Seri Dictionary and Texts

在美国国家科学基金会（National Science Foundation）的支持下，斯蒂芬·马莱特（Stephen Marlett）博士和他的同事玛丽·莫泽（Mary Moser）将对塞里语（Seri）进行为期两年的语言学研究。塞里语是墨西哥西北部的一种土著语言，使用人数不到700人。本研究的目标之一是完成第一部全面的塞里语词典。该词典将包括一个简短的西利语语法描述，供母语人士和外地人使用。该项目还将制作一个互行文本语料库。这些文本将以Seri同事编辑的材料为基础，并为语言社区出版，作为对保存文化重要文献的贡献。他们将展示实用的拼写，语音拼写，交错的西班牙语和英语单词注释，以及西班牙语和英语的意译。他们通过在文学语境中展示单词来补充词典和语法。这项研究的基础工作包括广泛的实地考察、工作草稿的流通以及与塞里人三代成员的个人互动。研究人员现在将验证数以千计的词汇条目及其附带的说明性句子。专家将在鱼类学，鸟类学，爬虫学和植物学领域进行咨询。字典和互行文本将使用塞里语、西班牙语和英语。纳入西班牙语将使该工作对讲斯里语的人以及在墨西哥讲非斯里语的人都有用。英语的加入将读者扩展到研究该地区生态的国际语言学家和人类学家。在词典和语法编写的各个阶段，研究人员都与当地的斯里当局和其他斯里民族的成员密切合作，以确保完整、有用、适当和可访问性。这项研究的意义是双重的。首先，塞里语是假定的霍坎语系中唯一幸存的语言。关于其他可能与它密切相关的现已灭绝的语言的信息很少。这本词典将支持更多的历史和比较语言学研究。20世纪中期，塞里人仍然以传统的狩猎和采集为生。因此，研究他们的语言对人类学领域和语言学领域同样重要。其次，本项目的词典、语法和翻译文本将以支持语言维护工作和双语教育的格式提供给塞里语社区。这些作品也将帮助（英语和西班牙语）研究人员在生态学和相关领域越来越多地与Seri同事合作，但由于语言障碍而受到阻碍。该项目的另一项重要成果是，一些重要的塞里族男女将在编辑和处理塞里语材料方面接受培训。这将使塞里人民在未来多年受益。

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Stephen Marlett and his colleague Mary Moser will conduct two years of linguistic research on Seri, an indigenous language in northwestern Mexico used by under 700 people. One goal of this research is to complete the first comprehensive dictionary of Seri. The dictionary will include a brief description of the Seri grammar for both native-speaker and outsider use. The project will also produce a corpus of interlinearized texts. These texts will be based on materials edited by Seri associates and published for the language community as a contribution to the preservation of culturally-important literature. They will be presented with practical spelling, phonological spelling, interlinear Spanish and English word glosses, and free translation in Spanish and English. They complement the dictionary and grammar by showing the words in literary context. The groundwork for this research includes extensive fieldwork, circulation of drafts of the work, and personal interaction with three generations of members of the Seri people. Researchers will now verify thousands of lexical entries and their accompanying illustrative sentences. Experts will be consulted in the areas of ichthyology, ornithology, herpetology, and botany. The dictionary and interlinearized texts will be in Seri, Spanish, and English. The inclusion of Spanish will make the work useful to Seri speakers, as well as to non-Seri Spanish speakers in Mexico. The inclusion of English expands the audience to international linguists and anthropologists doing research on the area's ecology. The researchers have worked closely with native Seri authorities and other members of the Seri nation at all stages of the dictionary and grammar preparation, to ensure completeness, usefulness, appropriateness, and accessibility. The significance of this research is twofold. First, the Seri language is the sole surviving language of a linguistic family within the putative Hokan stock. Little information is available about other now-extinct languages that may have been closely related to it. The dictionary will support more historical and comparative linguistic research. The Seri people were still living by traditional hunting and gathering in the mid-twentieth century. Therefore, study of their language is as significant for the field of anthropology as it is for the field of linguistics. Second, this project's dictionary, grammar, and translated texts will be available to the Seri community in a format that is supportive of language maintenance efforts and bilingual education. These works will also aid (English- and Spanish-speaking) researchers who increasingly work with Seri associates in ecology and related fields, but who are handicapped by the language barrier. An important additional result of the project is the training that some key Seri men and women will receive in editing and processing Seri language materials. This will benefit the Seri people for years into the future.