Documenting the =Khomani Language: Field Research and Digital Technology for Audio, Video, and Text Archives

每一种人类语言都编码着对世界的特定理解，这些理解与任何其他语言都不完全相同。这些理解是我们作为世界公民共同遗产的一部分。当务之急是在世界上尽可能多的濒危语言消失之前，对它们进行专业记录。在剩下的科伊桑语，或南部非洲的“点击”语言中，只有10个使用者的霍马尼语（N/u）在关键名单上名列前茅。最近的技术进步和“最佳实践”标准的提高，使得说霍马尼语的人有可能保留他们过去的词汇、习语和语言艺术。这种合作方式将人类学和语言学专业知识与母语人士的专业知识结合起来，以达到学术和当地社区的目的。在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，玛格丽特·比塞尔博士将在南非阿平顿及其附近对霍马尼语进行文字、音频和视频记录。Biesele博士将利用她与纳米比亚Ju/ hoan San语的多年经验，指导两位已经熟悉霍马尼语的语言顾问Gueldemann和Namaseb的工作。通过数字现场文档收集的材料将通过转录、注释、翻译和分析语言数据来准备存档。这个项目将大大增加可用于科伊桑语语言学研究的学术材料。这些材料将以电子方式提供给世界各地的研究人员，也将分发给原籍社区。该项目将有助于培训两名讲霍马尼语的年轻人，使他们能够编写具有社会意义的传统和当代爱情和语言文本。

Each human language encodes particular understandings of the world that are not shared exactly with any other language. These understandings are part of the joint heritage we share as world citizens. It is imperative that as many as possible of the world's endangered languages be professionally documented before they disappear. Of the remaining Khoisan, or "click" languages of southern Africa, =Khomani (N/u), with only ten speakers, is high on the critical list. Recent technological advances and rising standards for "best practice" now make it possible to help =Khomani speakers preserve the words, idioms, and verbal art of their past. This collaborative approach combines anthropological and linguistic expertise with native speaker expertise for both scholarly and local community purposes. With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Marguerite Biesele will undertake the textual, audio, and video documentation of the =Khomani language in and near Upington, South Africa. Drawing on her many years of experience with the Ju/'hoan San click-speakers of Namibia, Dr. Biesele will direct the work of two linguistic consultants, Gueldemann and Namaseb, who are already familiar with the =Khomani language. The materials collected through digital field documentation will be prepared for archiving by transcribing, annotating, translating, and analyzing the language data. This project will add substantially to the scholarly materials available for linguistic research on Khoisan. These materials will be made available electronically to researchers around the world, and will also be disseminated to the community of origin. The project will contribute to the training of the two young =Khomani speakers in the production of socially meaningful texts of traditional and contemporary lore and language.