Enhancing linguistic infrastructure through the documentation of conversational expression of an endangered language

在世界范围内，土著和少数民族语言的日常使用和使用人数正在迅速下降。Xaad Kíl，北方Haida（hdn）是阿拉斯加东南沿海和加拿大不列颠哥伦比亚省北方的一种土著语言，目前只剩下六个流利的使用者。虽然有海达语语法和词典，但大多数来源都没有记录日常生活中的语言使用，也没有提供视听文件。这个项目记录了阿拉斯加和加拿大的老人用这种濒危语言交谈。录音对话将展示说话者如何表达礼貌，反对或同意;描述日常生活;并从过去的事件。对话将通过引导性对话、照片和图像等非语言刺激以及任务型活动来引发。这些录音，沿着二十小时的档案音频，将被翻译，转录，注释和存档，供阿拉斯加和加拿大的公众使用。这个关于北方海达语的新资源将为社区、语言学习者和研究人员提供宝贵的文化、历史和语言数据。这种语言的文献也将提供一种濒临灭绝的语言的永久记录和语言基础设施，并将扩大和丰富比较语言学研究的资源。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

Worldwide, Indigenous and minority languages are experiencing rapid decline in daily use and number of speakers. Xaad Kíl, Northern Haida (hdn), an Indigenous language of coastal Southeast Alaska and northern British Columbia, Canada, has only six remaining fluent speakers. While Haida grammars and dictionaries exist, most sources do not document language use in conversational daily life, and none provide audio-visual documentation. This project documents Alaskan and Canadian elders conversing in this endangered language. Recorded conversation will demonstrate how speakers express politeness, objection or agreement; describe daily life; and relate events from the past. Conversation will be elicited using guided conversation; nonverbal stimuli such as photos and images; and task-oriented activities. These recordings, along with twenty hours of archival audio, will be translated, transcribed, annotated, and archived for public use in both Alaska and Canada. This new resource on the Northern Haida language will make invaluable cultural, historical, and linguistic data available to the community, language learners, and researchers. Documentation of this language will also provide a permanent record and linguistic infrastructure of a language in imminent danger of extinction and will broaden and enrich resources for comparative linguistic study.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.