A Description and Database of Scottish Gaelic (Gaidhlig; gla) Morphosyntax

多达2000万美国人声称自己是苏格兰人或苏格兰人/爱尔兰人的后裔。这个社区的主要传统语言之一是苏格兰盖尔语。这种语言是丰富的文学、歌曲、诗歌、历史和土著知识体系文化的媒介。它还提供了一个了解苏格兰裔美国社区祖先的世界观和文化的重要窗口。目前，苏格兰盖尔语正处于严重濒危状态。没有只会说一种语言的人，每天使用这种语言的人的数量继续下降。语言和文化压制的悠久传统可以追溯到18世纪初，这导致了一种语言，尽管受到热情的少数人的欢迎，但却濒临被遗忘的边缘。我们可能会失去对这么多苏格兰人和苏格兰裔美国人的文化和背景的了解。建立一个稳定的语言社区的第一步之一是开发关于这种语言的材料，供美国和苏格兰的说这种语言的社区使用，用于语言教学。编写这类材料的先决条件是对这门语言的语法有一个正确的理解。这笔赠款针对的是这一重要的第一步。使用语言学领域技术和现代录音设备，亚利桑那大学的安德鲁·卡尼教授和以苏格兰盖尔语为母语的穆里尔·费舍尔将收集有关该语言的语法和单词的数据。实地调查的结果将汇编成该语言的网络可访问的描述性语法。在拨款之后，将根据这一语法开发教材。一名研究生将接受有关濒危语言的语法描述技巧的培训。这项培训将允许学生对其他濒危遗产语言进行类似的工作。这一及时的研究项目是我们记录复杂语言的最后机会，这种语言在美国广泛的人口中引起共鸣，在苏格兰也是如此。

As many as 20 million Americans claim to be of Scottish or Scots/Irish descent. One of the primary heritage languages of this community is Scottish Gaelic. This language is the medium for a rich culture of literature, song, poetry, history and indigenous knowledge-systems. It also provides an important window into the world-view and culture of the ancestors of the Scottish-American community. At present, the Scottish Gaelic language is severely endangered. There are no monolingual speakers, and the number of speakers who use the language everyday continues to decline. A long tradition of language and cultural suppression dating back to the early 18th century has resulted in a language that, while embraced by an enthusiastic minority, is on the verge of oblivion. The potential loss to our understanding of the culture and background of so many Scots and Scottish Americans is substantial.One of the first steps towards building a stable linguistic community is to develop materials in and about the language for use of the community of speakers -- both here in the USA and in Scotland -- to use for language teaching. A prerequisite to developing such materials is a proper understanding of the grammar of this language. This grant targets this important first step. Using linguistic field techniques and modern recording devices, Prof. Andrew Carnie of the University of Arizona and Scottish Gaelic native speaker Muriel Fisher will gather data about the language's grammar and words. The results of this fieldwork will be assembled into a web-accessible descriptive grammar of the language. Subsequent to the grant, teaching materials will be developed based on this grammar. A graduate student will be trained in the techniques of grammatical description of an endangered language. This training will allow the student to do similar work on other endangered heritage languages. This timely research project represents our last chance to record the intricacies of a language that resonates throughout a wide range of the U.S. population as well as with that of Scotland.