Sinasina Sign Language: An Initial Description

Rarrick Samantha C, Honolulu HI

Investigators

Abstract

This award was provided as part of NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) program. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral-level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry or private sector, and government. SPRF awards involve two years of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctoral Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal. Each Postdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions that advance their respective disciplinary fields. Language loss is a global issue, and with each language that is lost, a system of knowledge, traditions, and history is lost. While there are ongoing efforts to record and analyze a variety of spoken languages, little is known of smaller sign languages which often have unusual grammatical features and face the threat of extinction. This is especially the case in Papua New Guinea (PNG), a country with over 800 spoken languages and only two reported sign languages: Papua New Guinea Sign Language (PNGSL) and Engan Sign Language (EnSL). This project aims to document and describe a third sign language of PNG, Sinasina Sign Language (SSSL) which was uncovered by the Fellow in 2016. SSSL is the first sign language reported in the highlands of PNG. Through researching this sign language, the diversity of languages in this region and the nature of language as a mental system will be better understood. Additionally, this work can give a voice to deaf and hard of hearing people in the country by recording their stories and allowing them the opportunity to decide what they want for their community and language, especially with respect to research and education. By including the opinions and perspectives of this largely underserved group, the scope and best practices for research in this region can be broadened. Over time, this can increase the quality and appropriateness of research with deaf people in Papua New Guinea globally and increase deaf people's access to education and participation in research in a way that is both rewarding and useful to them. As no other sign language has been reported in this region of PNG, the description and analysis of SSSL has the potential to drastically further our understanding of the typological features of sign languages in Papua New Guinea. This project aims to address these issues by recording and describing the phonological, morphological, and syntactic properties of SSSL in typological perspective. It also includes comparative analysis of SSSL, PNGSL, and EnSL to test for possible genetic relationships which would shed insight into the linguistic and historical relationships of Deaf individuals in the country. Methods to document and describe this language are consistent with modern recommendations for best practices for language documentation, with attention to longevity of data. Thus, the approach of this project will include (i) eliciting lexical and grammatical information; (ii) conducting interviews with signers to identify the geographic boundaries where this language is primarily used; (iii) assessing the degree of endangerment of SSSL; and (iv) comparative analysis of SSSL with other sign languages in Papua New Guinea. Proposed outcomes of this project include: (i) three journal articles; (ii) a sketch grammar of SSSL; (iii) a brief learners' dictionary; and (iv) four hours of recorded and archived narratives with time-aligned translations. As SSSL is likely endangered, has no known genetic relationships, and likely exhibits typologically unusual features, this work is necessary for understanding the nature of small sign languages, which are still vastly under-described.