Doctoral Dissertation Research: Factors Contributing to Long-Term Stability in the Maintenance of Linguistic Boundaries

该项目对研究生进行实证性的、科学的田野调查的方法进行培训，探索在有长期接触历史的语言之间产生和保持语言独特性的社会和语言机制。在一个语言和文化日益复杂的世界里，了解不同语言或语言变体的人接触时会发生什么，看看它们是否相互影响，或者语言差异是否被用来维持社会边界，这是至关重要的。大多数关于语言接触的研究强调接触的“相互影响”方面，即接触中的语言变量趋同并变得更加相似。相反，这项研究考虑了一个至少五千年来语言边界一直保持稳定的案例，并试图发现这种边界之所以持续到今天的语言和社会原因。Sandhya Narayanan将在密歇根大学Bruce Mannheim博士的指导下，通过跟踪说话者如何使用这些语言，他们如何识别和评估彼此之间的差异，以及哪些结构机制使它们之间的边界永久化，来探索不同土著语言使用者之间如何维持语言和社会边界。这项研究调查了盖丘亚语和艾马拉语之间的接触案件，这两种南美洲土著语言主要在秘鲁和玻利维亚使用。这些语言从西班牙征服之前就一直保持着密切的联系，但一直保持着它们的语言独特性直到今天。这项研究验证了一种假设，即两种语言节奏节拍结构的差异既维持了语言的边界，又与行为特征有关，允许人们在远处识别彼此是一种语言的使用者或另一种语言的使用者。该项目采用了一系列人种学和语言人类学的数据收集和分析方法，包括社会网络分析、参与者观察、访谈、语言生活史调查、文本分析以及基于形态合成和互动的分析。这项研究的结果将揭示南美土著居民在接触中产生的语言和社会过程的类型，并加深我们对语言意识形态和语言接触之间关系的理解。此外，这项研究还有很强的文献成分，因为尽管这两种语言在安第斯地区仍然广泛使用，但它们正处于急剧衰落之中，因此濒临灭绝。

This project, which trains a graduate student in the methods of conducting empirical, scientific fieldwork, explores the social and linguistic mechanisms that produce and maintain linguistic distinctiveness between languages that have a long history of contact. In a world that has become increasingly linguistically and culturally complex, it is critical to understand what happens when speakers of different languages or linguistic varieties come into contact; to see whether they influence each other or whether linguistic differences are used to maintain social boundaries. Most research on language contact emphasizes the "mutual influence" aspects of contact, where the linguistic varieties in contact converge and become more like each other. This study, in contrast, considers a case in which linguistic boundaries have been stable for at least half a millennium, and seeks to discover the linguistic and social reasons why such a boundary persists today. Sandhya Narayanan, under the supervision of Dr. Bruce Mannheim of the University of Michigan, will explore how linguistic and social boundaries are maintained between speakers of different indigenous languages, by tracking how speakers use these languages, how they are able to recognize and evaluate differences among themselves, and what structural mechanisms perpetuate the boundary between them. This research investigates the case of contact between Quechua and Aymara, two Native South American languages spoken predominantly in Peru and Bolivia. These languages have been in intimate contact since before the Spanish conquest, but have maintained their linguistic distinctiveness through today. The research tests the hypothesis that differences in the rhythmic timing structures of the languages both maintain the linguistic boundary and - linked to behavioral features - permit people to identify each other at a distance as speakers of one or the other language. The project employs a range of ethnographic and linguistic anthropological methods of data collection and analysis including social network analysis, participant observation, interviews, linguistic life history surveys, textual analysis, and morphosyntactic and interaction based analysis. Findings from this research will inform the types of linguistic and social processes that come out of situations of contact among indigenous South Americans, and advance our understanding of the relationship between language ideologies and language contact. In addition, there is a strong documentation component to this research, because although both languages are still widely spoken in the Andean region, they are in the midst of precipitous decline, and so are endangered.