Doctoral Dissertation Research: A grammar of a minority language and documentation of linguistic and cultural data

University Of California-San Diego, La Jolla CA

Investigators

Abstract

Minority languages spoken by small communities preserve a wealth of linguistic and cultural knowledge, which is often threatened by larger regional and global languages. This doctoral dissertation project focuses on the production of a grammar, dictionary, and texts that describe one such under-documented minority language. The language has many properties that are of interest, including a complex tone system and a typologically rare vowel inventory – understanding these features contributes to an understanding of linguistic diversity and language more broadly. Linguistic documentation is valuable outside the field of linguistics, as minority languages, through their vocabularies and oral literature, contain ecological and cultural knowledge about local flora and fauna, history, and anthropological practices. For the community who speaks the language, documentation provides data to support resources on language planning and the development of educational materials. This project also benefits society by providing training in language documentation and by depositing data into a publicly accessible archive. This doctoral dissertation project creates a reference grammar that comprehensively details the properties of this language, including its sound system (phonology), the structure of its words (morphology), and the way that the words are organized (syntax). This project includes two directed studies: (1) an analysis of the phonetic properties of a series of pharyngealized vowels and (2) a sociolinguistic survey of variation in pronoun use. Most of the data comes from audio and video recordings of the language. A selection of the recordings, made in naturalistic settings, are edited into short documentary videos, capturing language use during cultural practices like the planting and harvesting of crops, and oral literature like stories, histories, and narratives. In doing so, this project provides insights into the structure of the language. 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.