Nahuatl Cultural Encyclopedia: Botany and Zoology, Balsas ... - Famsi

Textual Documentation: Audio and Transcription
Digital recording of Nahuatl ethnobiological knowledge has continued throughout the
term of the FAMSI grant. A more recent focus has been on insects, after extensive
recordings on plants (approximately 50 hours) and birds (approximately 10 hours) had
been achieved. Although a complete catalogue of material is in development, probably
over 75 hours of material have been recorded. These are being selected for
transcription and, eventually, online presentation in the Nahuatl Learning Environment:
Cultural Encyclopedia. The recordings are according to archival best practices: 48KHz
sampling rate, 16-bit. A Sonifex Courier digital recorder is used with an ATM-75 cardiod
headset microphone.
Transcriptions are developed in a three-stage process. First, native speakers who have
been trained in Nahuatl language documentation are given a digitally recorded text to
transcribe using the program Transcriber. The time-coded transcription is then
proofread. Second, the resulting time-coded transcription is exported to a text format. It
is again proofed and also edited for "publication" and distribution to most end users (i.e.,
punctuation marks are added and paragraphs divided). Third, the now formatted and
proofed text is reimported into a time code for line-by-line playback through a Web
interface. A software program called Webscriber is being developed for this purpose.
Dozens of hours of material is in one of the three stages of transcription and textual
presentation.
Audio files and textual material will be permanently archived at the Archive of
Indigenous Languages of Latin America (University of Texas). A more interactive
presentation is presently being developed for uploading at the Linguistic Data
Consortium, University of Pennsylvania.
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