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

北美的语言多样性在这片大陆上以众多的语族为代表而确立。然而，这些语言的生命力受到了威胁，这使得保存下来的本土语言的文献和维护变得更加紧迫。美国国会于1990年通过了《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制定为政策。迫切需要有机会记录美洲土著语言的口头传统和口头艺术中使用的语言，特别是当这种语言保留了相当大的活力并仍被说话者广泛使用的社区时。该项目将记录口头传统、文化和民族历史知识，其中土著语言的使用和使用者的传统知识非常强大。该文件将形成的核心材料，在由CoPI产生的博士论文分析。更广泛的影响包括在加州大学伯克利分校的加利福尼亚语言档案中公开提供录音和转录，以及部落使用这些材料来支持语言复兴和文化，历史和相关领域的教育活动。麦克德米特堡派尤特-肖肖尼保留地是一个孤立的土著社区，位于内华达州和俄勒冈州的边界上，是在阿特萨克人[amp；#616;]a &#616；当欧美移民向西扩展定居点时，邻近地区的家庭也加入了他们的行列，寻找派尤特人的避风港。北派尤特语是乌托-阿兹特克语系的一员，在这个社区被大约300人广泛使用。这个项目将记录北派尤特语的非正式和正式讲话。它还将记录派尤特人对过去事件的看法，以及社区更遥远的集体历史，研究口头传统是如何使用和执行的，以及它们与欧美历史话语的对比。美洲土著语言在语言和信息结构上与印欧语言（如英语）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以表达历史和其他知识。这位印第安那大学的博士生将分析这些文件，以探索北派尤特人的口头传统是如何进行的。分析将包括意义如何在表演中的身体和通过语法通过工具前缀，语素指的手势或身体部位来表达。启发策略包括年度讲故事节的视频记录（始于2016年），使用焦点小组，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。通过抄录、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。

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.