Moisés García Guzmán, from Tlacochahuaya. Moisés is involved in a project using and teaching his language on YouTube. Check out his and his friend's wonderful project here. This kind of work is so inspirational and important and I was happy to meet Moisés in person and talk about Zapotec.
I've had other wonderful company this week, working with linguists Prof. Pamela Munro and Prof. Michael Galant and ethnohistorian Xochitl Flores-Marcial, Ph.D. Candidate at UCLA.
One thing I've been doing this past week is making digital audio recordings for an online talking dictionary for Valley Zapotec, supported by LivingTongues. The Talking Dictionary is still in the works, but we'll be posting a link to the live web page within the next few weeks. For now, you can listen to a recording of how to say "good morning" in Tlacochahuaya Zapotec (speaker Moisés García Guzmán).
One thing I've been doing this past week is making digital audio recordings for an online talking dictionary for Valley Zapotec, supported by LivingTongues. The Talking Dictionary is still in the works, but we'll be posting a link to the live web page within the next few weeks. For now, you can listen to a recording of how to say "good morning" in Tlacochahuaya Zapotec (speaker Moisés García Guzmán).