Doctoral Dissertation Research: Investigating communication at a distance in the context of changing communication habits

以声音为基础的，或语音代替口语在世界范围内得到证实，通常是口哨声或在乐器上播放的信息。然而，研究已经确定了一种特殊的语音代理，它似乎违反了这些代理编码语音的一般原则。这种代理出现在阿布阿拉佩什语（ISO 639-3啊）和阿布语使用者用于远距离交流的方式中，包括吹口哨、吹海螺壳、喊叫和吹笛子。该项目将记录和描述这些语言上新颖的阿布代语，这些代语仅在巴布亚新几内亚的亚历山大王子山脉中使用，可能对人类语言的本质有重要的见解。美国国务院将美国和巴布亚新几内亚之间的知识共享确定为双边密切友谊，并将通过该项目在弗吉尼亚大学（UVA）和巴布亚新几内亚大学（UPNG）之间建立的联系继续得到加强。该项目还将通过小型项目和电子设备、计算机程序和科学基本原理的实践培训，在研究地点开展社区发展，并支持UPNG的学生，通过科学合作实现“软外交”。更广泛的影响还包括对论文学生的培训，由研究人员教授的大学课程对本科生的教育，以及在UVA的Arapesh语法和数字语言档案中对完全转录的录音进行公共存档。这项研究的科学重要性的一个方面是在Abu'的替代形式中使用的令人惊讶的稀疏音系资源：两个音高，两个元音，两个辅音和节奏。另一个方面是，它不仅被说阿布语的人使用，而且也被说一种相邻的、相互无法理解的米亚语的人使用。这是加倍令人惊讶的，因为这两种语言都濒临灭绝，而且根据语言丧失的全球趋势，语音代理应该比口语面临更高的风险。然而，代理仍然存在，即使面对最近推出的手机，它可以很容易地取代它们促进长途通信的作用。这个项目的问题是：阿布的代理是如何对语音进行编码的？它们的语言角色是什么？为了回答这个问题，研究人员将花八个月的时间在仍在使用Abu'代理的社区，并访问使用Miya的邻近社区，制作一个视听语料，包括采访、语言课程、单词引出和日常生活记录。录音将在母语人士的帮助下转录，以实现细粒度的语言分析。由此产生的语言弹性案例研究将为改善全球语言损失的努力提供有价值的信息，并且由此产生的与Abu'相关的代理结构描述，以及来自Miya的支持证据，将为人类语言研究提供有价值的信息。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Sound-based, or phonological proxies for spoken language are attested worldwide, generally as whistled speech or messages played on musical instruments. However, research has identified a particular phonological proxy that appears to violate the general principles by which these proxies encode speech. This proxy occurs in the Abu' Arapesh [ISO 639-3 aah] language and the modalities used by Abu' speakers to communicate across distance, which include whistling, blowing conch shells, calling out, and playing flutes. This project will document and describe these linguistically novel Abu' proxies, used only in the Prince Alexander Mountains of Papua New Guinea, which may hold key insights into the nature of human language. The knowledge sharing between the United States and Papua New Guinea, identified by the U.S. State Department as a bilateral close friendship, will continue to be strengthened via the ties this project builds between the University of Virginia (UVA) and the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG). The project will also undertake community development at the research site via small projects and hands-on training with electronic devices, computer programs, and basic principles of science, as well as support for students at UPNG, effecting "soft diplomacy" through scientific collaboration. Broader impacts also include the training of a dissertation student, the education of undergraduate students in a university course to be taught by the researcher, and the public archiving of fully transcribed recordings at UVA's Arapesh Grammar and Digital Language Archive.One aspect of the scientific importance of this study is the surprisingly sparse phonological resources used in the proxy forms of Abu': two pitches, two vowels, two consonants, and rhythm. Another aspect is its use not only by Abu' speakers but also by speakers of a neighboring, mutually unintelligible language Miya [ISO 639-3 wmo]. This is doubly surprising, as both languages are endangered and, according to global trends of language loss, phonological proxies should be at even higher risk than spoken language. Yet the proxies persist, even in the face of recently introduced cell phones, which could easily supplant their role facilitating long distance communication. This project asks: how do the Abu' proxies encode speech? What is their linguistic role, such that they persist? To answer, the researcher will spend eight months in the community in which Abu' proxies are still used, and visit neighboring communities where Miya is used, producing an audiovisual corpus of interviews, language lessons, word elicitations, and recordings of daily life. Recordings will be transcribed with the help of native speakers to achieve fine-grained linguistic analysis. The resulting case study of linguistic resilience will contribute valuable information to endeavors to ameliorate global language loss, and the resulting description of the structure of the proxies as they relate to Abu', with supporting evidence from Miya, will contribute valuable information to the study of human language.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.