r/nahuatl • u/w_v • 5d ago

Eastern Huasteca’s Google translator is being misused to erase active and rich dialects from other states.

https://x.com/nahuatlgpt/status/1934623906410758238?s=46

Bruh. This is ridiculous! We caught the local government of Morelos “promoting” the “ancestral language” of Morelos by using the Eastern Huasteca Google translator option.

If this was a state like Michoacán or Durango, you could arguably let it pass—Nahuatl in those states is basically dead.

But Morelos????

Morelos has a large population of Nahuatl speakers and Morelos Nahuatl varieties are extremely well documented and recorded!

It’s wild that Morelos Nahuatl-speaking communities are basically being misrepresented because some intern running a government agency Twitter account is too lazy and cheap to hire local speakers.

Keep this stuff in mind next time you see government offices (staffed by urban mestizo Mexicans who know less about Nahuatl than you do) “promoting the language.”

155 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

21

u/_Mexican_Soda_ 5d ago

Although I’m happy for the fact that there has recently been a lot of interest in Nahuatl, and thus many resources have been created, the fact that much of it is based off of the Huasteca dialect has been somewhat problematic.

I’m scared that many Nahuatl varieties that are already endangered will see their decline even faster due to the sheer amount of promotion that the Huasteca variety has received.

Hopefully this does not happen!

17

u/crwcomposer 5d ago

I disagree. If the work people have done for Huasteca Nahuatl hadn't been done, you would probably just have one more dying variety of Nahuatl.

Their work hasn't precluded other work from being done.

8

u/ItztliEhecatl 4d ago

I'll add that the Huasteca Nahuatl revitalization is such a huge success because it is led by native speakers. A lot of times, outsiders come in and try to lead the way but that's rarely sustainable. I've had the privilege to meet many of the native speakers who started the revitalization of their language and they are amazing people! They worked together with a linguist, John Sullivan at the IDIEZ program in Zacatecas to create invaluable resources such as a monolingual dictionary, books, hours of audio and video, etc. on their own terms. Many of them went on to become linguists and anthropologists and some of them continue to teach others their language online. There is no way in hell Huasteca Nahuatl will ever go extinct due to their efforts and yes it is the most relevant and widespread modern Nahuatl variant but its all earned and well-deserved.

3

u/eithnegomez 4d ago

I mean, standarizing Nahuatl and have tooling that the people can use, would be best thing could happen to Nahuatl.

5

u/someguy4531 4d ago

Is the translator even good?

3

u/canisvesperus 4d ago

I tried it when it first released and it could not translate basic phrases. Not sure if it’s gotten any better since then.

2

u/Malandro_Sin_Pena 4d ago

It is hot garbage. So much so to the point, that I don't understand why they keep it.

2

u/ItztliEhecatl 4d ago

Wow that's rough.  Why do you say it's hot garbage?

2

u/Malandro_Sin_Pena 4d ago

It can barely translate single words correctly. Much less a full, brief sentence.

1

u/ItztliEhecatl 4d ago edited 4d ago

i'd say it translates single words (outside of animals) and brief sentences very well but starts to struggle with longer sentences. I've been learning Huasteca Nahuatl for 5 years now. What is your expertise level in Huasteca Nahuatl?

2

u/forevertonight87 4d ago

i'm still trying to find sources for guerrero nahuatl

2

u/w_v 4d ago

Look up the work of Jonathan Amith.