Documentation of Northern Cheyenne Sacred Language

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。目前的奖项（NSF #0854299）建立在早期的试点项目（NSF #0756035）的基础上，该项目为PI提供了密集的语言培训，并允许拍摄传统的太阳舞仪式和记录伴随的北方夏延的神圣语言。 根据目前的奖项，该语言将被转录和分析，以确定神圣语言的特点，以及它如何不同于日常夏延语。 在过去的115年里，有一些神圣歌曲的现场录音，他们将被检查，以确定这些歌曲中表达的神圣语言的持久性和变化。神圣语言是许多土著语言的特殊组成部分，从成人转移到成人，并在哲学话语，祈祷和仪式的背景下使用。 随着土著语言的衰落，许多北美部落的神圣语言不再使用，也从未被记录在案。 北方夏延人的神圣语言仍然是至关重要的，而且使用流利语言的人越来越少，但它没有被记录在案。这是一个难得的机会，实地考察充分合作，与一个精英集团流利的礼仪男子和妇女。 这个小而突出的演讲者社区，大约有20人，在他们的成年生活中一直由他们的礼仪长老指导，而这些长老又从他们的礼仪导师那里学习。他们已经抛开了长期以来的不信任，通过多年的历史性斗争，以充分记录这一神圣的语言，这是如此重要的保护夏延文化。流利的夏延语是学习这门神圣语言的平台，而所有流利使用日常夏延语的人都在50岁以上的事实意味着这种垂死的语言很可能会在一代人的时间内消失。 现场音频和视频记录以及随附的现场注释将存放在印第安纳州大学传统音乐档案馆，其中除约10%的收藏外，所有收藏都是最敏感的文化信息，将用于教育用途。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).The present award (NSF #0854299) builds on an earlier pilot project (NSF #0756035) which provided intensive linguistic training for the PIs and allowed for the filming of the traditional sun dance ceremonies and the recording of the accompanying sacred language of the Northern Cheyenne. Under the current award, the language will be transcribed and analyzed to determine special features of the sacred language and how it differs from the everyday Cheyenne language. There are a few field recordings of sacred songs that have been made over the last 115 years and they will be examined to determine persistence and change in the sacred language that is expressed in these songs.Sacred language is a specialized component of many indigenous languages, transferred from adult to adult and used within the context of philosophical discourse, prayer, and ceremony. With the decline of Native languages, many North American tribes' sacred language is no longer in use and has never been documented. The Northern Cheyenne sacred language is still vital and in use by a shrinking number of fluent speakers, but it has not been documented. This is a rare opportunity for fieldwork in full collaboration with an elite group of fluent ceremonial men and women. This small but prominent speaker community, numbering about 20, has been instructed throughout their adult lifetimes by their ceremonial elders who, in turn, learned from their ceremonial instructors. They have put aside long-held mistrust, forged through years of historic struggles, in order to fully document this sacred language which is so crucial to the preservation of Cheyenne culture. Fluency in Cheyenne is the platform for learning the sacred language, and the fact that all fluent speakers of the everyday Cheyenne language are above the age of fifty means that this moribund language will likely be gone in a generation. The field audio and video recordings with accompanying field notes will be deposited in the Archives of Traditional Music, Indiana University, where all but about 10% of the collection, the most sensitive cultural information, will be available for educational use.