Documenting Linguistic Structure and Language Change in Yawarana

记录亚瓦拉纳语的语言结构和语言变化

• 批准号: 1500714
• 负责人: Spike Gildea
• 金额: $ 30万
• 依托单位: University of Oregon Eugene
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-08-01 至 2022-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1500714&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Documenting; Linguistic; Structure; Language; Change

It is known that language change is inevitable and systematic and that genetically related languages often exhibit parallel changes. The Cariban languages, which constitute one of the largest linguistic families of South America, are a good testing ground for this expectation since closely related Cariban languages often show dissimilar changes.Spike Gildea of the University of Oregon along with linguist Natalia Cáceres and lexicographer Marie-Claude Mattei Muller will document a critically endangered Cariban language Yawarana [yar]. Extant data for Yawarana show surprising phonological differences (e.g., syllable reduction, stress) with closely related languages, Mapoyo and 'Pémono. In addition, there are dramatic differences in morphosyntax (e.g., case alignment, verbal conjugations) between Yawarana, Mapoyo, and 'Pémono and their Cariban neighbors Panare, 'Tamanaku, and Ye'kwana. Particularly striking are differences between main clause verb forms resulting from nominalizations (like English 'eating' or 'eater' based on 'eat') or a participial (like English 'eaten' based on 'eat'). All languages change, and some entirely replace verb conjugations with nominalizations and participles, but it is unusual for a language or language group to have made so complete a change when the nearest related languages have not.To investigate these and additional grammatical features of Yawarana, this team will work with the last speakers of the language to produce a state-of-the-art documentary corpus, including audio and video recordings of Yawarana speech with annotations and analysis of speech samples. The final products will include a reference grammar and a Yawarana-Spanish bilingual dictionary. The resulting data will elucidate the nature of language change in Cariban and will have implications for theories of language change.Gildea and his team will collaborate with the Venezuelan Ministry of Education in their efforts to produce educational materials about the Yawarana language for use in speech community schools. The documentary corpus created for this project will be archived at the Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America (University of Texas).The project is supported by co-funds from the National Science Foundation's International Science and Engineering Office.

众所周知，语言的变化是不可避免的和系统的，与基因相关的语言往往表现出平行的变化。 加勒比语言是南美洲最大的语系之一，是一个很好的试验场，因为密切相关的加勒比语言往往表现出不同的变化。俄勒冈州大学的斯派克·吉尔达沿着、语言学家娜塔莉亚卡塞雷斯和词典编纂者玛丽-克劳德·马泰·穆勒将记录一种极度濒危的加勒比语言亚瓦拉语[亚尔]。Yawarana的现存数据显示出令人惊讶的语音差异（例如，音节减少，重音）与密切相关的语言，Mapoyo和'Pémono。 此外，在形态句法上也有显著的差异（例如，格对齐，动词变化）之间的Yawarana，Mapoyo，和'Pémono和他们的加勒比邻居Panare，'Tamanaku，和Ye'kwana。 特别引人注目的是主句动词形式之间的差异来自名词化（如英语'eating'或'eater'基于'eat'）或分词（如英语'eaten'基于'eat'）。所有的语言都在变化，有些语言用名词化和分词完全取代了动词的变化，但一种语言或语言群体做出如此彻底的变化是不寻常的，而最接近的语言却没有。为了调查Yawarana的这些和其他语法特征，这个团队将与最后使用该语言的人合作制作一个最先进的文献语料库，包括Yawarana语音的音频和视频记录以及语音样本的注释和分析。 最终产品将包括参考语法和Yawarana-西班牙语双语词典。 Gildea和他的团队将与委内瑞拉教育部合作，努力制作有关Yawarana语言的教材，供语言社区学校使用。为该项目创建的文献语料库将在拉丁美洲土著语言档案馆（得克萨斯大学）存档，该项目由国家科学基金会国际科学和工程办公室共同资助。