An Accessible Linguistic Research Database of the Endangered Jaqaru and Kawki Languages [ISO 639 jqr]

University Of Florida, Gainesville FL

Investigators

Abstract

Three related languages in Bolivia, Peru and Chile show dramatically different levels of health: Aymara, spoken by about a third the population of Bolivia and sizable representation in the other countries, is in fairly good shape. Jaqaru is spoken by a few thousand people in and around Tupe, Yauyos, Lima, Peru and by large numbers in the cities of Lima, Huancayo, Chincha, and Cañete; its situation is precarious but not desperate. Kawki is spoken only by a very few people in and around Cachuy, Yauyos, Lima, Peru and is clearly a dying language. The only time we will be able to understand these last two languages, and their relationship with Aymara, is the present. With National Science Foundation support, Dr. M.J. Hardman and colleagues Howard Beck, Elizabeth Lowe McCoy, Sue Legg and Dimas Bautista Iturrizaga will conduct a three-year project to transform a corpus of Jaqaru and Kawki materials consisting of 50 field notebooks of texts, corresponding audiotapes, 450 photographs and related linguistic data into an accessible, archived linguistic research database. The linguistic materials will be digitized, analyzed, parsed, edited, translated and entered into a database. A dictionary of the languages will also be created and made available electronically. This project will make the field notes collected by Hardman over 50 years of linguistic field research in Peru available to the linguistic community. It also builds on the work done from 2004-2007 for the "Aymara on the Internet" Project funded by the U.S. Department of Education. The project will preserve and make available the texts, dictionary and grammar of two highly endangered Andean languages for linguistic research and for the use and future collaboration of heritage. The linguistic material will be translated from Jaqaru and Kawki into Spanish and English. It is anticipated that the government of Peru will want to utilize this project for broader dissemination for bilingual education and language preservation purposes. The broad scope of the linguistic material makes it an attractive sample for such widespread distribution. Its further use and elaboration will serve as a model for other projects.