Doctoral Dissertation Research: Phonology of Betsimisaraka Malagasy

博士论文研究：马达加斯加贝齐米萨拉卡音韵学

• 批准号: 1123609
• 负责人: Jeffrey Heinz
• 金额: $ 1.18万
• 依托单位: University of Delaware
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-08-15 至 2014-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1123609&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Phonology; Betsimisaraka

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.

该研究项目的目标是通过记录和分析马达加斯加东海岸使用的马达加斯加贝齐米萨拉卡方言的待研究音系，加深我们对人类语言中可能的音系系统范围的理解。该项目包括对北贝齐米萨拉卡语进行至少六个月的实地考察，旨在对该方言进行完整的语音分析。对母语、单语使用者的发音和声学测量的仔细观察将用于回答有关该语言的声音库的基本问题。将记录和分析发音的系统变化，特别关注马达加斯加标准方言中已知的过程。在启发会议期间收集的所有数据都将输入数据库，并随后按照 E-Meld 的最佳实践学院进行存档。 除了对音韵学进行理论上中立的描述之外，还将在基于规则和基于约束的理论框架中提供分析。施乐的有限状态传感器软件将协助构建这些分析，从而生成提供语言音韵学完整模型的脚本。应该指出的是，北贝齐米萨拉卡虽然通常被称为一种方言，但根据最近对马达加斯加语语音变体的相互可理解性的研究，它甚至可能本身就构成一种语言。该项目的数据和语音分析可用于帮助确定马达加斯加语的确切方言。声音文件、数码照片和视频将向那些希望对该语言进行进一步语音研究的人以及马达加斯加的文化机构公开。声音和视频文件将主要由当地故事和对话组成，使它们能够在音韵学之外得到应用，从希望研究贝齐米萨拉卡句子结构的语言学家到对人类学和其他文化研究感兴趣的语言学之外的研究人员。