Documentation of Choapan Zapotec

My summer 2012 fieldwork focused on continuing documentation work of Choapan Zapotec, an Oto-Manguean language spoken in Northern Central Oaxaca, Mexico. Choapan Zapotec is an endangered language, as it is only spoken by about 12,000 people, and faces increasing pressure from Spanish. The specific documentation goal of this summer was continuing data collection and verification for a dictionary of Choapan Zapotec. The majority of my work with a linguistic consultant involved checking dictionary entries, and collecting example sentences for each entry as well. I was able to verify and collect examples for about half of the entries in the dictionary. My experiences in the community of San Pedro Tres Arroyos also gave me a greater understanding of Choapan Zapotec culture, including religious beliefs and medicinal practices. All of my fieldnotes and recordings will be archived according to best linguistic practices. My Choapan Zapotec dictionary will be published, after further verification and editing, through Mexico's Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas. All of the data I collected this summer will be used in further language documentation, preservation, and revitalization projects of Choapan Zapotec.