SGER: Database Design for Endangered Languages Data

Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti MI

Investigators

Abstract

Grimes (1992) estimates that there are approximately 6000 languages spoken in the world today. LaPolla (1998) and Grimes have run statistical analyses based upon census and population estimate figures that show an alarming number of these, perhaps as many as 50%, are in real danger of extinction. Fifty-two percent of the world's languages are spoken regularly by less than 10,000 people, 28% are spoken by less than 1,000 and 10% by less than 100 (LaPolla 1998). By contrast, 49% of the world's population speaks one of 10 major languages (Mandarin, English, Spanish, Hindi, Portuguese, Bengali, Russian, Japanese, French, German) as their mother tongue. Linguists have a twofold reason to be concerned about this trend in rapid language loss. First, and most importantly, the death of a language or dialect represents a significant loss in culture. Language serves a unique purpose as the primary means of cultural preservation and cross-generational cultural transmission. The death of a culture's language represents a serious impediment to the survival of that community. Second, the death of a language or dialect represents a serious academic loss (Hale 1996, Woodbuty 1993). Studies of linguistic diversity and cross linguistic comparisons drive much of linguistic theory. Many (if not most) of the endangered languages have not been well studied or documented. When such a language disappears, then, there are two losses: a loss of valuable linguistic data, and the loss of the culture it represents. As the largest electronic linguistics publication in the world (http://www.linguistlist.org), the LINGUIST List would like to preserve data on minority and endangered languages in a widely-available electronic repository. The repository is a long-term project, which will require substantial funding and partnership with other institutions. But in order to lay the groundwork for this enterprise, preliminary research on database architecture must be done immediately. This Small Grant for Exploratory research will fund the design of an innovative, extensible database and support a pilot project to test the design using data from two disparate languages: Biao Min, a Hmong-Mien language with a complex phonology, and Mocovi, a Waikurean language with a complex morphology.