Phonetic Structures of Endangered Languages

MADDIESON9817345该项目旨在进一步收集有关生存受到威胁的选定语言的声音模式的数据。语音描述需要包含发音和声学的详细描述，而这些描述不能用简单的转录来表示。私人侦查员是一个小组的成员，该小组多年来在开展这类工作以及开发现场语音学技术和描述语言声音的分析框架方面建立了特别良好的记录。选定的特定目标语言将是那些初步实地报告表明它们具有特别语音兴趣的特性的语言。在许多情况下，这些属性在世界语言中是罕见的；例如，不寻常的特定类型的元音或辅音，具有特别少量对比的元音系统，或者允许辅音异常丰富的音节结构模式。在另一些情况下，这些属性的更好的理解对于重建语言的历史和关系特别重要。选择的语言也将是以前没有受到专业语音学家太多关注的语言。每种语言都将通过记录单词列表来记录，这些单词列表说明了该语言中使用的所有辅音和元音。录音将包括一些代表两性的不同演讲者。这些录音将被用来对语言的分段属性进行定量的声学分析。此外，还将采用可用于实地情况的各种发音和空气动力学调查技术，以获得有关所用言语产生机制的数据。在某些情况下，还将进行现场语音感知实验。这项研究将提供所选每一种濒危语言调查所需的信息。它将提供特定声音类型和模式的文档，包括一些以前从未描述过的。它还将极大地丰富材料数据库，在此基础上可以对人类语言的语音性质进行概括。

MADDIESON9817345This project is to further the collection of data on the sound patterns of selected languages whose survival is threatened. Phonetic descriptions need to contain detailed accounts of articulation and acoustics that cannot be represented in a simple transcription. The P.I. is a member of a team which has built a particularly strong track record in conducting work of this type over a period of years, as well as in developing techniques for field phonetics and analytical frameworks for describing the sounds of languages.The particular target languages selected will be ones where preliminary field reports indicate that they possess properties of particular phonetic interest. In many cases, these properties will be ones that are rare in the world's languages; for example specific types of vowels or consonants that are unusual, systems of vowels with a particularly small number of contrasts, or patterns of syllable structure which permit unusually rich sequencing of consonants. In others the properties will be ones whose better understanding is of particular importance to reconstructing the history and relationships of languages. The languages selected will also be ones that have not previously received much attention from specialist phoneticians. Each language will be documented by recording word lists which illustrate all the consonants and vowels used in the language. The recordings will include a number of different speakers representing both sexes. These recordings will be used to make quantitative acoustic analyses of the segmental properties of the languages. In addition a variety of articulatory and aerodynamic investigative techniques which can be adapted for use in the field situation will be employed to obtain data on the speech production mechanisms used. In certain cases, field experiments on speech perception will also be carried out.This research will provide much-needed information on each of the endangered languages selected for investigation. It will provide documentation of particular sound types and patterns including some that have never been described before. And it will also greatly enrich the data base of material on which generalizations about the phonetic nature of human language can be made.