Collaborative Research: Documenting Cherokee (CHR) Tone and Vowel Length

切罗基语是被联合国教科文组织《语言代际传播活力量表》列为严重濒危语言的一种，它在易洛魁语中独独呈现出词汇语调。切罗基语的声调和元音长度一起发挥作用，提供了区分大量单词的唯一声学线索。然而，没有可用的资源，相应的音频和书面的例子，切诺基音调和相关的元音长度的语言学习者，教师，或研究人员参考。这个项目的总体目标是为现有的切罗基电子词典中的9000个条目分别在三种书写系统上表示音调和元音长度：国际音标、历史悠久的Sequoyah切罗基音节表和常用的“近音位字母”。其他成果包括：记录不同说话者对每个条目的背诵，以呈现一系列性别和语音细节，为切罗基语使用者和高级第二语言学习者提供文献语言学培训，以及开发和试点测试使用电子词典在切罗基语课堂上教授音调的材料和课程。该项目将提供现有最大的切诺基韵律可搜索数据集，帮助研究人员测量语音特征，描述分布模式，并测试音调理论，同时为切诺基语言学习者提供一个工具，以改善他们的发音和切诺基语言特征的知识。由此产生的成果可以作为一个模式，为建立一个纪录片语言学植根于土著社区的语言和文化的表达，说明语言工作不一定要通过英语框架。

Cherokee, a severely endangered language according to the UNESCO Language Vitality Scale of Intergenerational Language Transmission, is unique among Iroquoian languages in that it alone exhibits lexical tone. Functioning together, tone and vowel length in Cherokee provide the only acoustic cues that distinguish large sets of words. Yet, there are no available resources of corresponding audio and written examples of Cherokee tone and related vowel length for language learners, teachers, or researchers to refer to. The overall goal of this project is to represent both tone and vowel length for each of 9,000 entries in the existing Cherokee Electronic Dictionary on three writing systems: the International Phonetic Alphabet, the historic Sequoyah Cherokee Syllabary, and a commonly used "Near Phonemic Alphabet." Other outcomes include: recorded recitations of each entry by different speakers to present a range of gender and phonetic detail, training for Cherokee speakers and advanced second language learners in documentary linguistics, and the development and pilot testing of materials and lessons that use the electronic dictionary to teach tone in Cherokee language classrooms.The project will make available the largest searchable dataset on Cherokee prosody in existence, aiding researchers in measuring phonetic characteristics, describing distribution patterns, and testing theories of tone while providing Cherokee language learners a tool for improving their pronunciation and knowledge of the linguistic character of Cherokee. The resulting product may serve as a model for the creation of a documentary linguistics rooted in the expression of an Indigenous community's language and culture, illustrating that language work does not necessarily have to be framed through English.