Rescuing ancient languages
In fluent English with a soft accent, Pedro Mateo, a Harvard postdoctoral fellow in linguistics, recalled the restrictive signs plastered on the walls of Guatemalan schools in the past. They read “no native languages,” said Mateo, whose mother tongue is the increasingly rare Mayan language Q’anjob’al. Then, as now, Mayan languages were often sadly associated with impoverished communities. School officials wanted students to speak the dominant Spanish instead, because it was considered the language of progress and prosperity. “You didn’t want to be discriminated against,” said Mateo, adding that even for its native speakers, the Mayan language can carry a “negative connotation.” Now with Harvard Linguistics Professor Maria Polinsky and several colleagues in her lab, Mateo is helping to preserve, promote, and better understand the ancient Mayan languages. In May and again in June, Mateo and other members of the linguistics lab will visit Mexico and Guatemala to gather data on the grammar and the...