EPSCOR: Plains Indian Sign Language: Fieldwork and Digital Archive Project

EPSCOR：平原印第安手语：实地考察和数字档案项目

• 批准号: 0853665
• 负责人: Jeffrey Davis
• 金额: $ 10.04万
• 依托单位: University of Tennessee Knoxville
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-09-01 至 2011-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0853665&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EPSCOR; Plains; Indian; Sign; Language

Plains Indian Sign Language: Fieldwork and Digital Archive ProjectPlains Indian Sign Language (PISL) historically served various social and discourse functions within and between numerous American Indian communities of the Great Plains and cultural groups bordering this geographic area. Classified in the Sign Language family, PISL (also called sign talk) is distinct from American Sign Language (ASL) that is used in Deaf communities of the US and Canada. The use of PISL has dramatically declined from its widespread use as a lingua franca in previous times, due in part to its replacement by English, and ASL in some cases. Although PISL is an endangered language, and the extant number of varieties and users is unknown, it has not vanished; it is still used within some native groups in traditional storytelling, rituals, and conversational narratives by both deaf and hearing American Indians (e.g., Blackfeet, Crow, Mandan-Hidatsa, Nakota/Gros Ventre, and Northern Cheyenne, among others). There is an urgent need to document and provide linguistic descriptions of contemporary PISL varieties, and for sign language linguists to collaborate with deaf and hearing members of American Indian signing communities. With support of the National Science Foundation, sign language linguists Dr. Jeffrey Davis (University of Tennessee) and Melanie McKay-Cody (Chickamauga Cherokee/Choctaw; William Woods University, Fulton, MO) will collect contemporary sign language narratives of American Indians who know and use the PISL variety. The research team will provide comparative linguistic analyses, and integrate these new findings into the digital archive of American Indian sign language documentary materials previously collected in collaboration with the Smithsonian's National Anthropological Archives (with support of a 2006-2007 DEL NSF/NEH fellowship awarded to Davis). The one-year fieldwork and digital project will document the current sociolinguistic status of PISL; illuminate its linguistic nature and structure; produce an inventory of previously unknown materials; provide annotations and captions of various documentary materials and films; contribute to the revitalization of PISL in native communities where it once thrived; and make accessible to broader audiences this important yet often overlooked part of American Indian linguistic and cultural heritage.

平原印第安人手语：田野工作和数字档案ProjectPlains Indian Sign Language（PISL）在历史上曾在大平原的众多美洲印第安社区和与此地理区域接壤的文化群体之间发挥过各种社会和话语功能。 PISL（也称为手语）属于手语家族，与美国和加拿大聋人社区使用的美国手语（ASL）不同。 PISL的使用从以前广泛使用的弗兰卡急剧下降，部分原因是它被英语取代，在某些情况下是ASL。 虽然PISL是一种濒危语言，并且现存的变种和用户数量未知，但它并没有消失;它仍然在一些土著群体中使用，用于传统的讲故事，仪式，以及聋人和听力正常的美洲印第安人的会话叙述（例如，黑脚族、克劳族、曼丹-希达察族、纳科塔/格罗斯托族和北方夏延族等）。 有迫切需要记录和提供当代PISL品种的语言描述，并为手语语言学家与美国印第安人签署社区的聋人和听力成员合作。 在国家科学基金会的支持下，手语语言学家杰弗里·戴维斯博士（田纳西大学）和梅勒妮·麦凯-科迪（奇卡莫加切罗基/乔托;威廉·伍兹大学，富尔顿，密苏里州）将收集了解和使用PISL变体的美国印第安人的当代手语叙述。 该研究小组将提供比较语言分析，并将这些新发现整合到以前与史密森尼国家人类学档案馆合作收集的美国印第安人手语文献资料的数字档案中（2006-2007年DEL NSF/NEH奖学金授予戴维斯）。 这个为期一年的实地工作和数字项目将记录国际空间法协会目前的社会语言状况;阐明其语言性质和结构;编制一份以前不为人知的材料清单;为各种文献材料和电影提供注释和说明;促进国际空间法协会在其曾经蓬勃发展的土著社区的振兴;并使更广泛的受众能够接触到这一重要但往往被忽视的美洲印第安语言和文化遗产的一部分。