Doctoral Dissertation Research: Phonology of Betsimisaraka Malagasy

这项研究项目的目的是通过记录和分析马达加斯加东海岸所说的马达加斯加Betsimisaraka方言的未被研究的音系学，加深我们对人类语言中可能的音系系统的理解。该项目包括对北贝西米萨拉卡方言进行至少六个月的实地考察，目的是对该方言进行完整的音系学分析。对母语人士发音的仔细观察和声学测量将被用来回答有关该语言发音清单的基本问题。将记录和分析发音的系统变化，并特别注意已知的马达加斯加标准方言中发生的过程。在启发式会议期间收集的所有数据将被输入数据库，并在稍后根据E-MELD的最佳实践学校进行存档。除了对音系学的理论中性描述外，还将在基于规则和基于约束的理论框架中提供分析。施乐的有限状态转换器软件将帮助构建这些分析，从而生成提供语言音系完整模型的脚本。应该指出的是，北贝西米萨拉卡语虽然通常被称为方言，但根据最近对马达加斯加各种语言的相互可理解性的研究，甚至可能构成一种语言本身。这个项目的数据和语音分析可以用来帮助确定马达加斯加人的确切方言。希望对该语言进行进一步音系学研究的人以及马达加斯加的文化机构将公开获得声音文件、数字照片和视频。声音和视频文件将主要由当地故事和对话组成，赋予它们音系学以外的应用，从希望研究Betsimisaraka句子结构的语言学家到那些对人类学和其他文化研究感兴趣的语言学以外的研究人员。

The goal of this research project is to deepen our understanding of the range of possible phonological systems across human languages by documenting and analyzing the understudied phonology of the Betsimisaraka dialects of Malagasy, spoken on the East coast of Madagascar. This project consists of at least six months' fieldwork on Northern Betsimisaraka with the aim of producing a complete phonological analysis of the dialect. Careful observations of native, monolingual speakers' articulations and acoustic measurements will be used to answer basic questions regarding the language's sound inventories. Systematic variations in pronunciation will be documented and analyzed, with special attention paid to processes known to occur in the Standard dialect of Malagasy. All data collected during elicitation sessions will be entered into a database and later archived following E-Meld's school of best practices. In addition to theoretically neutral descriptions of the phonology, analyses will be provided in both rule-based and constraint-based theoretical frameworks. Xerox's Finite State Transducer software will assist in the construction of these analyses, resulting in scripts that offer complete models of the language's phonology. It should be noted that Northern Betsimisaraka, though usually referred to as a dialect, may even constitute a language itself, based on recent studies on the mutual intelligibility of Malagasy speech varieties. The data and phonological analysis from this project could be used to help determine the Madagascar's exact dialectology. Sound files, digital photos, and videos, will be made publicly available to those who wish to do further phonological studies on the language, as well as to cultural institutions in Madagascar. Sound and video files will largely consist of local stories and conversations, granting them applications outside of phonology, from linguists wishing to investigate Betsimisaraka sentence structure to those researchers outside linguistics with interests in anthropology and other cultural studies.