AMATEUR LINGUISTICS IN MEXICO

I visited Mexico for many years and then purchased a home in Rosarito Beach, Baja California after a marriage with Nancy, the third major love of my life. The home in La Jolla had been sold and Mexico offered a comfortable residence that I could purchase without a mortgage. Nancy loved Mexico and we decided that love for Mexico would be a complement to our marriage so we both admitted that we have a three part love.

It became important to improve our language skills in order to understand the words used by residents who share the country of our joint love. I soon learned that I think without words. It was difficult to find words in Spanish that would express my thoughts that were easily discussed in English. My thoughts remained trapped without words to express them. We are still practicing for more and better ability in the Spanish language.

I was retired but Nancy was still minister of a church so she retained her townhouse in San Diego. We started to live on both sides of the border and learned to cope with the legal border as well as the linguistics barrier. I was in love, an amateur, helpless in the grip of linguistics as well as border guards. I learned to tolerate border guards but I still am engaged with the science of linguistics. I resist any feeling of helplessness by ra-assigning the energy provided by my retirement from the workforce.

I have a healthy curiosity, along with Nancy. We sometimes try to explain our love for Mexico. At other times we just enjoy it especially since she sold her townhouse and bought a home in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato. We now live in central colonial Mexico. Easy living was the hook and a fine view was the line that drew us here where we now live.

My curiosity brought me into the study of Mexican culture and then study of the words recorded by the early explorers of Mexico. Cortez and his military expedition in search of gold were first. They were soon accompanied by a group of Catholic scholars that recorded the fluent Nahuatl teachings in Spanish letters for King Carlos of Spain who wanted to know the thoughts of his new subjects. Some of the words written in Spanish letters survived the perilous voyages to Spain but many of the surviving manuscripts were captured. I thought that the surviving words would be the key that would unlock the ancient secrets that fuel my love for Mexico.

My library has expaned as I read travel stories, archaeological descriptions, admired the work of ancient artists. etc.,eyc. A bibliography in the appendix shows the variety of books which I have accumulated and attempted to understand.

Surviving copies of sixteenth century manuscripts became the resources for many scholars of linguistics. My education did not include linguistics and I have become an amateur student of an extensive school of academic linguistics. This explans my dual meanings of amateur, as a lover, and as a student with no academic qualifications.

I did not admire the rules grammar when in college. I thought they were extra impediments when I already knew how to express myself in writing. The Spanish scholars of sixteenth century used their understanding of Latin grammar as they developed grammar to organize the fluent speech of Nahuatl scholars. I attempted to understand Carocci's sixteenth century Spanish book in an English translation. It is well written but it did not teach me to read the recorded Nahuatl speakers with any great facility. Then I attempted to understand the "Grammar of Classical Nahuatl by Andrews. I developed an admiration for the difficulty of understanding Nahuatl but still did not learn how to read.

I started to study " " by Lockhart and started to study " " by Sullivan. The maze became more difficult as I continued to be frustrated before reaching my goal. I discovered the " " mailing list and began e-mail communication with Anderson. He was extremely gracious with my amateur leanings and mailed a CD with many helpful sentence parts he had gleaned from many years as a professor of Linguistics. Then another friend in San Miguel made me a zerox copy of an illustrated book for self teaching of young Spanish students of Nahuatl. I can read and repeat the 300+ snippets of conversation in that book which is in a modern dialect of the still living language.

An example of my studies is included in another google document. "CUICAPEUHCAYOTL" which I found on my hard drive with creation date 07/26/2007. It was created while we were in Rosarito last year! I remembered that study while reviewing the online file of documents in Project Gutenberg. My studies continue. Another example is in anoher google document: TLAMAUIZ MAHMANI TLACECELHTIAedited on December 3, 2007 9:51 AM by Oenthomas.

Another reference
http://www.sil.org/mexico/nahuatl/guerrero/L003-PuedeHablar-nah.htm

28 Jan 2008 I went to the Ignacio Ramirez market and located the area where merchants from Guerrero have their booths. I took a copy of lesson 30 from the above referenced book in order to show the resources available for self study. There I was able to contact a speaker of Nahuatl, Florencio,who wants to consider trading his knowledge for my translations and help in speaking English. It that San Miguel de Allende has suffieient resources for study of the document referenced above by www.sil.org