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Paper presented at UNESCO’s Expert Meeting on Endangered Languages, UNESCO headquarters, Paris, 10-12 March 2003

Revitalizing indigenous languages: the case of Pipil in El * Salvador

Jorge E. Lemus Universidad Don Bosco/Penn State University 2003

In this paper, I first provide a brief historical background about the origin of the Pipil people, the Conquest, the Colony, and the continuous deterioration of their language and culture to their present state. Then, I give a general description of the Pipil people and their language today. Finally, I propose a five-component language revitalization process intended to reverse language shift in cases such as Pipil, which is found at the final stage of language extinction.

1. Origin of the Pipil people Several studies (Barberena 1966, Fowler 1989, Campbell 1985) place the arrival of the Pipil people to between the IX and XII Centuries AD. They were a Nahua group fleeing from Xoconochco (Soconusco), , to escape the Olmec’s tyranny. There is, however, very little historical evidence regarding the pre-Columbian history of . Fowler (1989) mentions the believed existence of the Manuscrito Pipil, containing an important part of the history of the Pipil people and their social organization, but no such document has ever been found. Nonetheless, there are other accounts accepted as historically valid. The Franciscan Chronicler in his Monarquía Indiana (1966, first published in 1615), mentions the arrival of the Pipil to Central America. Torquemada’s account is based on interviews he carried out in Mexico and Central America. Starting in 1591, Torquemada began collecting information about different ethnic groups of , based on their oral tradition. The Pipil-Nicarao from told him, when asked where they came from and when, that they had come from “where the sun sets”, about seven or eight ages, or lives of an old man before the Spanish came to Nicaragua1. This means that the first waves of Pipil immigrants came to Central America between 728 and 832 years before

* I am grateful to Alan King, Monica Ward, Chip Gerfen, and Jackeline Toribio for their comments and discussion on an earlier version of this paper. All mistakes, however, are my sole responsibility. 1 An old man lived two cycles of 52 years; that is, 104 years or one huehuetiliztli, according to Thompson (1948) and Jiménez (1959).

2 the Spanish, or before Torquemada carried out his interviews: the VIII or IX Centuries AD. Some archaeological evidence places the arrival of the first waves of to Central America about 200 years earlier (VI Century AD), and Lehman (1920, cited by Fowler 1989) concludes that because of the archaic status of the Pipil language compared to (Mexica) and the Nahuat of the Nicarao, the Pipil should have arrived to El Salvador around the fourth century AD. The linguistic and archaeological evidence recorded by several scholars makes us conclude that the Nahua migrations to Central America took place in different waves, during a period of about six hundred years (VII to XII Centuries AD). Lehman’s observation that Pipil of El Salvador is more archaic than that of the Nicarao, although refuted by Campbell (1985), plus the evidence provided above, provides grounds for a Diaspora that took place over the centuries. The Pipil people were warriors, and they found little resistance from the scattered Maya groups they encountered on their way to Central America, especially in El Salvador, from whence most Mayas had fled north, to and . They established themselves in Central and Western El Salvador, using the Lempa River to the East and the Paz River to the west as natural borders. Other Nahua migrants settled in Guatemala and in Nicaragua at different times.

2. The Conquest Most of the reports we have about the conquest and colonization of El Salvador come from the conquerors themselves (letters, reports, and legal proceedings); native accounts are only provided through interviews as the ones carried out by Torquemada (1966) or the translation of native manuscripts, such as the Annals of the Cackchiquels. In this section, I give a brief account of the Conquest of Kuskatan (Modern El Salvador) by the Spanish, based on both types of historical sources. Captain Don , one of Hernán Cortez’s deputies, began the Conquest of Kuskatan in May or June, 1524. His army consisted of 200 Spanish soldiers and about 2000 indigenous people he brought from Guatemala. The Pipil from Itzalco were waiting for the Spanish at Acaxual (near the modern Acajutla Port), wearing their war costumes, with spears and arrows, and heavy armors. They looked so fierce, that Alvarado himself states in a letter to Hernán Cortez, how scared he felt upon seeing the Pipil troops, which outnumbered the Spanish by thousands (Barberena 1966). Alvarado strategically retreated to a place, between mountains, where his army could counterattack. The Pipil army was massacred. Their cotton armors were so heavy that when they fell down, they couldn’t get up, and were, then, killed on the ground. Five days later, the Pipil had organized another army to fight the Spanish in Tacuscalco. It was a terrible battle. The Spanish horsemen and Alvarado’s superior military strategies guaranteed another success for the conquerors. Once the Itzalcos were defeated, Alvarado marched towards Kuskatan, the major domain of the Pipil. He did not encounter any resistance there. On the contrary, the Pipil were peacefully waiting for the Spaniards with fruit, turkeys and other food. Since the Pipil did not have any gold to offer the Spanish, they offered copper axes to the conquerors instead. Alvarado was not satisfied and as his prize for conquering Kuskatan he enslaved and branded the Pipil to serve his Spanish soldiers. Many Pipil soldiers fled to the mountains, escaping the brutality of the Spanish conquerors. Alvarado himself, in his 1529 proceedings in Mexico, accepts these charges, and, in a letter sent to Cortez, he tells

3 him that he decided to hang the rulers of Kuskatan and enslave the Pipil to sell them in order to recover the expenses he underwent in the conquest, i.e., ammunitions, horses, men, (Barberena 1966:303). There were several battles afterwards, and the conquest of Kuskatan was not completed. Alvarado went back to Guatemala, and returned in 1525 (or at the end of 1524) and founded San Salvador with his brother Diego de Alvarado.

3. The road to linguistic death At the time of the Spanish arrival, there were several languages spoken in present day El Salvador, but the dominant one was Pipil, at least to the west of the Lempa River. There were other languages spoken in eastern El Salvador (, Cacaopera) and to the north (Chortí, Mame and other ). Pokomam was spoken in Chalchuapa (West), and Lenca in Sensuntepeque and Ilobasco (Central). There were other languages, but most of them were regarded as inferior to Pipil, and were called either Popoluca or Chontal, Nahuatl words that mean rustic, twisted, incomprehensible, and foreign.2 The Pipil people were then the rulers of Kuskatan and their language was the lingua franca of the region.

3.1 Linguistic Classification Pipil3 is a Uto-Aztecan language, independent from other Nahuatl varieties found in Mexico. It is the result of the first major division of Nahuatl (Whorf 1937, Swadesh 1954-1955) that created the Nahuatl-Nahuat distinction. Subsequent subdivisions created the nahual varieties. These divisions are based on the phonemic evolution of the 4 alveolateral affricate /tl̮/ that became /t/ for Pipil and /l/ for other Aztec languages. The th /tl̮/ ~ /t/ division took place around the 11 Century, which coincides with the arrival of the Pipil to Central America, as discussed above. This places Pipil as one of the most archaic varieties of proto Aztec. At the time the Spanish came to El Salvador, their Aztec translators regarded the language spoken by the natives as corrupt Mexica.5 Within the Uto-Aztecan family of languages, Pipil can be classified as follows (Campbell 1997:134).

2 These languages actually exist with these names, but at the time, the Pipil used them to refer to any language other than Pipil. 3 Pipil is also known in the literature as Nahuat and Nawat. Nawate is also an autoglotonym reported by Campbell (1985) but which is no longer used. 4 Hasler (1954-1955) proposes other morphological and phonological differences to classify the Nahua dialects into four geographical regions. Swadesh (1954-1955) offers a glottochronological analysis of the Nahua languages. 5 There are at least two different versions about the origin of the term Pipil. One of the versions refers to the supposed leader of the first Nahua settlers in El Salvador, Pipilzín, a noble child, or prince. So, based on these facts, the Pipil are descendants of the noble Pipilzín. The other version states that, because of their language, which sounded to the Aztec translators as badly spoken Nahuatl (corrupt Mexica), as if spoken by a child learning the language, the Spanish called these people Pipil, which means child, to denote the kind of Nahuatl they spoke.

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Figure 1 Uto-Aztecan family of languages

 Northern Uto-Aztecan Numic (Plateau Shoshoni) Western Paviotso-Bannock-Snake (Northern Paiute) Oregon, Idaho, Monache (Mono) [obsolescent] Central Shoshoni-Goshiute, Panamint [obsolescent] Nevada, , ; Comanche [obsolescent] Southern Southern Paiute Utah, Nevada, California, Ute, Chemehuevi [obsolescent] Utah, Colorado, California, Arizona Kawaiisu [obsolescent] California Tübatulabal (Kern River) [moribund] California Takic (Southern California Shoshoni) Serran: Serrano [moribund]; †Kitanemuk California Cahuilla [moribund]; Cupeño [moribund] California Luiseño-Juaneño [obsolescent] California †Gabrielini-†Fernandeño California Hopi Arizona  Southern Uto-Aztecan Pimic (Tepinam) Pima-Papago (Upper Piman) Arizona, Sonora Pima Bajo (Lower Pima) (Névome) Sonora Northern Tepehuan, Southern Tepehuan Sonora, , Jalisco †Tepecano Jalisco Taracahitic Tarahumaran Tarahumanra Chihuahua Guarijío (Varihio) Chihuahua, Sonora Tubar [extinct?] Chihuahua Cahitan (Yaqui-Mayo-Cahita) Arizona, Sonora, Sinaloa Opatan †Opata Sonora †Eudeve (Heve, Dohema) Sonora Corachol-Aztecan Cora-Huichol Cora Nayarit Huichol Nayarit, Jalisco Nahuan (Aztecan, Nahua, Nahuatlan) †Pochutec Oaxaca Core Nahua Pipil (Nawate, Nawat) [obsolescent] El Salvador (extinct in Guatemala and Nicaragua) Nahuatl (Mexicano, Aztec) Mexico (Many dialects)

3.2 Loss of linguistic status Thus, with the arrival of the Spanish, the long process of language decay began for Pipil. From that point on, the language systematically lost status. Nahuatl was used as the lingua franca; it was taught to the natives so they could communicate with the Spanish through a Nahuatl/Spanish translator. As mentioned above, one of the most salient differences between Nahuatl and Pipil is the existence of the lateral dental

5 affricate /tl̮ / in Nahuatl, but [t] in Pipil. However, since the lack of [tl̮] was seem as a corruption of the language, many Toponyms and names were changed, including modern Cuscatlán, and the legendary Pipil hero Chiefttain Atlacatl, which should be Kuskatan and Atakat, respectively, according to Pipil phonology.6 Everything native to the Pipil was regarded as pagan and primitive. Their language, customs and religion were overtly disregarded by the Spanish settlers. Hence, from being the rulers of Kuskatan, and their language “the language” of the region, the Pipil became servants and their language was reduced to a dialect, in the pejorative sense, i.e., not a real language.

3.3 The “encomienda” The Spanish took advantage of the well established Cacao production of the Pipil and their already existing tribute system. They forced the Pipil to cultivate Cacao and pay an encomienda (tribute or tax) to the Spanish. The encomenderos (tax collectors) would receive a percentage of the cacao production from every family head. From this we know that the Pipil population was rapidly disappearing; the encomenderos complained that there were too few family heads to pay taxes. The population decreased enormously; by the year 1590 the Pipil had been reduced to a 20% of their original population at the time of the conquest. We can calculate this percentage based on historical reports (Torquemada, Barolomé de las Casas, etc.) and lists of encomiendas (tax payers) kept by the encomenderos. Comparing these lists over the years, one can clearly see the diminishing population of the Pipil. In 1550, for example, there were 30,000 family heads in eastern El Salvador, but only 8,000 by 1590 (Browning 1971). The reasons for the rapid extinction of the Pipil, apart from the immense casualties of war during the conquest and subsequent settlement, are varied: diseases, such as syphilis, measles, smallpox and typhus killed a large percentage of the population (Lovell 1991), probably more than the conquerors themselves; the unhealthy conditions in the Cacao plantations caused many Pipil to die young; the increase of taxes to compensate the decrease in the number of tax payers7; the abuse of the Spanish and new creoles; and the cattle, which rampaged freely in the fenceless fields, destroying the subsistence crops of the Pipil communities, such as corn and vegetables. All of these factors, imposed on the Pipil, caused their population to decrease enormously in a very short period of time. The situation was so bad, that the Spanish had to import men from Guatemala (probably from neighboring Escuintla, a Pipil town in southern Guatemala) to marry the Pipil women in , so they could increase the number of family heads, i.e., tax payers.8

6 There is no historical evidence to demonstrate de existence of Atlacatl. Recinos and Goetz (1953) showed that the folk legend is based on an inaccurate translation of the Annals of the Cackchiquels made by Etienne Brasseur de Bourbourg in 1856. De Bourbourg mistranslated the Cackchiquel name of Escuintla, Atacat or Panatacat, as Atlacatl, when telling the story of how Tonatiuh (Alvarado) departed from Guatemala to Kuskatan, destroying Atacat (Escuintla or a town near Escuintla) on his way. The place name Atacat or Panatacat was interpreted as the name of a person, giving rise the legend of Atlacatl. 7 In Ateos, for example, in 1532, each family head had to pay 20 xiquipil to the encomendero, but by 1548, they had to pay 60 xiquipils. 1 xiquipil = 800 grains of Cacao. 8 It is interesting to notice that these imports of men from Guatemala, not necessarily from Pipil speaking communities, could have created a case of gender differentiated bilingualism. Lardé (1926) cites a 1549 report by Tomás López Medel (an oidor) stating that the women in Ahuachapán spoke Pokoman whereas the men spoke Nahuat. There is no other historical evidence of this, but it is possible that bilingualism was

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In the years to come, the situation did not get any better for the Pipil, their culture or language. They began losing their identity as a people. They saw that the Spanish speaking ladinos were better off.9 They discovered that by speaking Spanish, dressing like the ladinos, and acting like them, they had a marginal chance of improving their precarious condition. Many of the Pipil who managed to get out of the communities never came back, and if they did, they adopted the way of the ladinos and looked down on the Pipil people. This identity loss has hindered, as we’ll see below, the efforts to revitalize the language and value their culture. Barberena (1966) reports that by 1892 most of the population in El Salvador was Spanish monolingual. There still were some Pipil strongholds in Western and Central El Salvador but the shift to Spanish was constant in all the communities. By the end of the 19th Century, Pipil had already lost its linguistic status as a vernacular and had been, for all practical purposes, replaced by Spanish.

3.4 The coup de grâce Subsistence agriculture had been the basis of the Pipil people, centuries before the arrival of the Spanish. Even after the conquest, they kept tierras comunales and ejidos “Common lands” to harvest their subsistence crops. However, by the second half of the 19th C, El Salvador began growing coffee in the Highlands. Coffee soon became the most important export product of the country, and the new rich landowners needed more land to plant their coffee. The best land available for coffee plantations was in the hands of the Pipil and peasant communities.10 The authorities argued that

The existence of lands under the ownership of the comunidades impedes agricultural development, obstructs the circulation of wealth, and weakens family bonds and the independence of the individual. Their existence is contrary to the economic and social principles that the Republic has accepted.(Acuerdo Legislativo, D.O., 26 feb. 1881, Browning 1971:205).

So, the government passed a law abolishing the ejido system and the tierras comunales (Decreto Legislativo, Marzo 2, 1882, Browning 1971). This law had a terrible required in the non-Pipil settlements even before the Spanish arrived. However, if this was the result of importing men from Guatemala, the women should have spoken Nahuat and the men Pokoman, if they came from non-Pipil communities in Guatemala. Or, more probably, Chalchuapa and other communities in Ahuachapán were conquered by the Pipils and had to paid tribute to them who, as has happened in other places, took their women (Pokomam). 9 The term ‘ladino’ refers both to a person of mixed races (Pipil and Spanish) or to an indigenous person who has learned to speak Spanish, and who is no longer regarded as a member of the indigenous community. 10 It is difficult to differentiate an indigenous person from a campesino (peasant) in El Salvador, specially when it comes to land issues, since both have the same land needs. There are, however, certain traits that distinguish them. Lemus (2001) provides the following characteristics to be taken into account to differentiate Pipils from campesinos: i) Pipils speak Spanish as their first language, but still know some know some words and phrases in Pipil; ii) They dress up, speak and, in general, live like campesinos; iii) they usually belong to a cofradía (a sort of Christian brotherhood found in the indigenous communities); iv) They can prove their indigenous ancestry through genealogy (parents, grandparents); v) They are recognized as natives by other natives and by the ladinos; vi) They use native handcraft tools at home and in the field; and vii) They are receptors and transmitters of the oral tradition of their communities.

7 impact on the subsistence system of the Pipil and peasants of El Salvador, since they could no longer cultivate their crops. It plunged them into extreme poverty. There were several small rebellions and some Mayors from the indigenous communities decided not to apply the decree because they feared being attacked. However, the law was passed, and the Pipil and campesinos became landless with the stroke of a pen. Many became nomads and squatters, looking for an abandoned piece of land to plant their crops. By 1931, the situation was unbearable. The world depression had made the international price of coffee fall to a minimum, and the political and economical stability of the country was threatened. In December 1931, the General Maximiliano Hernández Martínez, then Vice-President of El Salvador was appointed President after a military coup d’etat against Arturo Araujo, the legitimate president. His first action as President was to capture Farabundo Martí, together with Mario Zapata and Alfonso Luna, known leaders of the recently founded Communist Party, who were trialed and executed on February 1, 1932. Martínez accused the communists of manipulating the campesinos and causing social unrest. In January 22, 1932, the Pipil and campesinos started a rebellion against the system to recover their lands. They were not trained soldiers; they fought with machetes against the well-trained, well-armed Salvadoran Army. There are no official records of the number of rebels killed in the uprising11, but some conservative estimates place the number of casualties at 10,000 (Anderson, 1971); however, it is generally accepted that in a matter of a few days between 30,000 to 50,000 people were killed. This is known as (The Massacre). After the 1932 uprising, the new dictator Hernández Martínez banned the use of Pipil; it was regarded as a dangerous language that could be used to plot against the government.12 Speaking Pipil became a synonym for rebel and communist. As a result, the Pipil people used their language as a secret language, and it was no longer passed to the younger generations. The few speakers we find today were the children of the 1930’s. Their average age is 65 years old, and with their probable deaths in the near future, they will take with them an important part of the Salvadoran cultural and linguistic patrimony.

3.5 Pipil today At present, even though there are no official statistics showing the number of Pipil speakers, my own estimate, from working with the Pipil communities and talking to the community leaders, is that there are about 200 speakers left, all bilingual and Spanish dominant. The language is not used on a daily basis and the degrees of proficiency vary from speaker to speaker. About 10% of these speakers are fluent in the language, but still Spanish dominant. Code-switching to Spanish is the norm for these speakers; they have to make an effort to reduce the number of switches to Spanish in a single conversation.

11 Hernández Martínez destroyed all records referring to the insurrection, including newspapers. 12 Speaking Pipil was not the only characteristic used to identify rebels. Carrying machetes, having indigenous features, or dressing like campesino were enough reasons to be found guilty of sedition. Anderson (1971) exemplifies how this arbitrary classification contributed to La Matanza. All those campesinos who did not take part in the rebellion were asked to present themselves at the Comandancia (Army headquarters) in Izalco to be given clearance papers. When the peasants and Pipils arrived, they were selected for execution based on the features mentioned above.

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As Campbell’s trilingual dictionary shows, Pipil is full of Spanish loanwords, as expected after almost 500 years of linguistic oppression. There are at least two distinct dialects of Pipil spoken nowadays.13 One of the dialects is spoken by very few elderly people in , Cuisnahuat and surrounding areas in the western department of Sonsonate. There is another group of speakers of this dialect in Tacuba, Ahuachapán. The second dialect is spoken by a relatively larger number of speakers in Santo Domingo de Guzmán and surrounding areas. The most salient characteristic that distinguishes these dialects is the phonetic distribution /k/ and its allophonic variation [g]. In the first dialect, /k/ is found in all positions, whereas in the Santo Domingo de Guzmán dialect, [k] is only found in syllable final position and after voiceless consonants (see Lemus 1996, 1997a for a full discussion of Pipil phonology). For example, we find kumal and takat in Izalco but gumal and tagat in Santo Domingo de Guzmán. Some lexical items have retained a full form in Izalco, but have been clipped in Santo Domingo de Guzmán. But, in general, the differences between the two dialects are minor, though speakers from one region would say that the speakers from the other region don’t speak the language well. As mentioned above, the loss of identity of the Pipil people has made the majority of them regard their language as something not worth keeping. Many of them openly say that if their children had the opportunity of learning a language other than Spanish, they would like them to learn English rather than Pipil. They think that speaking Pipil will not bring bread to their tables whereas speaking English might, or at least prepare them to migrate to the USA. So far I have briefly outlined the historical reasons that have brought the Pipil people and their language to their present state. We can see that the shift to Spanish is essentially complete for all practical purposes; so, reversing this process poses a challenge that goes beyond language revitalization.

4. Revitalizing Pipil Most studies of minority languages (Fishman 1991, Wardaugh 1986) have shown that in cases of prolonged bilingualism, the preferred choice of the communities is to become monolingual, retaining only the dominant language. It is the practical thing to do. Why speak two languages if one is enough to fulfill all social communication needs? Why continue speaking the minority language if it places you at the lowest level of the social scale? Why bother learning the native language if there are other immediate needs for the community (food, housing, school, land) that have to be fulfilled? Why speak the minority language if it is not legally recognized and no commercial transaction or legal actions can be taken in this language? Answering the above questions reveals that a program to revitalize a language like Pipil cannot be successful unless it addresses other social problems of a more practical nature and it gives back the sense of unity and solidarity to the Pipil people. Successful revitalization efforts, such as Hebrew in Israel and Maori in New Zealand (Spolsky 1991, 1995), Basque in Spain, and Frisian in the Netherlands (Mahmood 1989) have always awaken in the people their identity, a sense of solidarity and belonging. If this solidarity is lost and never recovered, reversing language shift can never be achieved. Below I

13 Campbell (1985) lists more dialects, mostly based on lexical and phonological differences.

9 propose five-component model for the language revitalization process of Pipil or any other language in similar conditions of endangerment.

A. Cultural identity. The first step in any language revitalization process is to promote and equate the use of the dying language as a symbol of cultural identity and pride. In fact, as pointed out by Wardaugh (1986), one of the first demands made by minority groups anywhere in the world is the right to use their language. In the case of Pipil, and due to the extensive deterioration of their language in terms of usage, and also due to the loss of cultural identity, great efforts and resources have to be devoted to revive their cultural identity and awaken in them the desire to learn Pipil. For a long period of time, there was only one indigenous organization in El Salvador, ANIS (Asociación Nacional de Indígenas Salvadoreños), but after the Peace Accords between the government and the FMLN guerrilla in 1992, there was a rapid growth of social organizations, which included many new indigenous associations. Eleven of these associations have formed the National Indigenous Coordinating Council (CCNIS). 14 As an outsider, anyone would interpret this outburst of indigenous organizations as a revival of the cultural identity of the of El Salvador; but this is only partially true. Their demonstrations and public demands have made the indigenous cause for land rights, healthcare and education visible at times, but the indigenous peoples themselves have remained invisible. The leaders of these associations are all outspoken and politically oriented. Many of them are people who claim to have rediscovered their cultural heritage, even if they don’t have any traceable links to indigenous ancestors.15 Many of the people in the indigenous communities are unaware of the whereabouts of these organizations and do not recognize them as their representatives. They feel that their situation of extreme poverty has not changed; that they are still regarded as third class citizens; that they are still portrayed as museum rarities; that their image is only used for propagandistic purposes by politicians and as advertisements by the private sector and; that belonging to this ethnic group has never brought them any benefits. These organizations, though, can be the basis to start rebuilding the cultural identity of the Pipil people if properly oriented and supported. The government and the media also have a key role to play in the cultural revival of the Pipil people. The Pipil culture and language have to be positively portrayed in the media (TV, radio, newspapers, adds, etc.) so the Pipil can feel proud of what they are. This campaign has to be carried out mainly in the indigenous communities, but also elsewhere in the country so the rest of the population learns

14 Asociación Coordinadora de Comunidades Indígenas de El Salvador, ACCIES; Movimiento autóctono Indígena Salvadoreño MAIS; Asociación Nacional Indígena Tierra Sagrada ANITISA; Instituto para el Rescate Ancestral Indígena Salvadoreño RAIS; Consejo Nacional Indio Salvadoreño CONAIS; Asociación Nacional Indígena Salvadoreño ASNAIS; Asociación de Desarrollo Comunal Indígena Náhuat, ADESCOIN; Asociación Democrática de Trabajadores Agropecuarios Indígenas Salvadoreños ADTAIS; Artistas de Revivificación de la Cultura Original ARCO; Movimiento Indígena Nonualco MIN; Asociación Comunal Lenca de Guatajiagua ACOLGUA. 15 This may be unimportant in a country like El Salvador where about 90% of the population are ladinos, but see fn 8 above for a list of traits that can be used the indigenous population from the campesinos.

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to respect and appreciate the Pipil culture. This campaign must, above all, respect and promote the cultural values of the Pipil people. There can be a specific campaign to portray local successful Pipil people (professionals, business people, farmers, politicians, etc.) that can serve as a model for the younger generations in the communities. Also, their local heroes, real and legendary, should be made known; their stories should be told and should serve as inspiration for others to follow. Measures of this type contribute to the restoration of the cultural pride of the Pipil people and make them desire to learn their language.

B. Linguistic corpus. No revitalization process can be started if there are not enough linguistic records and studies to develop teaching materials. If the language does not have a writing system of its own, one must be adopted and taken as the norm. There must be a unified orthography and grammar before any attempts to develop teaching materials is made. Thus, linguistic research is of paramount importance to record and codify a language.16 In the case of Pipil, there is already a small corpus that can be expanded with more research. The most salient works to date are those of Jiménez (1939), Aráuz (1960), Rivas (1969), Shultze-Jena (1977, 1982), Campbell (1985) and Lemus (1997a, 1997b, 1999). Lemus (1997a) shows the discrepancies of the different alphabets that have been used to write Pipil and proposes an alphabet based on the language’s phonemic inventory. Shultze-Jena (1977) offers a collection of myths and legends of the Pipil people that he recorded in the 1930’s in Izalco, then a stronghold of Pipil speakers. Campbell (1985) offers a description of Pipil’s phonology, morphology and syntax, plus a trilingual dictionary (Spanish-English- Pipil). The studies mentioned above can form the basis to start building the linguistic corpus of Pipil. The orthography must be discussed not only among linguists but also among the community leaders and speakers, including all the associations; that is, those who will be using the alphabet to write their language. The role of the linguists must be that of consultants, and they must not try to impose their alphabet on the community. Once the language has been properly codified and analyzed, literary production must start. There must be a significant production of literary material in Pipil; they can be translations from Spanish or the original production of the most advantaged Pipil speakers. The production of textbooks for learning the language must also start at this point, making sure that the culture and values of the Pipil people are represented in the texts (see below).

C. Education. The revitalization process also needs to be accompanied by a bilingual/bicultural educational program specially designed for the endangered

16 This does not mean that a completely oral approach cannot be taken in the revitalization process of the language. But even then, the language must be properly registered to create a linguistic corpus (see below) that can be used in other programs. If the language is not registered, when the last speaker dies, the language will also die for ever. Throughout history, thousands of languages have disappeared, leaving no record whatsoever of their grammar, making it impossible for us to study them and attempt any revival process.