Doctoral Dissertation Research: Documentation of the Miji Languages

该研究项目的目标是记录和描述米吉语，这是一种藏缅语，在印度阿鲁纳恰尔邦约有4,000人使用。目前的全球化趋势，特别是国家一体化以及印地语和英语教育在印度的传播，导致年轻一代的Miji语言能力大幅下降。因此，年长的部落成员越来越关心他们传统语言的未来状况。在这个社区中继续这种语言使用模式肯定会导致Miji语言的最终和完全灭绝。这种现实更加具有威胁性，因为从来没有为这种语言制定过任何书面的正字法，而这种正字法可以使文化和/或语言上相关的文本得以保存。为了记录这种语言，丹尼尔伍德先生将花两个六个月的时间生活在他们的土著社区，在那里他将尝试获得米吉语的沟通能力。语言文档是语言学家和语言社区之间的合作努力。伍德先生将培训社区感兴趣的成员进行基本的语言文献和分析。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领导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Miji描述语法的基础。该研究项目的其他预期最终产品包括三种语言的Miji-英语-印地语词典，英语翻译的转录文本集合，以及与Miji社区合作设计的书面正字法。由于Miji仍然是一种研究严重不足和记录不足的语言，因此此类出版物将是同类出版物中的第一个，使语言和Miji社区受益。

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.