Doctoral Dissertation Research: Linguistic Analysis of Desano [ISO 639 des]

亚马逊河上游的几种图卡努语高度濒危。东图卡努人以其语言的异族通婚和“强制性的”多语言而闻名；该地区大约有20种语言的使用者必须与说不同语言的人结婚。在这个由美国国家科学基金会资助的论文项目中，犹他大学的Wilson Silva将对巴西Vaupes地区濒临灭绝的图卡努语Desano进行语言描述和分析。在Lyle Campbell博士的指导下，主要目标是为Desano提供一个详细的语法，这将突出Desano的一些语言学家特别感兴趣的语言特征。这些包括：鼻音谐和（在音系上），名词分类系统（在形态学上）和证据系统（在形态学/句法/语义的界面上）。需要这种语言的文件，不仅要有印刷形式，而且要有音像记录。图卡努语的比较分析、历史分析和类型学分析目前还不发达，今后的语言学家如果没有这里正在进行的这种文献资料，就无法得到这些资料。该项目将提供Desano的全面描述和文件，Desano是图卡努语中最濒危的语言之一，以前只有很少的文件记录。结果将提供给语言学家、社区成员和公众。该项目还为使用该语言的社区提供了基本实用语法和故事集，这些将用于语言振兴项目（特别是在学校）。该项目将有助于一个并行方案，培训教师和社区研究人员教授该语言和编写该语言的教学材料，以及收集和保存该语言和相关的口头传统。这些结果将以重要的方式为一般语言学学术做出贡献，因为对所提到的特征的准确描述对语言学理论具有相当大的兴趣。巴西的土著社区和语言学家将从计划出版的葡萄牙语论文中受益，这可能成为未来图卡努语研究的模型。

Several of the Tukanoan languages in the upper Amazon are highly endangered. The Eastern Tukanoan people are famous for their linguistic exogamy and 'obligatory' multilingualism; there are some 20 languages in the region whose speakers must marry someone who speaks a different language. In this dissertation project, funded by the National Science Foundation, Wilson Silva of the University of Utah will undertake a linguistic description and analysis of Desano, an endangered Tukanoan language of the Vaupes Region of Brazil. Under the supervision of Dr. Lyle Campbell, the primary goal is a detailed grammar for Desano that will highlight a number of linguistic traits in Desano of particular interest to linguists in general. These include: nasal harmony (in phonology), the noun classifier system (in morphology), and the evidential system (in the interface of morphology/syntax/semantics). There is a need for documentation of this language, not only in printed form, but also audio and audiovisual recordings. The comparative, historical and typological analysis of the Tukanoan languages is currently underdeveloped, and will not be available to future linguists without the kind of documentation being undertaken here.This project will provide a comprehensive description and documentation of Desano, one of the most endangered Tukanoan languages, which has been only poorly documented before. The results will be made available to linguists, community members, and the public. The project also contributes to the communities where the language is spoken by providing a basic practical grammar and a collect of tales and stories, which will be used in language revitalization programs (particularly in the schools). The project will contribute to a parallel program to train teachers and community researchers for teaching the language and preparing pedagogical materials in the language, and for collecting and preserving the language and associated oral traditions. The results will contribute to general linguistic scholarship in significant ways, since accurate accounts of the traits mentioned are of considerable interest for linguistic theory. The indigenous community and linguists in Brazil will benefit from the planned publication of a Portuguese version of the dissertation, which may serve as a model for future Tukanoan studies.