A Typology of Tone in the Kainantu Languages of Papua New Guinea

巴布亚新几内亚凯南图语言的声调类型学

• 批准号: 2877493
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Oxford
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2877493
• 关键词: Typology; Tone; Kainantu; Languages; Papua

IntroductionThis project aims to document tone systems in the Kainantu languages of Papua New Guinea, with particular attention to Binumarien and Awa, and compare them cross-linguistically with the diversity of tone systems worldwide.The proposed research serves two objectives. First, it contributes to linguistic theory by adding new data and novel phonological insights from the world's most underdocumented linguistic area. Second, this study aims to record and document the intangible heritage of Kainantu communities. Research contextThe New Guinea area holds up to one fifth of the world's languages, many of which are underdocumented and at the same time face endangerment.Tone is a particularly relevant feature of New Guinean languages. Though documented in languages across the world, it is poorly studied in New Guinea.The Kainantu languages, spoken in the Eastern Highlands Province seems to display atypical tonal features. For example, the association of the tonal melody to moras is remarkably unrestricted; data collected for this project suggest that the Binumarien system allows for multiple realisations of a melody, regardless of the segmental phonological context. This lack of restrictions on tonal associations coexists with strict phonological constraints and tendencies that seem to hint at influence of metrical structure. For instance, each prosodic word must have minimally one high tone, and some tonal patterns frequently pair with certain syllable structures.Research questionsThe major component of the project will be the analysis of Kainantu tone systems, which targets two research questions: 1) what are the underlying tone patterns? 2) how do tone patterns link to syllables or moras in various contexts? In answering these questions, I will review the existing analyses of Awa and Binumarien and investigate variation in the Kainantu family.I will then compare Kainantu tone systems to languages worldwide and take up the overall question: what can Kainantu languages tell us about the structure, limits, and possibilities of tone systems in general?MethodologyIn the first year of this project, new linguistic data of the Kainantu languages Binumarien and Awa were collected in Papua New Guinea. Conventional linguistic fieldwork methods were applied for this project, with a focus on methods for tone analysis. I recorded and transcribed word lists, phrases, and stories. These data form the basis for preliminary sketches of the phonology and morphosyntax. Once the sketches were made, a toolkit was created with carrier sentences that provide various contexts for words, to further investigate the underlying tone patterns and metrical structures. These data serve as the basis for an extensive description of tone that I am currently working on. Finally, I will compare my analyses cross-linguistically and describe how tone systems in the Kainantu languages correspond to tone systems worldwide.Significance and impactThis project contributes to our knowledge of language and language diversity by describing tone in the Kainantu languages. The study fills two knowledge gaps: 1) a geographical gap: New Guinea languages form a blind spot in linguistic typology; 2) a phonological gap: tone is a feature of New Guinea languages on which little information is available.Moreover, since written records on Binumarien and Awa are sparse, the data collected for this study are key to further research, including 1) further descriptions of the individual languages; 2) broader linguistic research; 3) anthropological and literature studies in the language communities; 4) a reconstruction of the proto-Kainantu sound system, which can be paired with broader historical and archaeological studies into the (pre)history of these communities.Finally, the language communities could benefit from this study, as it documents parts of the language communities' heritage for future generations.

本项目旨在记录巴布亚新几内亚的凯南图语的声调系统，特别关注Binumarien和Awa，并将它们与世界各地的声调系统进行跨语言比较。首先，它通过从世界上最缺乏文献记载的语言领域增加新的数据和新颖的音韵学见解，为语言学理论做出了贡献。其次，本研究旨在记录和记录凯南图社区的非物质遗产。研究背景新几内亚地区拥有世界上五分之一的语言，其中许多语言没有得到充分的记录，同时面临濒危。声调是新几内亚语言的一个特别相关的特征。虽然在世界各地的语言中都有记载，但在新几内亚的研究却很少。东部高地省的凯南图语言似乎显示出非典型的音调特征。例如，音调旋律与moras的关联是非常不受限制的;为这个项目收集的数据表明，Binumarien系统允许旋律的多种实现，而不管音段的音韵背景。这种对音调联系的缺乏限制与严格的音韵限制和似乎暗示韵律结构影响的倾向并存。例如，每个韵律词必须至少有一个高音，并且某些音调模式经常与某些音节结构配对。研究问题该项目的主要组成部分将是对凯南图音调系统的分析，其中针对两个研究问题：1）潜在的音调模式是什么？2)在不同的语境中，声调模式是如何与音节或情态联系起来的？在回答这些问题时，我将回顾阿瓦语和比努马里恩语的现有分析，并调查凯南图家族的变化，然后将凯南图的声调系统与世界各地的语言进行比较，并提出一个总的问题：凯南图语言能告诉我们关于声调系统的结构、限制和可能性的什么？方法在该项目的第一年，在巴布亚新几内亚收集了凯南图语Binumarien和Awa的新语言数据。传统的语言学田野调查方法被应用于这个项目，重点是声调分析方法。我记录并抄写单词表、短语和故事。这些数据构成了语音学和形态句法学初步草图的基础。一旦草图完成，一个工具包就被创建了，它包含了为单词提供各种上下文的载体句子，以进一步研究潜在的音调模式和韵律结构。这些数据作为一个广泛的音调，我目前正在工作的描述的基础。最后，我将比较我的分析跨语言，并描述如何在凯南图语言的音调系统对应于世界各地的音调系统。意义和影响这个项目有助于我们的语言和语言多样性的知识，通过描述凯南图语言的音调。该研究填补了两个知识空白：1）地理空白：新几内亚语言形成语言类型学的盲点; 2）语音空白：声调是新几内亚语言的一个特征，但有关这两种语言的信息很少。此外，由于关于Binumarien和Awa的书面记录很少，因此本研究收集的数据是进一步研究的关键，包括1）进一步描述各个语言; 2）更广泛的语言学研究; 3）语言社区的人类学和文学研究; 4）原始凯南图语音系统的重建，这可以与对这些社区（前）历史的更广泛的历史和考古研究相结合。最后，语言社区可以从这项研究中受益，因为它为后代记录了语言社区的部分遗产。