Coahuilteco Language Reclamation Program

Abstract

The Coahuilteco language had been dormant for approximately 200 years. It was documented by two Franciscan priests, Gabriel De Vegara (1730) Cuadernillo de los Indios Pajalates and Bartholomé Garcia (1760). Manual para administrator los santos sacraments de penitencia, eucharistia, extrema-uncion, y matimonio: dar gracias despues de comulgar y ayudar a bien morir. These documents represent the limited corpus of the language. These documents were analyzed and described by two American linguists John Reed Swanton (1940) and Rudolph C. Troike (1959-2015). Their analyses and descriptions of the language posed many problems (reading and interpreting linguistic jargon) for the community of lineal descendants attempting to awaken and reclaim the language. Troike (p.c.2016) provided the community with valuable insights and decoding keys to help the community interpret the linguistic jargon; thus, helping the community answer the question of ‘‘How do we facilitate the teaching and learning of the scholarly research of the heritage language to the community?” Further knowledge of teaching the scholarly material has been provided by Wilson De Lima Silva (p.c.2022).