Long before the first Europeans set foot on the New World, the indigenous people of Mexico and Central America spoke a common language called Nahuatl. In fact, during the Spanish conquest, Nahuatl became the language through which Europeans and these native cultures communicated.
This year for the first time, Yale's Summer Language Institute will offer a program in Nahuatl June 15-Aug. 7. The program is being sponsored by the Council on Latin American Studies, part of the Yale Center for International and Area Studies, with funding from a federal Title VI grant.
Today there are about one million Nahuatl speakers living in the area from northern Mexico to El Salvador. There is also a vast body of written literature in the language, including poetry, historical accounts, court documents and mythology. It is widely considered one of the most important of the New World languages by historians, as well as linguists, anthropologists and scholars of Meso-America.
"Nahuatl is a seldom-taught but important language," says Jonathan Amith, who is coordinating the Yale program and will serve as an instructor. He notes that, in any given year, only two or three universities may offer instruction in the language. This summer, Yale is the only place in the United States where Nahuatl will be taught.
An anthropologist, Amith lived for five years in the Nahuatl-speaking communities of Ameyaltepec and Oapun in Mexico. He has written widely about the language and is author of a forthcoming dictionary of the Ameyaltepec dialect of Nahuatl.
The eight-week program at Yale will incude three one-week intensive seminars with outstanding scholars in Nahuatl language and culture. Leading these seminars will be Michel Launey of the Université de Paris, an expert in classical Nahuatl and theoretical linguistics; Una Canger of the University of Copenhagen, an expert in Nahuatl dialectology and historical linguistics; and Karen Dakin of the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México, an expert in Nahuatl phonology and morphology. A number of guest speakers have also been scheduled.
The Nahuatl program is being presented under the auspices of Yale Summer Programs and is also sponsored by the University of Chicago's Center for Latin American Studies and the Latin American Studies Consortium of New England, a partnership between Yale and Brown and the Universities of Connecticut and Massachusetts.
Students in the program will earn six hours of course credit from Yale Summer Programs. Plans call for the program to be offered for two years, so students can take it to fulfill a language requirement.
"Being able to offer an indigenous language of Latin America gives much added depth to our council, as well as supporting studies at Yale of Mexican and Central American civilizations," says David Jackson, chair of the Council on Latin American Studies. He notes that the council plans to put much of the course on CD ROM and on video, particularly the talks by guest lecturers.
The Nahuatl Summer Language Institute is open to undergraduates, graduate students and scholars from outside of Yale. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis. Yale undergraduates may apply for tuition assistance, and graduate students are eligible for Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) grants (application deadline: March 25).
For application materials and further information, visit the web site at www.yale.edu/nahuatl; or contact the Nahuatl Summer Language Institute at the Council on Latin American Studies, Yale Center for International and Area Studies, Yale University, P.O. Box 208206, New Haven, CT 06520-8206. Information is also available by calling 432-3422 or sending email to latin.america@yale.edu.