Documenting a severely endangered language variety

University Of Texas At Austin, Austin TX

Investigators

Abstract

Exploring creole studies from a linguistic and a pedagogical perspective, this project advances our knowledge of the subject by offering a cohesive approach to provide new theoretical and applied insights into language contact, language documentation and language revitalization. In particular, it uses interviews with native speakers to document the grammar of a vernacular variety spoken in rural villages. The traditional variety is severely endangered, since only a few hundred people possess a good degree of fluency in it. Among the goals of this project is the creation of a grammar of the traditional language. A detailed analysis of the language provides a better understanding of grammatical phenomena that are not currently well understood. From a theoretical perspective, this work provides new insights into the nature of contact-driven restructuring across linguistic interfaces and language domains. In addition, this study casts new light on the ongoing debate regarding the origin of creole languages. This award is made as part of a funding partnership between the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities for the NSF Dynamic Language Infrastructure – NEH Documenting Endangered Languages Program. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.