DOCTORAL DISSERTATION RESEARCH: A Grammar of Huehuetla Tepehua

本论文的研究将提供墨西哥托托纳坎语系的一员Tepehua的Huehuetla变体的语法。说Huehuetla Tepehua（以下简称HT）的确切人数尚不清楚，但在墨西哥的伊达尔戈州、韦拉克鲁斯州和普埃布拉州，说三种Tepehua语的人不到一万人。赫特语只在Huehuetla镇和偏远的村庄使用。Huehuetla语的语法，包括语言的基本描述，HT/西班牙语词典，以及HT故事和其他文本的汇编，将作为语言学论文提交给德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校。本课题对多个领域和群体具有重要意义。首先，它对语言学意义重大，因为它将提供一种几乎没有记录的语言的描述，它将有助于确定HT和相关的Tlachichilco Tepehua是同一种语言的方言还是不同的语言。更具体地说，它将对历史语言学领域具有重要意义，因为HT语法将有助于促进原始totoncan的重建。其次，该项目将为关注中美洲的领域提供有用的结果，例如考古学和艺术史，以及利用历史语言学来破译象形文字和重建史前。第三，该项目将对特佩华人本身具有重要意义：(1)它将为语言保护所需的教学材料提供基础，(2)它将为他们提供一个以他们的母语书写和记录的文学体系的开端，并与他们的文化相关。该项目包括在Huehuetla镇及其周边地区进行9个月的实地考察。收集的数据将由引出的单词和句子组成；引申的叙述，如故事、食谱和笑话；以及自然发生的语言，比如谈话和仪式。所有数据将记录在微型磁盘上；这些叙述也将被记录在Hi8录像带上，既可以记录演讲事件，也可以帮助分析和翻译。

This dissertation research will provide a grammar of the Huehuetla variety of Tepehua, a member of the Totonacan language family of Mexico. The precise number of remaining speakers of Huehuetla Tepehua (henceforth HT) is unknown, but the three varieties of Tepehua are spoken by fewer than 10,000 people in the Mexican states of Hidalgo, Veracruz, and Puebla. HT is spoken only in the township of Huehuetla and the outlying villages. The grammar of Huehuetla, to consist of a basic description of the language, an HT/Spanish dictionary, and a compilation of stories and other texts in HT, will be submitted to the University of Texas at Austin as a dissertation in linguistics.This project has significance for several fields and groups. First, it will be significant for linguistics because it will provide a description of a nearly undocumented language, and it will help determine whether HT and the related variety Tlachichilco Tepehua are dialects of the same language or separate languages. More specifically, it will be important to the field of historical linguistics, because a grammar of HT will help facilitate the reconstruction of Proto-Totoncan. Second, the project will provide results that will be useful to fields that focus on Mesoamerica, such as archaeology and art history, and that utilize historical linguistics to decipher glyphs and to reconstruct prehistory. Third, the project will be significant for the Tepehua people themselves: (i) it will provide a foundation on which to base pedagogical materials needed for language preservation, and (ii) it will provide them with the beginnings of a body of literature that is written and recorded in their native language and culturally relevant to them.The project involves nine months of fieldwork in and around the town of Huehuetla. The collected data will consist of elicited words and sentences; elicited narratives such as stories, recipes and jokes; and naturally-occurring speech, such as conversations and ceremonies. All data will be recorded on minidiscs; the narratives will be recorded on Hi8 videotapes as well, both to document speech events and to aid in analysis and translation.