The Grammar of Nouns: Documenting the Landscape of an Otomi Community

Abstract

This dissertation contributes to our understanding of the Noun Phrase in Otomi through the study of landscape. The importance of this study relies on the role that names play in human cognition. Since naming allows us to refer, and interact with our surroundings, this study gives us an insight into the speakers’ perception of their environment, as well as the structure of the language used to talk about that environment. The resulting description of Otomi toponyms thus provides further details about the relation between humans, land, and identity. Additionally, I develop proposals for Indigenous signage as a tool for language recognition and visibility. Hence, this project has major implications for linguists, educators, and community members. This work looks at the case of Temoaya Otomi, a variety of Otomi spoken in the State of Mexico with a large number of fluent speakers. The Otomi data were collected during the Winter of 2022. Due to the fact that toponyms are nominals, this dissertation first presents a description of the rules that govern nominal morphosyntactic structure and semantics. Due to the fact that toponyms are closely connected to the environment in which speakers live, it also presents a description of the geographical elements of the area, including man-made and historical elements of the region. Although the documentation is mainly focused on landscape and geography, since they are noninvasive and comfortable to discuss for long periods of time while taking field walks in the area, discussed examples were not restricted to the sole use of nominals that refer to landscape and geography. Thus, because a wide variety of topics were discussed, the result of this documentation is a collection of life memories that has been compiled and translated into Spanish and English. These narratives contain geographical vocabulary of areas meaningful for community members, but also discuss facets of everyday life. From these texts lexical items have been gathered into a geographical dictionary that is presented as part of the Appendix, as well as a glossary of Otomi toponyms. Local history and explanations provided by the community members for the form of certain toponyms have been included in existing cases. This material aims to add to the efforts of language maintenance by providing tangible data that reflects the knowledge of the community. Furthermore, this will be useful for everyone interested in the language or culture of the area. Concluding that Indigenous toponyms should get more attention not only because they are general knowledge, but because they are part of our history, identity and can have a positive effect for touristic purposes. As for speakers, they will be able to see the complexity of their language and the richness of their varieties, hoping to motivate them to maintain and transmit it to the next generations.