Doctoral Dissertation Research: A Grammar of Nyang'i with Historical-Comparative Notes

Nyang'i是乌干达东北部使用的一种几乎灭绝的库利亚克语。自20世纪70年代以来，库利亚克语吸引了语言学家的注意，因为它们对东非史前的研究以及它们在类型学上的独特特征。然而，Nyang'i仍然几乎完全没有被描述和记录。Nyang'i不再被用作日常交流的语言，并且曾经被认为已经灭绝；然而，近年来发现了少数半讲Nyang'i语的人，其中只有一个人能够流利地编写叙事文本。这些半语者是补充我们目前对尼扬伊语有限理解的最后机会。本项目收集的主要数据将包括大量经转录和注释的尼扬伊语录音和录像语料库。该语料库将用于编写描述性材料，包括语法和英语-卡拉莫钟-尼扬语词典。描述性材料将特别强调在东非语言中尚未充分研究的类型学特征，如音调、元音和谐、大小写标记以及运动、位置和方向的语法指示。该项目将支持对一名崭露头角的早期职业学者进行科学培训。

Nyang'i is a nearly extinct Kuliak language spoken in northeastern Uganda. The Kuliak languages have attracted the attention of linguists since the 1970s due to the light they shed on East African prehistory and to their typologically unique features. Nevertheless, Nyang'i remains almost entirely undescribed and undocumented. Nyang'i is no longer used as a language of everyday communication, and was once believed to be extinct; however, a small number of semi-speakers of Nyang'i have been located in recent years, only one of whom is able to fluently produce narrative texts. These semi-speakers represent the last opportunity to supplement our currently limited understanding of the Nyang'i language.Primary data collected by this project will consist of a large transcribed and annotated corpus of video and audio recorded speech in Nyang'i. This corpus will be used to prepare descriptive materials including a grammar and an English-Karamojong-Nyang'i dictionary. The descriptive materials will include particular emphasis on typological features that remain understudied in East African languages at large such as tone, vowel harmony, case marking, and the grammatical indication of motion, location, and direction. This project will support the scientific training of a rising early-career scholar.