Seri Dictionary and Texts

在国家科学基金会的支持下，斯蒂芬·马利特博士和他的同事玛丽·莫泽将对塞里语进行为期两年的语言学研究，塞里语是墨西哥西北部的一种土著语言，使用人数不到700人。本研究的目标之一是完成第一部综合性的塞里语词典。这本词典将包括一个简短的描述，为母语者和局外人使用的Seri语法。该项目还将产生一个相互线性化的文本语料库。这些文本将基于Seri同事编辑的材料，并为语言社区出版，以保护重要的文化文献。他们将与实用的拼写，语音拼写，行间西班牙语和英语单词注释，并在西班牙语和英语的自由翻译。它们通过在文学语境中显示单词来补充词典和语法。这项研究的基础工作包括广泛的实地考察，工作草案的流通，以及与塞里人三代成员的个人互动。研究人员现在将验证数千个词条及其附带的说明性句子。将咨询鱼类学、鸟类学、爬虫学和植物学方面的专家。字典和interlinearized文本将在塞里语，西班牙语和英语。包括西班牙语将使工作有用的塞里语发言者，以及非塞里语西班牙语发言者在墨西哥。英语的加入将观众扩大到对该地区生态进行研究的国际语言学家和人类学家。研究人员在词典和语法准备的各个阶段与当地的塞里当局和塞里民族的其他成员密切合作，以确保完整性，实用性，适当性和可访问性。这项研究的意义是双重的。首先，塞里语是假定的霍坎语支中一个语系中唯一幸存的语言。关于其他已经灭绝的语言，可能与它有密切关系的信息很少。这本词典将支持更多的历史和比较语言学研究。在世纪中期，塞里人仍然以传统的狩猎和采集为生。因此，研究他们的语言对于人类学领域和语言学领域都具有重要意义。其次，该项目的词典、语法和翻译文本将以支持语言维护工作和双语教育的形式提供给塞里社区。这些作品还将帮助（英语和西班牙语）研究人员谁越来越多地与塞里同事在生态学和相关领域的工作，但谁是语言障碍的障碍。该项目的另一项重要成果是，对塞里语的一些主要男女进行编辑和处理塞里语材料方面的培训。这将使塞里人在未来几年受益。

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Stephen Marlett and his colleague Mary Moser will conduct two years of linguistic research on Seri, an indigenous language in northwestern Mexico used by under 700 people. One goal of this research is to complete the first comprehensive dictionary of Seri. The dictionary will include a brief description of the Seri grammar for both native-speaker and outsider use. The project will also produce a corpus of interlinearized texts. These texts will be based on materials edited by Seri associates and published for the language community as a contribution to the preservation of culturally-important literature. They will be presented with practical spelling, phonological spelling, interlinear Spanish and English word glosses, and free translation in Spanish and English. They complement the dictionary and grammar by showing the words in literary context. The groundwork for this research includes extensive fieldwork, circulation of drafts of the work, and personal interaction with three generations of members of the Seri people. Researchers will now verify thousands of lexical entries and their accompanying illustrative sentences. Experts will be consulted in the areas of ichthyology, ornithology, herpetology, and botany. The dictionary and interlinearized texts will be in Seri, Spanish, and English. The inclusion of Spanish will make the work useful to Seri speakers, as well as to non-Seri Spanish speakers in Mexico. The inclusion of English expands the audience to international linguists and anthropologists doing research on the area's ecology. The researchers have worked closely with native Seri authorities and other members of the Seri nation at all stages of the dictionary and grammar preparation, to ensure completeness, usefulness, appropriateness, and accessibility. The significance of this research is twofold. First, the Seri language is the sole surviving language of a linguistic family within the putative Hokan stock. Little information is available about other now-extinct languages that may have been closely related to it. The dictionary will support more historical and comparative linguistic research. The Seri people were still living by traditional hunting and gathering in the mid-twentieth century. Therefore, study of their language is as significant for the field of anthropology as it is for the field of linguistics. Second, this project's dictionary, grammar, and translated texts will be available to the Seri community in a format that is supportive of language maintenance efforts and bilingual education. These works will also aid (English- and Spanish-speaking) researchers who increasingly work with Seri associates in ecology and related fields, but who are handicapped by the language barrier. An important additional result of the project is the training that some key Seri men and women will receive in editing and processing Seri language materials. This will benefit the Seri people for years into the future.