Mayan master speakers--the archive of the indigenous languages of Chiapas.

The Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Chiapas is an electronic database documenting the three principal Indian languages of Chiapas, Mexico. This report describes the design philosophy behind the archive, intended to distribute its results in digital form via the Internet. It illustrates some of the products of the Archive, ranging from standard linguistic description and lexicography, through semi-experimental elicitation, to ethnographically situated interaction characterized by different sorts of speech genre. It also discusses presentational and ethical issues derived from electronic distribution of digital media in linguistic documentation.