A Study of indigenous languages in and around New Caledonia -descriptive grammar of Neku and Tinrin

在这个研究项目中，我们调查了新喀里多尼亚及其周边地区的土著语言，目的是记录声音、文本和故事，描述语法和编写字典。具体来说，我们研究了在新喀里多尼亚主岛南部使用的两种大洋洲语言Neku和Tinrin。除了官方语言法语外，在新喀里多尼亚主岛和忠诚群岛使用的是属于南岛语族大洋洲分支的28种土著语言。这些土著语言濒临灭绝，其中大多数语言的使用者不到1000人。Neku和Tinrin，只有大约200人使用，直到最近才被调查，Tinrin语法（Osumi 1995）是迄今为止唯一关于Tinrin语法的出版物。本项目的研究为海洋语言学做出了重大贡献，提供了一些新的语言学发现，填补了比较语言学的空白，并阐明和描述了新喀里多尼亚研究最少的语言。Osumi于2004年、2005年和2007年在Ouaoue和Noumea进行了实地调查，在与Neku家庭生活期间收集了语言数据，并记录了词汇和文本。其他调查人员还在瓦努阿图、布干维尔岛和巴布亚新几内亚的西新不列颠进行了一些描述性和社会语言学研究。将Tinrin词典和语法从英语翻译成法语也在进行中。在此项目期间发表的文章和书籍以及在会议上发表的论文列在11中。

In this research project, we have investigated indigenous languages in New Caledonia and the surrounding area, with the purpose of recording sounds, texts and stories, describing grammars, and compiling dictionaries. Specifically, we have looked at Neku and Tinrin, the two Oceanic languages spoken in the southern part of the main island of New Caledonia, Apart from the official language French, twenty-eight indigenous languages belonging to the Oceanic branch of the Austronesian language family are spoken in the main island of New Caledonia and the Loyalty Islands. These indigenous languages are greatly endangered, the majority of them having less than 1000 speakers.Neku and Tinrin, spoken only by around 200 speakers, have been little investigated until recently, with Tinrin Grammar (Osumi 1995) as the only publication to date on the grammar of Tinrin. The research done in this project is a significant contribution to Oceanic linguistics in providing several new linguistic discoveries and filling gaps in comparative linguistics, in addition to shedding light on, and describing the least-investigated languages of New Caledonia.Osumi carried out fieldwork in Ouaoue and Noumea in 2004,2005 and 2007, collecting linguistic data and recording vocabulary and texts while living with a Neku family. Some descriptive and socio-linguistic research was also carried out in Vanuatu, Bougainville Island, and West New Britain, PNG, by fellow-investigators. Translating a Tinrin dictionary and grammar from English into French is also in progress.Articles and books published, and papers presented at conferences during this project are listed in 11.