Phonetic Structures of Dying Languages

摘要随着说话者的消亡或被吸收到更大的社区中，许多语言正在消亡。很快，我们将不再知道这些语言听起来像什么，或者他们的演讲者使用了什么发音手势。他们的死亡将导致未来语言研究数据的永久性丢失。这项研究将调查一些濒临灭绝的语言，这些语言从语言学的角度来看是最重要的。这一项目的另一个主要方面是，它将开辟新的天地，使用一套基本语音措施，以量化的形式提供标准化的描述，以确定具体和普遍的语音特征。最终的产品还将包括一本田野工作手册，供那些希望做类似工作的人使用。田野调查将与当地语言学合作进行。主要的语音和语音模式将在专门准备的材料中识别和说明，同时还将提供说明协同发音和其他语音现象的补充材料。研究人员将制作音频和生理记录，包括气流机制和关节手势时机的空气动力学记录，以及关节接触的腭部记录。录音将在加州大学洛杉矶分校的语音学实验室进行进一步分析。每种语言的完整图文并茂的描述将被出版，这样这些濒临灭绝的语言所涉及的声音和发音手势的知识将继续为未来的研究人员所用，并可以成为形成语音和音系学共性理论的一部分。

ABSTRACTS Many languages are dying as the speakers die out or are absorbed into larger communities. Soon we will no longer know what these languages sounded like, or what articulatory gestures their speakers used. Their death will result in a permanent loss of data for future linguistic investigations. This research will investigate some of the dying languages that are most important from the linguistic point of view. Another major aspect of this project is that it will break new ground in providing standardized descriptions in quantified form using a set of basis phonetic measures, designed to characterize both specific and universal phonetic features. The final product will also include a fieldwork manual for those who wish to do similar work. Fieldwork will be conducted in collaboration with local linguistics. The principal phonetic and phonological patterns will be identified and illustrated in specially prepared material, along with supplementary material illustrating coarticulatory and other phonetic phenomena. The investigators will make both audio and physiological recordings including aerodynamic records for airstream mechanisms and the timing of articulatory gestures, and palatographic records for articulatory contacts. Audio recordings will be further analyzed in the UCLA Phonetics Laboratory. Fully illustrated and documented accounts of each language will be published so that knowledge of the sounds and the articulatory gestures involved in these dying languages will remain available for future researchers and can form part of the input to the formation of theories of phonetic and phonological universals.