In August of 2018, with Cabeceras' support, linguist Myriam Lapierre delivered sets of new Panãra language materials to community members, students, and teachers in all five Panãra villages, which are located at the border between the states of Pará and Mato Grosso in central Brazil (map). Panãra is a Northern Jê language spoken as a first language by about 630 people, and though small, Panãra is a vital language, learned by children at home. At the same time, like Amazonian languages in general, Panãra also faces unrelenting pressure from the national language (in this case, Brazilian Portuguese) through social contact, formal education, and various forms of governance.
The new materials that Myriam delivered include a Panãra orthography guide (created by Myriam herself), an illustrated Panãra alphabet (created by Berkeley Linguistics undergraduate Ariana Rutledge), an illustrated book of Amazonian animals and fish (created by linguist Bernat Bardagil-Mas and Berkeley Linguistics undergraduate Spencer Garrett), and a book of Panãra stories (edited by Bernat and Myriam).
Myriam personally delivered a set of materials to each one of the Panãra villages, where these new resources were received with enthusiasm by the communities, and especially by the Panãra school teachers.
"kinpytinsi kapreepa gostei, muito obrigada pela trabalho maravilhosa que vc esta fazendo parabé."
— Krêkrêhasâ Panãra
("What an awesome book. I like it very much. Thank you so much for all the wonderful work that you are doing for us, and congratulations.")
— Krêkrêhasâ Panãra
In addition to delivering these new materials, Myriam led a 10-day literacy workshop, which was held at the Escola Municipal Indígena Matukre in the Panãra village of Nãnsêpotiti. The workshop included about 25 participants, mostly Panãra school teachers and advanced students, and covered many topics relating to Panãra orthography — that is to say, using and improving their alphabet. The current orthography for Panãra was developed by Myriam and Bernat in collaboration with members of the Panãra community starting in 2016, and it is still undergoing changes, in order to better represent the language and to serve the needs of the teachers and learners.
The literacy workshop included many hands-on tasks aimed at improving literacy among the Panãra community, such as text transcription and correction, and the translation of a Chiwere myth. In addition, many discussions were held about the difficulties encountered when writing, such as the representation of geminate (side-by-side) consonants, what constitutes a word in Panãra, and the use of diacritics on conventional keyboards.
Though much progress was made during the 2018 Panãra literacy workshop, there is still much more to be done! The next step is another Panãra literacy workshop in July of 2019.
If you would like to support this project, you can make a secure donation by clicking the 'Donate Now' button below. Please indicate "Panãra project" in the Designation field. You have our sincere thanks in advance!
"Thank you so much to Cabeceras for the support, which made it possible to deliver these materials to all five of the Panãra villages!"
— Myriam Lapierre
