Collaborative Research: Investigations into tone and stress in a complex prosodic system

任何学外语的人都知道，人类语言的语音系统千差万别。语言不同的一个方面是它们对重音和语气的使用。英语是一种使用重音来区分词义的语言：将单词“记录”用作动词(“to recórd”)和用作名词(“the récord”)时进行比较。其他语言使用重音来标记单词的边缘。在声调上也发现了类似的模式：例如，在东京日语中，“hashi”一词的意思取决于它所用的音高旋律(在高低旋律中，它的意思是“筷子”，在低音旋律中，它的意思是“桥”)。只使用其中一种功能的语言非常常见。重音和声调结合在一起的语言不太常见，研究也较少。在对这些语言进行更详细的研究之前，我们不会对人类语言的声音系统及其变化方式有一个完整的了解。这个项目调查了Uspanteko的重音和语调，Uspanteko是一种高度濒危的玛雅语言，大约有1000-3000人在危地马拉中部高地使用。乌斯潘特科用声调来区分词义，比如在“S”(高音，意思是“滴答”)和“siip”(没有高音，意思是“礼物”)中。除了声调，重音在Uspanteko中也被用来标记单词的边缘。这个项目的主要目的是记录和分析乌斯潘特科的重音和音调的声学结构。由于Uspanteko的发音系统在类型学上是不寻常的，这个项目有可能对我们理解重音和语调领域的跨语言差异有很大的贡献。这项研究的成果之一将是乌斯潘特科的一个大型、带注释的自发言语语料库。该项目还包括为美国和危地马拉的语言学学生提供大量培训。

The sound systems of human languages differ widely, as any student of foreign languages knows. One way in which languages differ is their use of stress and tone. English is a language which uses stress to distinguish word meanings: compare the word "record" when used as a verb ("to recórd") and as a noun ("the récord"). Other languages use stress to mark the edges of words. Similar patterns are found with tone: in Tokyo Japanese, for instance, the meaning of the word "hashi" depends on the pitch melody with which it is spoken (with a high-low melody it means "chopsticks", and with a low-high melody it means "bridge"). Languages which use just one of these features are very common. Less common, and less studied, are languages which use stress and tone together. Until such languages are studied in greater detail, we will not have a complete picture of the sound systems of human languages and the ways in which they can vary.This project investigates stress and tone in Uspanteko, a highly endangered Mayan language spoken by approximately 1000-3000 people in the central highlands of Guatemala. Uspanteko uses tone to distinguish word meanings, as in "síip" (high tone, means "tick") vs. "siip" (no high tone, means "gift"). Alongside tone, stress is used in Uspanteko to mark the edges of words. The primary aim of this project is to document and analyze the acoustic structure of stress and tone in Uspanteko. As the sound system of Uspanteko is typologically unusual, this project has the potential to contribute substantially to our understanding of cross-linguistic variation in the areas of stress and tone. One product of this research will be a large, annotated corpus of spontaneous speech in Uspanteko. The project also involves a substantial training component for linguistics students in the U.S. and Guatemala.