Doctoral Dissertation Research:: Documenting Bih, An Austronesian Language of Vietnam In A Comparative Perspective: A Bih/Rade/English/Vietnamese Dictionary

博士论文研究：从比较的角度记录越南的一种南岛语：波黑语/拉德语/英语/越南语词典波黑语是越南南部高地使用的一种Chamic语言。布恩特拉普镇约有500人认为自己是波黑族，但只有不到30人能说流利的波黑语。这支持了人们的担忧，即老年人是最后一代讲波黑语的人。这个博士论文项目将通过提供波黑的第一个正字法，为语言的保存做出贡献。俄勒冈大学（University of Oregon）的共同负责人谭·阮（Tam Nguyen）将在现场进行重要的语言研究工作。该项目将以对话、民间传说、歌曲和其他话语形式记录自然语言数据。这些口头文本在适当的时候辅以逐字的启发，将为波黑语/拉德语/英语/越南语词典的发展提供词汇。由于到目前为止还没有关于这种语言的语法、词典或学术出版物，因此一本波黑语/拉德语/英语/越南语词典有望为语言学和相关领域做出重大贡献。波黑语词汇的详细记录有助于南岛历史语言学领域，特别是对重建原始历史感兴趣的越南学者，如人类学，考古学，民俗学，艺术史和人口遗传学。最重要的是，该项目将对波黑人民有所帮助，他们害怕自己的语言丧失，并希望以书面形式保存自己的词汇。由于与Tay Nguyen大学和Daklak民族研究中心的合作，拟议的项目经过精心设计，以满足讲社区和学术界的需求。

Doctoral Dissertation Research: Documenting Bih, an Austronesian language of Vietnam in a comparative perspective: a Bih/Rade/English/Vietnamese DictionaryBih is a Chamic language spoken in the Southern highlands of Vietnam. Around 500 people in Buon Trap town consider themselves as Bih ethnically, but fewer than 30 people are fluent in Bih. This supports the fear that the generation of elderly adults is the last generation speaking Bih. This doctoral dissertation project will contribute toward the preservation of the language by providing the first-ever orthography of Bih. Co-PI Tam Nguyen of the University of Oregon will undertake significant onsite work with the language. The co-PI will record natural language data in the form of conversations, folklore, songs and other forms of discourse. These oral texts supplemented with word-by-word elicitation when appropriate will contribute vocabulary toward the development of a Bih/Rade/English/Vietnamese dictionary.A Bih/Rade/English/Vietnamese dictionary promises to offer a significant contribution to linguistics and related fields as there are no grammars, dictionaries or scholarly publications available on the language to date. A detailed documentation of the Bih lexicon contributes to the field of Austronesian historical linguistics, particularly to Vietnamese scholars interested in the reconstruction of proto-history, such as anthropology, archaeology, folklore, art-history and population genetics. First and foremost, the project will be of use to the Bih people who exhibit the fear of their language loss and wish to have written forms of their lexicon for language preservation. As collaboration with the University of Tay Nguyen and the Center of Daklak Ethnic Research is included, the proposed project is carefully designed to meet the needs of the speaking community as well as those of the academic communities.