Documentation of Akawaio (Cariban)

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，斯派克·吉尔达博士和他的同事德斯雷·福克斯将对阿卡瓦约语进行为期三年的语言学研究。阿卡瓦约语是圭亚那的一种土著语言，属于加勒比语系。他们的研究目标之一是创建第一个全面的阿卡瓦伊奥语参考语法。另一项是在网上发布阿卡瓦伊奥语的转录、翻译和注释集，福克斯女士将把这些文本作为她博士论文的一部分。初步研究表明，阿卡瓦伊奥语语法的某些方面不同于以往任何文献记载，因此，通过注释文本补充和说明仔细的语法描述将有利于语言学理论。语法描述将扩展吉尔迪亚博士对原始加勒比语语法的重建，原始加勒比语是所有现代加勒比语言的祖先语言。很明显，阿卡瓦伊奥语与它最近的邻居（佩蒙语组）是一个群体，但这个群体与加勒比家族中其他语言和/或群体之间的关系尚不清楚，很大程度上是因为关于许多语言（包括阿卡瓦伊奥语）的可靠信息太少了。语法和相关词汇表将为将Pemong组与其他加勒比语言/组联系起来提供额外的基础。人类学家也会对这些文本非常感兴趣，因为它们涉及传统的生活方式、口述历史、阿卡瓦奥宇宙学和萨满教实践。它们尤其有价值，因为它们是由福克斯女士记录的，她是阿卡瓦约人，受过人类学训练。两个重要的科学争论激发了鲜为人知的语言的文档。首先，每种新语言都是对人类语言能力理论的检验。其次，每一次比较重建都提供了信息，可以为关于人类早期联系的假设提供依据，包括他们的迁移模式。圭亚那的土著语言几乎不为人所知，因此直到现在还没有对这两种辩论作出重大贡献。这样的文件是紧迫的，因为如此多的语言在不久的将来有消失的危险。此外，记录濒临灭绝的语言，如阿卡瓦约语，是制作有助于防止语言丧失的教育材料的先决条件。

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Spike Gildea and his colleague Desrey Fox will conduct three years of linguistic research on Akawaio, an indigenous language in Guyana that is a member of the Cariban language family. One goal of their research is to create the first comprehensive reference grammar of Akawaio. Another is to publish on the web the collection of transcribed, translated, and annotated Akawaio texts that Ms. Fox will prepare as part of her doctoral dissertation. Preliminary research indicates that certain aspects of Akawaio grammar are unlike anything ever documented before, so a careful grammatical description supplemented and illustrated by annotated texts will benefit linguistic theory. The grammatical description will expand Dr. Gildea's reconstruction of the grammar of Proto-Carib, the ancestor language for all modern Cariban languages. It is already clear that Akawaio forms a group with its closest neighbors (the Pemong Group), but relationships between this group and other languages and/or groups in the Cariban family are unclear, in large part because there is so little reliable information about many of the languages (including Akawaio). The grammar and associated wordlist will provide additional bases for connecting the Pemong Group to other Cariban languages/groups. The collection of texts will also be of great interest to anthropologists, as they address traditional ways of life, oral history, Akawaio cosmology, and shamanistic practices. They will be especially valuable because they were recorded by Ms. Fox, a native Akawaio with anthropological training.Two important scientific debates motivate the documentation of little-known languages. First, each new language tests theories about the human capacity for language. Second, each comparative reconstruction provides information that can inform hypotheses about early connections among peoples, including their migration patterns. The indigenous languages of Guyana are virtually unknown, and thus have not contributed significantly to either debate until now. Such documentation is urgent because so many languages are in danger of disappearing in the near future. In addition, documentation of endangered languages like Akawaio is a prerequisite to the creation of educational materials that may help prevent language loss.