Documenting Linguistic Structure and Language Change in Yawarana

记录亚瓦拉纳语的语言结构和语言变化

• 批准号: 1500714
• 负责人: Spike Gildea
• 金额: $ 30万
• 依托单位: University of Oregon Eugene
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-08-01 至 2022-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1500714&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Documenting; Linguistic; Structure; Language; Change

It is known that language change is inevitable and systematic and that genetically related languages often exhibit parallel changes. The Cariban languages, which constitute one of the largest linguistic families of South America, are a good testing ground for this expectation since closely related Cariban languages often show dissimilar changes.Spike Gildea of the University of Oregon along with linguist Natalia Cáceres and lexicographer Marie-Claude Mattei Muller will document a critically endangered Cariban language Yawarana [yar]. Extant data for Yawarana show surprising phonological differences (e.g., syllable reduction, stress) with closely related languages, Mapoyo and 'Pémono. In addition, there are dramatic differences in morphosyntax (e.g., case alignment, verbal conjugations) between Yawarana, Mapoyo, and 'Pémono and their Cariban neighbors Panare, 'Tamanaku, and Ye'kwana. Particularly striking are differences between main clause verb forms resulting from nominalizations (like English 'eating' or 'eater' based on 'eat') or a participial (like English 'eaten' based on 'eat'). All languages change, and some entirely replace verb conjugations with nominalizations and participles, but it is unusual for a language or language group to have made so complete a change when the nearest related languages have not.To investigate these and additional grammatical features of Yawarana, this team will work with the last speakers of the language to produce a state-of-the-art documentary corpus, including audio and video recordings of Yawarana speech with annotations and analysis of speech samples. The final products will include a reference grammar and a Yawarana-Spanish bilingual dictionary. The resulting data will elucidate the nature of language change in Cariban and will have implications for theories of language change.Gildea and his team will collaborate with the Venezuelan Ministry of Education in their efforts to produce educational materials about the Yawarana language for use in speech community schools. The documentary corpus created for this project will be archived at the Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America (University of Texas).The project is supported by co-funds from the National Science Foundation's International Science and Engineering Office.

众所周知，语言变化是不可避免的和系统的，并且一般相关的语言通常存在平行的变化。 The Cariban languages, which constitute one of the largest linguistic families of South America, are a good testing ground for this expectation since closely related Cariban languages ​​often show dissimilar changes.Spike Gildea of​​ ​​the University of Oregon along with linguist Natalia Cáceres and lexicographer Marie-Claude Mattei Muller will document a critically endangered Cariban language Yawarana [yar]. Yawarana的现有数据显示出令人惊讶的语音差异（例如，与密切相关的语言，Mapoyo和Pémono的语言，音节减少，压力）。此外，Yawarana，Mapoyo和他们的加勒比纳邻居Panare，'Tamanaku和Ye'kwana之间的形态元素（例如，案例对齐，口头结合）存在巨大差异。特别是引人注目的是由名义化（例如基于“饮食”的英语“饮食”或“食用”）或颗粒物（例如基于“ eat''的英语“饮食”）产生的主要子句动词形式之间的差异。所有语言都在变化，有些语言用名义化和参与者完全取代动词结合，但是当一个最近的相关语言没有进行时，语言或语言群体的完整变化是不寻常的。要调查Yawarana的这些和其他语法特征，该团队将与该语言的最后发言人一起制作录制的文献演讲，包括录像和录像带，包括Yotio and Ennerains sampers andio samples andera录制录像和录制的录制。最终产品将包括参考语法和Yawarana-Spanish双语词典。由此产生的数据将阐明加勒比语语言变化的性质，并将对语言变更理论产生影响。Gildea及其团队将与委内瑞拉教育部合作，以制作有关Yawarana语言的教育材料，以在语音社区学校中使用。为该项目创建的纪录片语料库将在拉丁美洲（德克萨斯大学）的土著语言的档案中存档。该项目得到了国家科学基金会国际科学和工程办公室的共同基金的支持。