Let's speak Spanish
Hablemos español
Object Details
| Subject Language | Seri |
| Language PID(s) | ailla:119623 |
| Title [Indigenous] | Cocsar íitong quih cöscóoza |
| Language of Indigenous Title | sei |
| Title | Let's speak Spanish |
| Language Community | |
| Country(ies) | Mexico |
| Place Created | Mexico City |
| Date Created | 1964 |
| Description [Indigenous] | |
| Language of Indigenous Description | |
| Description | In the mid 1960’s a little book was prepared by someone in the Department of Education of Mexico as part of an effort to help school children who spoke an indigenous language in the home to bridge from that language to Spanish. This book, Hablemos español, was a collection of simple sentences in Spanish that were translated into the indigenous language; they were accompanied by simple but effective line drawings. While these books were published by SIL (ILV) in cooperation with the government of Mexico, it is important to recognize that the contents was set by someone in the Mexican government, and there was minimal adaptation to the different minority languages and cultures. The book was translated into numerous languages of Mexico, including Seri. Some sentences were very simple, while others were obviously a bit difficult to translate, both for linguistic reasons and cultural reasons. Some of the sentences are appropriate for any culture, while others seem more specifically oriented to Mesoamerican cultures of southern Mexico or to non-Indian Mexican culture. It is not clear what the purpose is of every sentence, and some are rather surprising in content, especially from our perspective today. Nevertheless, the book contains a variety of simple sentences which illustrate various aspects of the Seri language, if one keeps in mind the observations made above. (For a better sample of sentences, see those in the Archivo de Lenguas Indígenas de México survey, SEI003R017.)) The Seri version of this book was translated by Roberto Herrera Marcos and prepared for publication by Edward W. Moser and Mary B. Moser, although no author is mentioned in the book itself. The following files provides word-for-word (sometimes idiom-for-idiom) translations of these sentences. The Spanish sentences are reproduced exactly as in the original book except that accents on capitalized letters are now included when expected by current conventions. The Seri sentences are presented as originally translated, but the spelling conventions and word break conventions have been updated to agree with the 2005 Seri dictionary. Various minor corrections have also been made. In addition, various names and “spontaneous” Spanish loanwords have been transcribed as they would be written in Spanish (that is, not adapted to the Seri spelling system), despite how they were rendered in the book. Two examples: instead of róosa for ‘rose’, I write “rosa” (with the quote marks), and instead of Oajáaca for ‘Oaxaca’, I write “Oaxaca” (with the quote marks). While the content of the book hardly represents Seri culture very well, it does provide a sizeable number of simple sentences that reflect the structure of the Seri language. The sentences from this publication have been recast into the practical alphabet and updated to agree in spelling and word breaks with the 2005 dictionary. Word glosses have been done in the same format as the other texts included here. (c) SIL International The book is divided into files of four pages each. |
| Genres | Educational material |
| Source Note | |
| References | Moser, Edward W. and Mary B. Moser. 1964. Hablemos español (Cocsar íitong quih cöscóoza). México: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano. |
| Contributor(s) Individual / Role | Herrera Marcos, Roberto (Translator) Moser, Edward (Editor) Moser, Mary B. (Editor) |
| Contributor(s) Corporate / Role |
Media Files
There are 21 objects in this resource| Object | File Types | Access Level |
|---|---|---|
| SEI003R018I001.pdf | application/pdf | 1 |
| SEI003R018I002.pdf | application/pdf | 1 |
| SEI003R018I003.pdf | application/pdf | 1 |
| SEI003R018I004.pdf | application/pdf | 1 |
| SEI003R018I005.pdf | application/pdf | 1 |
| SEI003R018I006.pdf | application/pdf | 1 |
| SEI003R018I007.pdf | application/pdf | 1 |
| SEI003R018I008.pdf | application/pdf | 1 |
| SEI003R018I009.pdf | application/pdf | 1 |
| SEI003R018I010.pdf | application/pdf | 1 |
| SEI003R018I011.pdf | application/pdf | 1 |
| SEI003R018I012.pdf | application/pdf | 1 |
| SEI003R018I013.pdf | application/pdf | 1 |
| SEI003R018I014.pdf | application/pdf | 1 |
| SEI003R018I015.pdf | application/pdf | 1 |
| SEI003R018I016.pdf | application/pdf | 1 |
| SEI003R018I017.pdf | application/pdf | 1 |
| SEI003R018I018.pdf | application/pdf | 1 |
| SEI003R018I019.pdf | application/pdf | 1 |
| SEI003R018I020.pdf | application/pdf | 1 |
| SEI003R018I021.pdf | application/pdf | 1 |
