Doctoral Dissertation Research: Documentation of the Miji Languages

当前的全球化趋势，特别是国家一体化和印地语和英语教育在印度的普及，导致年轻一代的米吉语熟练程度显著下降。因此，年长的部落成员越来越担心他们的传统语言的未来状况。在这个社区继续这样的语言使用模式肯定会导致Miji语最终彻底灭绝。由于没有为这种语言开发出书面正字法，从而可以保存文化和/或语言上相关的文本，这一事实使这一现实更具威胁性。为了记录这种语言，丹尼尔伍德先生将花两个月的时间在他们的土著社区与米吉人生活在一起，在那里他将尝试掌握米吉语的交际能力。语言文档是语言学家和语言社区之间的合作成果。伍德先生将对社区中感兴趣的成员进行基本语言文档和分析方面的培训。这不仅允许社区为文档项目做出贡献，而且还将使他们能够在未来率先开展自己的基于语言的项目。通过音频和视频记录收集的语言数据将成为描述Miji语法的基础。该研究项目的其他预期最终产品包括一本Miji-English- hindi三语词典、一套用英语注释的转录文本集，以及与Miji社区合作设计的书面正字法。由于Miji语仍然是一种研究和文献都很不足的语言，这样的出版物将是第一个这样的出版物，使语言和Miji社区都受益。

The goal of this research project is to document and describe Miji, a Tibeto-Burman language spoken by around 4,000 people in Arunachal Pradesh, India. Current trends of globalization, specifically national integration and the spread of education in Hindi and English in India, have caused Miji language proficiency to decrease significantly within the younger generations. As a result, older tribal members have become increasingly concerned about the future state of their heritage language. Continuing such patterns of language use in this community will surely result in the eventual and total extinction of the Miji language. This reality is made even more threatening by the fact that no written orthography has ever been developed for this language, which could allow for the preservation of culturally and/or linguistically relevant texts. In order to document this language, Mr. Daniel Wood will spend two six-month long periods living among the Miji in their native communities where he will attempt gain communicative proficiency in Miji. Linguistic documentation is a collaborative effort between the linguist and the language community. Mr. Wood will train interested members of the community in basic linguistic documentation and analysis. This will not only allow the community to contribute to the documentation project, but it will empower them to spearhead their own language-based projects in the future. The linguistic data that will be collected via audio and video recording will be the basis for a descriptive grammar of Miji. Other expected end-products for this research project include a trilingual Miji-English-Hindi dictionary, a collection of transcribed texts glossed in English, and a written orthography designed in collaboration with the Miji community. As Miji remains a drastically under-studied and under-documented language, such publications will be the first of their kind, benefitting both the linguistic and Miji communities.