MEXICO CITY, March 17 (Xinhuanet) -- The old Indian languages and dialects of the different indigenous groups living in Mexico are being collected by linguists of the National Anthropology and History Institute (INAH) and included in visual trilingual dictionaries.

    The INAH said on Thursday in a statement that these dictionaries will contain Spanish and English translations to indigenous languages, combined with images.

    By the end of the year, there will be dictionaries for the languages of Chontal (which is spoken in Tabasco), Oreme (in northMexico), Zapoteco (in Juchitan, Oaxaca), Popoluca and Tepehua (in Veracruz), Huastec (in Veracruz, San Luis Potosi), Nahuatl (in central Mexico), Tepehuan (in north Nayarit and south Sinaloa), Mame (in Chiapas) and Chichimeco Jonaz (in Guanajuato). Only 800 people speak Chichimeco Jonaz.

    Linguist Benjamin Perez said that in average each of the dictionaries will contain 4,000 terms "that illustrate the presentvitality of the language and its users," as well as manners to approach everyday life of the different ethnic groups.

    A seminar on visual dictionaries is underway in Mexico City, to"attain a reappraisal of the Indian languages and to make their users aware of the languages' importance, beauty and complexity," according to the expert.

    The project is supported by the National Autonomous University of Mexico, the Latin Union and the Pompeu Fabra University of Barcelona of Spain. Enditem