Coahuiltecan Language
The Coahuiltecan language is considered extinct because less than 1,000 people now speak this language. The Institute is dedicated to the study and revival of the Coahuiltecan language. For a Coahuiltecan language dictionary and other relevant information published by the Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology, visit the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
Coahuiltecan Language Program
This year, funded by Humanities Texas, we have launched our formal Coahuiltecan Language Program which will revive our language and, by the end of 2022, will provide online classes for community members and the public. Jessica L. Sánchez Flores will lead the development project. She is of Nahua descent, grew up in a town near Iguala, Guerrero and is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Texas at Austin. She has assembled a circle of outstanding experts in Indigenous languages to support the development of the program.
BIOS
Eduardo de la Cruz who is a native Nahuatl speaker and has taught Nahuatl full time for twelve years, and currently holds the position of director at IDIEZ (Zacatecas Institute of Teaching and Research in Ethnology), a Mexican non-profit where he heads Nahua culture and language revitalization projects. He will advise the program on curriculum and instruction.
Judith Landeros, will be assist with curriculum development and will be the class instructor for the program. She is a doctoral student at the University of Texas at Austin studying Cultural Studies in Education. Her family is from the ancestral territories of the P’urhépecha and Chichimeca. She is a former bilingual early childhood teacher and currently works in the Curriculum and Instruction department, College of Education at the University of Texas at Austin.
Luis F. Avilés González, M.A., will support the program as the Linguistics Specialist. He is currently an assistant instructor at the University of Texas at Austin, and a third year graduate student pursuing a Ph.D. in Iberian and Latin American Linguistics.
Bobbie Garza-Hernandez will lead the outreach effort that will engage the community in the language program, which includes input about what they want to learn and how. Bobbie majored in Communications and Hispanic Relations at St. Edward’s University and is a resident of San Marcos, Texas. In 1997 she launched her public relations company, Pink Consulting, after serving as the Chief of Staff to former Austin Mayor Gus Garcia. She continues to work in community engagement for clients in Austin, TX.
Coahuiltecan Ceremonial Songs CD
The Institute released its Coahuiltecan Traditional Ceremonial Songs CD and accompanying manual. This manual is made available to members of the Coahuiltecan community and people who follow an indigenous, ceremonial path.
For more information please contact the Institute.
Songs from CD with translations
Click on the button above the song for YouTube listening.
Water Spirit Song
(Opening song)
Yana yana, yawana yo
Yana yana, yawana yo
Yana yana, yawana yo
Yana yana, yawana yo
Yan eya na ei nei
Yana yana, yawana yo
Yana yana, yawana yo
Yana eya na ei nei yo way.
“Water Spirit, that’s all there is. That’s all that there is.”
Water Spirit Song #2
(Opening song)
Maham e yana yana wana yo
Maham e yana yana wana yo
Maham e yana yana wana yo
Maham e yana yana wana yo
Eya na ei ney
Maham e yana yana wana yo
Eya na ei nei yo way.
“Have you partaken of Spirit, Water Spirit, that is in all (Earth Life).”
Water is Everything
(Opening song)
Yana yana yo yana yo yo yo
Yana yana yo yana yo yo yo
(change tone down)
Yana yana yo yana yo yo yo
(change tone down)
Yana yana yo yana yo yo yo
Yana wana yo yana yohui no Eya na ei nei yo way.
“Water is life, it is everything, everything, everything. Water Spirit forms living things. With all that there is.”
Road Chief
(Opening song)
Yana wei ney neyo, iya xa we nayo
Yana wei ney neyo, iya xa we nayo
Yana wei ney neyo, iya xa we nayo
Yana wana iya xa we ney,
Eya na ei nei yo way.
“Moved by the life of water we sing and dance to everything. Water Spirit we sing and dance, with all that there is.”