Nahuatl contemporary writing: studying convergence in the absence of a written norm by Jonathan Israel Escobar Farfán Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Sheffield Faculty of Arts and Humanities School of Languages and Cultures March 2019 Abstract Language revitalisation (LR) is influenced by a concern with authenticity around which written conventions are largely seen as the result of careful designs based on authentic spoken usage. This dissertation proposes to see written conven- tions as the result of an authentication process carried on by a community of practice of writers, and to explore the points of convergence in this practice as a set of examples which could eventually become shared conventions in most varieties of a linguistic continuum. I focus on the revitalisation of Nahuatl, a linguistic continuum spoken in Mexico. The study of convergence in the written practice of Nahuatl must be carried out in a context of ideological, linguistic, and orthographical heterogeneity. I have tested a methodology to extensively in- vestigate points of convergence between eight contemporary Nahuatl texts from eight contemporary varieties, comparing them with Classical Nahuatl (CN), an old Nahuatl variety codified in prescriptive sources. I have attempted to locate commonalities in these texts by identifying nuclear clauses (NCs): morphosyn- tactic structures which are a common feature across the Nahuatl continuum. I have used a Finite State (FS) model of CN to attempt a morphological anal- ysis of the word types found in the contemporary texts. The word types that could be plausibly analysed as CN NCs by our FS model, were proposed as plausible points of convergence between the texts and CN. Using a force atlas diagram, each text was represented as a node in a network, with the distance be- tween them being proportional to the number of plausible points of convergence between them. Findings are that the ambiguity of analyses proposed by the developing FS model are currently a pitfall of our approach, but that the plau- sible points of convergence could be used to locate texts occupying a ‘central’ position in an expanding network. i Acknowledgements I want to thank all my family, my clan, for their work and teachings, which have made possible each and every one of my achievements. My deepest gratitude and love to Irina. She has enriched my life with her wisdom, kindness and bravery, and has accompanied and supported me in this adventure. No words are enough to thank the Wolfson Foundation for their most gen- erous support for my PhD studies. The Foundation made possible projects I would have only dreamed of otherwise. I would like to thank my supervisors, Neil, Rob and Jane for his guidance and endless support during my studies. I also thank Marta and Dagmar, who always pointed me in the right direction during the early, foggy days of this research. I particularly want to thank Jane and Marta, whose invaluable support helped me begin this adventure. I am also especially grateful to Neil for all the patience with which he received my ideas and discussed them with me; for the generosity with which he shared his knowledge; and for never using the enormous expertise gap between us to make me feel any less worthy as scholar. Every meeting with him helped me see the weakness and strengths of my work, and encouraged both my academic humbleness and boldness. I am grateful to all the Jessop West community, particularly to Caroline, Claire and Sandra. Their invaluable work always helped me survive in the ad- ministrative jungle. From the very first day of my arrival, Caroline’s kindness has always been the perfect example of the warmth with which Sheffield wel- comed me. I would like to thank all my friends in Sheffield, who have been my family all these years. I thank all the gang in the 2nd floor PGR work space (Ehsan, iii iv Kathy, Tom, Debbie, and a long etc.), for listening and contributing to my frequent digressions, and for sharing with me our days of pain and glory. Jarek, Ángela, Valentina and Pete, los quiero mil ocho mil. Finally, I am grateful to the city of Sheffield and its people, and to the UK that have so warmly welcomed me. Alongside my beloved Xochimilco, Sheffield occupies now a very special place in my heart. Contents Introduction1 1 Authenticity and literacy in LR5 1.1 LR, LP and language ideologies..................5 1.1.1 Dialect, language and standardisation...........5 1.1.2 Language Planning..................... 10 1.1.2.1 Norwegian LP: distinguished from the ‘exterior’, divided at the ‘interior’............. 11 1.1.3 Language Revitalisation.................. 15 1.1.3.1 Towards the strong side of LR.......... 17 1.1.4 Language ideologies: the representation of differences and making of groups...................... 20 1.1.4.1 Language ideologies and LR: groups and con- frontations.................... 21 1.1.5 Authenticity in LR..................... 23 1.1.5.1 Spoken language as authentic language in LR. 26 1.2 Literacy and authenticity in LR.................. 28 1.2.1 Progressing up the GIDS scale: literacy and diglossia.. 28 v vi Contents 1.2.1.1 A commitment to authenticity at the cost of sep- arating closed varieties?............. 31 1.2.2 Spoken authenticity and the idea of design........ 33 1.2.2.1 Orthographies and the problems of design... 33 1.3 Writing and convergence...................... 38 1.3.1 The importance of convergence: reconsidering authentic- ity in LR and LP...................... 38 1.3.2 Revaluating writing in LR................. 39 1.3.2.1 Writing as medium of contact.......... 39 1.3.2.2 Writing as authentication practice....... 41 1.4 Conclusions: looking for convergence in the written practice.. 43 2 The Nahuatl cluster 47 2.1 The diversity of Nahuatl...................... 47 2.1.1 The contemporary continuum............... 47 2.1.2 Classical Nahuatl...................... 59 2.2 Nahuatl morphology........................ 62 2.2.1 Nuclear clauses....................... 63 2.3 Nahuatl LR and literacy...................... 73 2.3.1 Research on the diversity of contemporary Nahuatl... 73 2.3.2 The official stance: INALI................. 75 2.3.3 Bottom-up initiatives.................... 79 2.4 Nahuatl contemporary writing................... 82 2.5 Bringing CN into LR and LP: NCs as points of convergence.. 86 Contents vii 2.5.1 (Re)imagining ‘a Nahuatl’ community........... 86 2.5.2 CN to bridge across the Nahuatl cluster......... 89 2.5.3 Study convergence in writing using NCs......... 90 2.6 Conclusions............................. 92 3 Resources and challenges to explore contemporary written Nahu- atl: tackling morphological complexity and orthographical vari- ation 95 3.1 Available resources and morphological analysers for Nahuatl.. 96 3.1.1 Resources for contemporary varieties........... 96 3.1.2 Resources for CN...................... 98 3.1.3 Morphological analysers.................. 100 3.2 Probabilistic versus non-probabilistic methods in NLP...... 102 3.3 Finite States Morphology...................... 105 3.3.1 Finite State Networks................... 105 3.3.2 FS transducers and its advantages for this research... 107 3.3.2.1 FST compactly encodes diverse information of a language...................... 109 3.3.2.2 FS versus procedural applications........ 110 3.3.3 Applications to create, manipulate and search FS networks 112 4 Methodology 115 4.1 The test corpus........................... 115 4.2 The implementation of the transducers of the model....... 119 4.2.1 Grammatical and lexical sources.............. 120 viii Contents 4.2.2 Modelling the paths of the NNC and VNC transducers. 124 4.2.3 Adding orthographical levels to the transducers..... 129 4.3 The construction of the model................... 131 4.3.1 The stop-list transducer.................. 131 4.3.2 The core FST........................ 132 4.3.3 The guesser......................... 134 4.3.4 The orthographical alternation rules for individual texts 136 4.4 The analysis of a text........................ 136 4.4.1 What does the core show in terms of convergence?.... 139 4.4.2 What does the guesser show in terms of convergence?.. 139 4.4.3 What do the rejected strings show in terms of divergence? 140 5 Results and discussion 143 5.1 Results for the analysis of the CN gold standard......... 143 5.1.1 Discussion.......................... 145 5.1.1.1 Ambiguity..................... 145 5.1.1.2 Analyses by the core............... 147 5.1.1.2.1 Ambiguous analyses of the core.... 148 5.1.1.2.2 Failures of the core........... 149 5.1.1.3 Analyses by the guesser............. 150 5.1.1.3.1 Ambiguous guesses........... 151 5.1.1.3.2 Failures of the guesser......... 153 5.2 Results for the analysis of contemporary texts.......... 153 5.2.1 Discussion.......................... 157 Contents ix 5.2.1.1 Orthographical alternations and ambiguity... 157 5.2.1.2 Analysis by the core............... 161 5.2.1.2.1 Ambiguity................ 162 5.2.1.2.2 Failures of the core........... 163 5.2.1.3 Analyses by the guesser............. 164 5.2.1.3.1 Failures of the guesser......... 165 5.3 Discussion: the convergence between the texts and CN, and be- tween each other.......................... 166 5.3.1 Intersection of each text with CN............. 167 5.3.2 Intersections between texts................. 172 5.3.3 Word forms common to all texts.............. 175 5.3.4 Paradigmatic slots common to all texts.......... 176 5.4 A graphic representation of connections between texts...... 180 5.4.1 Connections based on word forms............. 180 5.4.2 Connections based on paradigmatic slots......... 183 6 Conclusions 187 6.1 Possibility of investigating convergence between texts using a FS approach............................... 190 6.2 Too small a set of points of convergence?............