Doctoral Dissertation Research: Documenting the Oral Tradition of Northern Paiute, a Uto-Aztecan language

博士论文研究：记录北派尤特语（一种犹特阿兹特克语）的口头传统

• 批准号: 1723388
• 负责人: Raymond DeMallie
• 金额: $ 1.89万
• 依托单位: Indiana University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-07-01 至 2019-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1723388&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Documenting; Oral

The linguistic diversity of North America is well-established in terms of the numerous language families represented on this continent. However, the vitality of these languages is threatened, making the documentation and maintenance of surviving Native languages all the more pressing. The Native American Languages Act, passed by the U.S. Congress in 1990, enacted into policy the recognition of the unique status and importance of Native American languages. The opportunity to document the speech used in oral traditions and the verbal arts for Native American languages is urgent, especially when this occurs in communities where the language retains considerable vitality and is still used extensively by speakers. This project will document oral traditions, and cultural and ethnohistorical knowledge where the indigenous language usage and speakers' traditional knowledge are very strong. The documentation will form the core material analyzed in a doctoral dissertation produced by the CoPI. Broader impacts include a publicly available deposit of the recordings and transcriptions at the California Language Archive at the University of California, Berkeley, and the uses of this material by the tribe to support language revitalization and educational activities in culture, history and related areas.The Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone Reservation is an isolated Native community situated across the Nevada-Oregon border, formed when the Atsakɨda kwa Nɨmɨ (the people of the Red Mountain), were joined by families from neighboring areas looking for a Paiute safe haven as Euro-American settlers expanded settlements westward. Northern Paiute, a member of the Uto-Aztecan language family, is used extensively in this community by about three hundred speakers. This project will record the Northern Paiute language in both casual and formal speech. It will also document Paiute perspectives on past events as well as more distant collective history for the community, examining how oral traditions are used, and performed, as well as how they contrast with the Euro-American historical discourse. Native American languages differ in their linguistic and information structure from Indo-European languages like English. As a result, documenting Native American cultures requires serious attention to not only the structure of these languages, but also to the performance of verbal arts and how grammatical structures interact to express historical and other knowledge. The CoPI, a doctoral student at Indiana University, will analyze the documentation to explore how oral traditions in Northern Paiute are performed. The analysis will include how meaning is expressed in both the physical body in performance and via the grammar through instrumental prefixes, morphemes referring to gestures or parts of the body. Elicitation strategies range from videorecording of an annual storytelling festival (started in 2016), the use of focus groups in which people come together and discuss specific topics of the history of the community, and interviews and field trips to places of relevance to the community's collective history. By transcribing, analyzing, and translating Northern Paiute texts, the project will expand the linguistic, cultural, and historic record for the community and for researchers in history, anthropology, and folklore, as well as other allied disciplines.

北美的语言多样性是根深蒂固的，因为这块大陆上有许多语系。然而，这些语言的生命力受到了威胁，使得保存下来的土著语言的记录和维护变得更加紧迫。美国国会1990年通过的《美洲原住民语言法案》将承认美洲原住民语言的独特地位和重要性纳入了政策。迫切需要有机会记录美洲原住民语言的口头传统和口头艺术中使用的语言，特别是在这种语言保持相当大的生命力并且仍被说话者广泛使用的社区中。该项目将记录口头传统，以及土著语言使用情况和说话者的传统知识非常丰富的文化和民族历史知识。这些文件将构成COPI撰写的博士论文中分析的核心材料。更广泛的影响包括加州大学伯克利分校加州语言档案馆公开存放的录音和抄本，以及部落使用这些材料来支持语言复兴和文化、历史及相关领域的教育活动。麦克德米特派尤特-肖肖尼保留区是一个孤立的原住民社区，位于内华达州和俄勒冈州边境，由红山人(Atsak&amp；da kwa N&amp；(红山人))形成，随着欧美定居者向西扩展定居点，邻近地区的家庭加入了寻找派伊特人安全避难所的行列。北派尤特语是乌托-阿兹特克语家族的一员，在这个社区被大约300名说话者广泛使用。该项目将以非正式和正式两种方式记录北派尤特语。它还将记录派尤特人对过去事件的看法以及社区更久远的集体历史，研究口头传统是如何使用和表演的，以及它们如何与欧美历史话语形成对比。美洲原住民语言在语言和信息结构上与英语等印欧语有所不同。因此，记录美洲原住民文化不仅需要认真关注这些语言的结构，还需要关注语言艺术的表现，以及语法结构如何相互作用来表达历史和其他知识。这位印第安纳大学的博士生Copi将分析这些文献，以探索北派尤特口述传统是如何表演的。分析将包括在表演中如何在身体中表达意义，以及如何通过工具前缀通过语法来表达意义，语素指的是手势或身体的部分。启发策略包括对一年一度的讲故事节(始于2016年)进行录像，利用焦点小组，人们聚集在一起讨论社区历史的特定主题，以及对与社区集体历史相关的地方进行采访和实地考察。通过转录、分析和翻译北派尤特文本，该项目将为社区和历史、人类学、民俗学以及其他相关学科的研究人员扩大语言、文化和历史记录。