Doctoral Disseration Research: A multi-generational phonetic and sociolinguistic study of emphasis in Turoyo

在世界各地，人们正在将他们的语言使用从他们父母的少数民族语言转向他们所居住的地方的主流语言。在这个过程中，少数民族语言正在消失。这个研究项目将深入研究turroyo的声音系统的细节，这是一种原在土耳其东南部使用的濒临灭绝的新阿拉姆语，为语言中声音变化的一个方面提供细致的分析-在闪米特语研究中被称为强调的次要发音的丧失。该项目将研究新泽西州北部一个紧密联系的移民社区使用的语言。研究的问题是：这个社区是否保留了重点，社会因素是如何影响保护或缺乏重点的？该项目将由两部分组成：(1)由社会语言学调查问卷指导的50个访谈，以发现更多关于文化对语言活力的影响；(2)涉及三代说话者的广泛声学研究，以发现图罗约语重音的声学相关性，以及重音在代际之间传递的忠实程度。将综合这两项研究的结果，以确定哪些社会因素与最忠实地保存重点有关。这项研究之所以重要，主要有三个原因。首先，这项研究将有助于对强调给出一个清晰的、跨语言的定义。其次，了解Turoyo语中这种声音变化的复杂细节将有助于语言学家更好地理解一般接触情况下的声音变化。第三，将要研究的社区正在积极地试图将图罗约语传给他们的孩子，但他们似乎并没有成功。为什么会这样呢？这个项目将揭示阻碍这个社区实现其目标的因素类型，然后这些信息可以应用于世界各地类似的接触情况。

Around the world, people are shifting their language use from the minority language of their parents to the dominant language of the place they live. Through this process, minority languages are being lost. This research project will delve deep into the details of the sound system of Turoyo, an endangered Neo-Aramaic language originally spoken in southeastern Turkey, to provide a fine-grained analysis of one aspect of sound change in the language - the loss of the secondary articulation known within Semitic studies as emphasis. The project will study the language as spoken within a close-knit immigrant community in northern New Jersey. The research question is: Is emphasis being preserved within this community, and how are social factors affecting the preservation or lack thereof? The project will consist of two parts: (1) fifty interviews directed by a sociolinguistic questionnaire to discover more about the culture's effect on the vitality of the language, and (2) an extensive acoustic study involving three generations of speakers to discover the acoustic correlates of emphasis in Turoyo, and how faithfully emphasis is being passed on between generations. The results of these two studies will be synthesized to determine what social factors correlate to the most faithful preservation of emphasis.This research is important for three main reasons. First, this study will help in the goal to come to a clear, cross-linguistic definition of emphasis. Second, understanding the intricate details of this sound change in Turoyo will help linguists to better understand sound change in contact situations in general. Third, the community that will be studied is actively trying to pass the Turoyo language on to their children, but they do not seem to be succeeding. Why is this the case? This project will reveal the type of factors that are hindering this community from reaching their goal, and this information can then be applied to similar contact situations around the world.