Conference on Documenting Indigenous Languages to Enhance Phonological and Phonetic Theories and to Improve Broader Impacts

University Of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst MA

Investigators

Abstract

An important dimension of language is the sound system and patterns of a given language. In fact, languages like English and Spanish include only a subset of the possible sounds of consonants, vowels, and the different ways they can combine. A greater understanding of what humans can produce and perceive in terms of sounds (phonetics) and how these sounds are organized and patterned (phonology) relies on investigation, documentation, and analysis of languages with different sounds and patterns than English and Spanish. This project will enable a conference to increase scientific understanding of how humans produce, perceive, and organize the phonetics and phonology of these diverse languages, focusing on a geographic region well-known for both its diversity and the urgent need to document this linguistic diversity in the face of language endangerment. The goal of this project is to bring together indigenous and non-indigenous experts who study the linguistic diversity of the languages of Mexico and Central America. This workshop, the third iteration of "Sound Systems of Mexico and Central America (SSMCA 3)" will be held in October, 2018 at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Speakers will present scientific findings of the under-described and under-analyzed sound systems of the diverse languages of this part of the world. Besides plenary presentations from invited speakers, contributed presentations, and posters, the conference will include two roundtables. The first roundtable is devoted to discussing effective means of fostering collaboration between indigenous and non-indigenous scholars. The language sciences have seen tremendous intellectual advancement with the training of speakers of indigenous languages as linguists; this will seek to continue that advancement with a focus on phonetics and phonology. The second roundtable is focused on a broader impact of many language documentation projects, and will present effective means of translating language documentation into pedagogical materials that can be used in the schools to develop and promote literacy in indigenous languages and to maintain their use in indigenous communities. Additionally, SSMCA 3 will have four broader impacts: (1) promoting scholarly interaction and collaboration between indigenous and non-indigenous linguists in the task of documenting indigenous languages, (2) advancing the documentation of the un-described and under-described languages of Mexico and Central America, (3) publicizing the value of maintaining the indigenous languages of Mexico and Central America and the necessity of incorporating their use into public education, and (4) providing open access to all the presentations and materials from the conference online to any interested person.