Dissertation Research: Ch'orti' Verbal Art and the Poetic Discourse Structures of Maya Hieroglyphs

在Brian Stross博士的指导下，Kerry船体先生将为他的博士论文收集数据。他将对危地马拉使用的Chorti ' Maya语言进行语言学研究。这种语言是构成大多数玛雅象形文字铭文的语言最直接的后裔。船体的一年实地考察在Chorti '讲社区将涉及参与观察口头背诵，直接启发，并通过音频媒体记录愈合，农业和其他仪式。仪式和口头传统的转变将成为与母语人士进行分析讨论的基础，以充实这些古老表达形式中的关键细节和不透明的典故。然后将结果与玛雅象形文字中发现的特征进行比较，目的是将Chorti中的诗歌话语形式和古老的隐喻与玛雅象形文字铭文中的祖先语言相关联。在目前玛雅象形文字的破译阶段，大量的表达可以通过音节来阅读，而不完全理解它们的隐喻或仪式意义。乔蒂与玛雅象形文字铭文的语言相似性表明，这两种语言也可能具有相似的诗歌结构和古老的形式化表达。这项研究的意义是双重的。首先，该项目将直接有利于正在进行的玛雅象形文字的破译。从活着的Chorti '扬声器收集的数据也将形成迄今为止最彻底的研究Chorti'仪式演讲的诗歌风格。隐藏在这些语言中的是古代文化观念和隐喻意象的遗迹，这些观念和意象将为研究古代玛雅的语言、文化观念和仪式习俗提供信息。Chorti的数据将为分析在玛雅象形文字铭文中发现的风格相似的仪式形式提供基础。这方面的研究将进行讨论玛雅象形文字书写超越语法和词汇，表明这种书写系统是复杂的，在其他领域以及。第二，这个项目将保存目前正在消失的形式的诗歌演讲和仪式知识之间的Chorti。这份文件将是有用的，既为未来几代的Chorti '-发言者，也为拉丁美洲研究，历史，金石学，考古学，人类学，语言学，民族诗学，和人种学的学者。

Under the direction of Dr. Brian Stross, Mr. Kerry Hull will collect data for his doctoral dissertation. He will conduct linguistic research on the Ch'orti' Maya language spoken in Guatemala. This language is the closest direct descendent of the language comprising most Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions. Hull's year of fieldwork in Ch'orti'-speaking communities will involve participant observation of oral recitation, direct elicitation, and recording through audio media of healing, agricultural, and other ceremonies. The transcriptions of ceremonies and oral traditions will then form the basis for analytic discussions with native speakers to flesh out critical details and opaque allusions in these ancient forms of expression. The results will then be compared to features found in the Maya hieroglyphic script with intent of correlating the poetic discourse forms and archaic metaphorical references in Ch'orti' with those of its ancestral language in the Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions. At the present stage of decipherment of Maya hieroglyphic writing, a large number of expressions can be read syllabically without a full understanding of their metaphorical or ritual meaning. Ch'orti's linguistic affinity to the language of the Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions suggests both languages may also share similar poetic structures and archaic formalized expressions. The significance of this research is twofold. First, the project will directly benefit the ongoing decipherment of the Maya hieroglyphic script. The data gathered from living Ch'orti' speakers will also form the most thorough study so far of the poetic styles of Ch'orti' ritual speech. Hidden within such speech are vestiges of ancient cultural conceptions and metaphorical imagery that will inform research on the language, cultural conceptions, and ritual practices of the ancient Maya. The Ch'orti' data will provide a basis for analyses of stylistically similar ritual forms found in Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions. This aspect of the study will carry the discussion of Maya hieroglyphic writing beyond grammar and vocabulary, showing that this writing system is complex in other domains as well. Second, this project will preserve the currently disappearing forms of poetic speech and ritual knowledge among the Ch'orti'. This documentation will be useful both for future generations of Ch'orti'-speakers and also for scholars of Latin American studies, history, epigraphy, archaeology, anthropology, linguistics, ethnopoetics, and ethnography.