SGER: Exploratory Fieldwork with the Nedebang Language of Eastern Indonesia

在国家科学基金会的支持下，加里霍尔顿博士将进行为期六周的Nedebang探索性实地工作，Nedebang是一种濒临灭绝的非南岛语，在印度尼西亚东部的Pantar岛上只有不到一千人使用。该项目有三个主要目标：（1）收集基本的语音，词汇和语法信息，从中编写Nedebang的简短草图;（2）对Pantar岛的非南岛语系语言的语法和类型学特性进行调查;（3）评估未来对Pantar语言进行长期实地调查的可行性。在项目过程中收集的数据和记录将存档供其他研究人员使用。该项目的重要性主要有三个原因。(1)潘塔尔语目前正在被更广泛交流的语言所取代。这项研究的时间安排将确保有关Nedebang和其他Pantar语言的信息在该语言停止使用之前被记录下来。(2)潘塔尔语似乎属于跨新几内亚语系，这是一个公认的新几内亚地区500多种语言的组合。然而，它们的确切遗传关系尚不清楚。Pantar语言的数据将有助于更好地了解内部和外部的遗传关系。(3)现有的数据表明，潘塔尔语的语法结构与其他语言的语法结构有很大不同。这项研究的结果将通过提供一种类型学上不寻常的语言的详细文件来增加我们对人类语言和语言学理论的了解。

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Gary Holton will conduct six weeks of exploratory field work with Nedebang, an endangered non-Austronesian language spoken by fewer than one thousand persons on Pantar Island, eastern Indonesia. The project has three primary objectives: (1) to gather basic phonological, lexical, and grammatical information from which to compile a short sketch of Nedebang; (2) to conduct a survey of the grammatical and typological properties of the non-Austronesian languages of Pantar Island; and (3) to assess the feasibility of future longer-term field investigations of the languages of Pantar. Data and recordings gathered during the course of the project will be archived for use by other researchers.The project is significant for three main reasons. (1) The Pantar languages are currently being replaced by languages of wider commuication. The timing of this research will ensure that information regarding Nedebang and other Pantar languages is recorded before the language ceases to be spoken. (2) The Pantar languages appear to belong to the Trans-New Guinea language family, a putative grouping of more than 500 languages spoken in the New Guinea region. However, their precise genetic relationship is unclear. Data from Pantar languages will contribute to a better understanding of both internal and external genetic relationships. (3) What data are available suggest that the grammatical structures found in the Pantar languages differ significantly from those found in other languages. The results of this research will add to our knowledge of human language and linguistic theory by providing detailed documentation of a typologically unusual language.