Linguistics School Students’ Expedition to Guatemala
Elizaveta Vostokova and Alexandra Kozhukhar, students at the School of Linguistics, took part in the expedition to Guatemala in June 2016. The event was organized by the University of Maryland and was dedicated to research into the Kaqchikel Maya people. The expedition was led by Maria Polinsky, Professor of Linguistics, Omer Preminger, Assistant Professor in the Department of Linguistics, and Pedro Mateo, Assistant Research Professor at the Maryland Language Science Center. During the first two weeks of the expedition, the participants studied the Kaqchikel language, the rest of the time they spent working with native speakers.
The expedition ran from June 1 to June 30. During the first two weeks, students attended a local Kaqchikel language school organized by the volunteer organization Wuqu’ Kawoq, which provides medical support to locals. It’s office is located in Tecpán, Chimaltenango Department.
Students were hosted by local families throughout their stay. Classes were held on weekdays from 8 am to 4 pm. During and after classes the students had the opportunity to work with native speakers, also enabling them to study different dialects of Kaqchikel. On weekends the group went on excursions to lake Atitlan and Antigua, the former capital of Guatemala.
The students also visited Altiplano – the campus of Universidad del Valle de Guatemala in Sololá, where they presented findings from their field studies. They had the opportunity to discuss their research plans and to share their experiences with their Guatemalan colleagues.
After studying at the language school the expedition moved to the city of Patzún, for field studies. Most of the time, the students worked with the families they lived with. The participants studied not only Kaqchikel, but also other Guatemalan indigenous languages – K'iche’, Tz'utujil and Mam.
In their free time, the students played football, went to the market, had picnics and climbed the volcano. The HSE School of Linguistics hopes that this experience will become a tradition and that next year students of the School will participate in another expedition, continuing to make their contribution to the description of Mayan languages.
This expedition was the students’ first experience of research in the field, and therefore it plays a key role in research development for both the HSE School of Linguistics and the University of Maryland. The expedition also saw the creation of the first field station for linguistic research in Guatemala, founded by Universidad del Valle de Guatemala with the support of the University of Maryland. The participants studied and worked in international groups with researchers from a number of different countries: Brazil, Poland, the Netherlands, Germany, Guatemala and the United States.
For more information about the expedition please see the participants’ blog.
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