(ANS - Soyapango) - During the month of November at the House of the Academies of Soyapango, the book "The Pipil people and its language return to life", was launched by Jorge Lemus, director of the Investigation Department of Linguistics in Don Bosco University.
Lyle Richard Campbell, a renowned linguist at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, said: "it is a work in which the author helps to create national awareness of the precarious situation of the Pipil people and their language". He also says that "the model developed by Dr Lemus and described in this book will help to improve the resources available to others around the world whose language needs protection and revitalization."
The process of revitalizing Nahuat in El Salvador began in 2004, promoted by a small group of enthusiastic teachers in three educational centres of Sonsonate. Today, the programme is active in 38 educational centres where more than 5000 children and young people study Nahuat as a foreign language. In addition there is a centre of language immersion for children 3 to 5 years, known as Cot Nahuat, where indigenous women use Nahuat as the exclusive language of instruction
Rafael Lara-Martinez said that "from the perspective of ecology of language [Jorge Lemus] recognizes the semi-invisible indigenous permanence, in a country considered exceptionally mixed", and she stressed that the "model of language revival of náhuat- pipil offers an innovative approach ... and promises to become a model in revitalizing indigenous languages throughout the Central American region."
The book is part of the Thirtieth Anniversary Collection of Don Bosco University Publishers. It has six chapters on issues such as indigenous identity, the relationship between language and power, language revival on the model developed by the author and its application in reviving the Nahuat language
Dr Jorge Lemus is a linguist, translator, researcher and university professor. He has been responsible for 50 academic publications including articles, books, textbooks and essays. He is also the director of the scientific journal of the Don Bosco University and a member of the Salvadorean Academy of Language. In 2010 he was awarded the National Prize of Culture, for his research work on the Nahuat-Pipil language and his commitment to revitalize it.
The book can be purchased from Don Bosco University Publishers, Ciudadela Don Bosco, Soyopango.
Published 15/12/2015