Northwestern Tungus Language/Dialect Continuum

该项目旨在收集、组织和分析来自西北通古斯语言的数据：鄂伦春语、埃文基语、内吉达尔语和梭伦语。这些在中国北部和俄罗斯西伯利亚地区使用的语言没有得到很好的记录，而且都严重濒危。因此，该项目的主要目标是在语言仍在使用时收集有关语言结构的信息。这些信息将通过语言录音和与母语人士的启发会议获得。过去，西北通古斯语言的地理分布阻碍了对它们的比较研究。从事这些语言田野调查的俄罗斯语言学家和中国语言学家很少进行学术对话。我们研究的一个重要方面是将俄罗斯和中国同事的工作结合起来。这四种语言之间的实际遗传关系以及它们与其他通古斯语言的关系尚不清楚。根据我们收集的数据，我们可以对语言家族的遗传关系提供更准确的评估。我们还将使用叙事文本的录音进行相互理解性测试。西北通古斯语正在被俄语、汉语和雅库特语所取代，这些语言在遗传和类型学上都是不同的。我们的目标是确定通古斯语言在过时的过程中所经历的结构变化，并特别关注三种接触语言的作用。

This project is designed to gather, organize and analyze data from the Northwestern Tungusic languages: Oroqen, Evenki, Negidal, and Solon. The languages, which are spoken in northern China and Siberian Russia, are not well- documented and all are seriously endangered. Therefore, a primary goal of the project is to collect information about the structure of the languages while they are still spoken. This information will be derived through recordings of the languages and elicitation sessions with native speakers. The geographic distribution of the Northwestern Tungusic languages has hampered comparative work on them in the past. Russian linguists and Chinese linguists who have engaged in fieldwork on these languages have had little scholarly dialogue. An important aspect of our research involves bringing together the work of our Russian and Chinese colleagues. The actual genetic relationships among these four languages and their relationships to other Tungusic languages are unclear. On the basis of the data we collect, we can provide a more accurate assessment of the genetic affiliations within the language family. We will also conduct tests of mutual intelligibility using recordings of narrative texts. The Northwestern Tungusic languages are being replaced by Russian, Chinese, and Yakut, all of which are genetically and typologically distinct. We aim at determining the kinds of structural changes the Tungusic languages are undergoing as they become obsolescent, with specific attention to the role of the three contact languages.