A cross-varietal documentation and description of Pesh, a Chibchan language of Honduras
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| Language | Pesh |
| Depositor | Claudine Chamoreau |
| Affiliation | CNRS |
| Location | Honduras |
| Collection ID | 0392 |
| Grant ID | MDP0276 |
| Funding Body | ELDP |
| Collection Status | Collection online |
| Landing Page Handle | http://hdl.handle.net/2196/5e04e334-1619-48f4-9db9-0e6929148cd2 |
Blog posts
Community Member Bio: Simeon Angel Martínez Torres, Pech Community (Honduras)
Publication of the First Two Books Written in Pesh
Summary of the collection
A guide to the collection, with extended information on dialects, degrees of endangerment and the morphosyntax of Pesh can be found in the bundle titled language_information.
This collection includes audio-video recordings of three dialects of Pesh, the northernmost of the sixteen living Chibchan languages. These varieties are mutually intelligible and are spoken in fourteen villages in various geographic areas of Honduras (see map 1). Many of the recordings are monologues, interviews, or conversations. All the material deposited in ELAR comes from eight villages and is entirely transcribed and translated into Spanish. Gradually, all the material will be improved by a line of morphological analysis and another of glosses. 126 pictures taken in the eight villages are also available. The material constitutes a collection of transcribed traditional texts: prayers, ceremonial speech, narratives related to traditional cooking and medicine.
This material is completed by the publication of the first two books written in Pesh with translations into Spanish, French, and English and an audiovisual version (http://www.cemca.org.mx/wicha-akaki/). A documentary is also available (https://youtu.be/BBNvI_DuDK8). It shows the stages of the documentation project, and second, the activities connected with the book project.
Group represented
Pesh is the northernmost of the sixteen living Chibchan languages, and the only one spoken in Honduras
Language information
Pesh, formerly known as Paya
Special characteristics
This collection is a multi-dialect collection. Please check whether you are using a recording from Carbon (Files begin by car, agu, lag), Culmi (Files begin by mor, sil, cam, ndn) or Las Marias (mar).
Two associated products:
- The first two books written in Pesh with translations into Spanish, French, and English (at the end of each book) have been published. There is also an audiovisual version available for both books; this publication is now available:
http://www.cemca.org.mx/wicha-akaki/
https://blogs.soas.ac.uk/elar/2017/11/30/publication-of-the-first-two-books-written-in-pesh/
- The documentary idea emerged in 2016 when we finished the preparation of the manuscripts of the books. Ludovic Bonleux, a filmmaker, agreed to conduct fieldwork for three weeks to record different stages of the documentation and book projects. The objective of the documentary is to present the two projects: first, the stages of the documentation project, and second, the activities connected with the book project and the occasions when we went to give out the books in the villages. We want to show everyday life during fieldwork and to demonstrate how the two projects are different but related and interacting. The other objective is to disseminate the Pesh language (and culture) and spread it beyond the Pesh villages, first in Honduras and then internationally. This is why this 50 min. documentary will exist in three versions, a Spanish-subtitled version to be finished in September 2017 and then two other versions, one with subtitles in French and the other in English.
English version
Language documentation in Pesh (Honduras). What went out from us has come back written.
Versión en español
Documentación de la lengua pesh (Honduras). Salió de nosotros y regresó escrito.
Version en français
Documentation de la langue pesh (Honduras). Ce qui est sorti de nous est revenu écrit.
Collection contents
The majority of bundles in this collection are audio-video recordings. There are more than 26 hours of narrative, conversations and interviews: More than 25 hours from the variety of Carbon, more than 24 hours from the variety of Culmi and more than 3 hours from the variety of Las Marias. All the files have been transcribed and translated in Spanish. The materiel constitutes a collection of transcribed traditional texts: prayers, ceremonial speech, narratives related to traditional cooking and medicine.
Some linguistic and sociolinguistic questionnaires have also been deposited. There are also 126 pictures from the different villages.
References
Chamoreau, Claudine, and Natalia Cáceres Arandia. 2024. Texts in the Indigenous Languages of the Americas: Texts in Three Varieties of Pesh. International Journal of American Linguistics 90, no. S1.
Acknowledgement and citation
Funding for the creation of this collection and the associated products came from ELDP,
Labex Empirical Foundations of Linguistics (http://www.labex-
efl.com/wordpress/2018/02/08/documentation-de- la-langue- pesh-honduras- ce-qui- est-sorti-
de-nous- est-revenu- ecrit/), CEMCA (http://www.cemca.org.mx/wicha-akaki/).
To refer to any data from the collection, please cite as follows:
Chamoreau, Claudine. 2015. A cross-varietal documentation and description of Pesh, a Chibchan language of Honduras. Endangered Languages Archive. Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/2196/00-0000-0000-000F-BF49-B. Accessed on [insert date here].
