Advancing Audio-visual Documentation of Passamaquoddy (SIL Code PQM) Group Discourse with Archive Access via the Web as an Integrated Video and Dictionary Database

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AbstractThis project, "The Language Keepers" (NSF grant BCS-05533791, 2006-2008), addresses a central dilemma in documenting endangered languages: the decline and loss of public group discourse. The documenting of public group discourse provides linguists and Native-language teachers and students with a necessary research and learning resource. The work continues a successful Native-language documentation methodology in the Passamaquoddy communities of Maine, demonstrating the feasibility of stimulating renewed group conversation and filming natural, spontaneously spoken Passamaquoddy, especially in time-critical and culturally significant areas. There are two components: First, the project uses the video documentation itself as feedback to participants to stimulate reflection and further discourse, creating a revived community dialogue in Passamaquoddy. Next, the existing conversational video corpus of transcribed, translated and subtitled "whole conversations," plus new conversations to be filmed, will be re-conceptualized as a non-linear, web-accessed, video database archive. This video database will be linked to the existing on-line dictionary data base. Viewers will then be able to create clusters of video and dictionary entries that contextualize the meaning of an item, conveying deeper cultural and linguistic understanding. This resource, which can be found online at www.languagekeepers.org, makes the linguistic complexity of Passamaquoddy more accessible and enables the development of innovative materials for teacher training, language learning, and research.