Doctoral Dissertation Research:: Documenting Bih, An Austronesian Language of Vietnam In A Comparative Perspective: A Bih/Rade/English/Vietnamese Dictionary

博士论文研究：以比较的视角记录Bih，越南的一种南岛语言：Bih/Rade/English/越南语DictionaryBih是越南南部高地使用的一种夏米语。在Buon Trap镇，大约有500人认为自己是Bih族人，但说流利Bih语的人不到30人。这支持了一种担忧，即老年人是说Bih的最后一代人。这个博士论文项目将通过提供有史以来第一个Bih正字法来为保存这种语言做出贡献。俄勒冈大学的联合教授·阮将承担大量的现场语言工作。共同派将以对话、民俗、歌曲和其他形式的话语的形式记录自然语言数据。这些口头文本加上适当的逐字启发，将有助于BIH/RADE/英语/越南语词典的发展。BIH/RADE/英语/越南语词典有望为语言学和相关领域做出重大贡献，因为到目前为止还没有关于该语言的语法、词典或学术出版物。Bih词典的详细记录有助于南岛历史语言学领域，特别是对重建原始历史感兴趣的越南学者，如人类学、考古学、民俗学、艺术史和人口遗传学。首先，该项目将对Bih人有用，他们害怕失去自己的语言，并希望拥有书面形式的词汇，以保存语言。由于包括与Tay Nguyen大学和达克拉克民族研究中心的合作，拟议的项目经过精心设计，以满足演讲界和学术界的需要。

Doctoral Dissertation Research: Documenting Bih, an Austronesian language of Vietnam in a comparative perspective: a Bih/Rade/English/Vietnamese DictionaryBih is a Chamic language spoken in the Southern highlands of Vietnam. Around 500 people in Buon Trap town consider themselves as Bih ethnically, but fewer than 30 people are fluent in Bih. This supports the fear that the generation of elderly adults is the last generation speaking Bih. This doctoral dissertation project will contribute toward the preservation of the language by providing the first-ever orthography of Bih. Co-PI Tam Nguyen of the University of Oregon will undertake significant onsite work with the language. The co-PI will record natural language data in the form of conversations, folklore, songs and other forms of discourse. These oral texts supplemented with word-by-word elicitation when appropriate will contribute vocabulary toward the development of a Bih/Rade/English/Vietnamese dictionary.A Bih/Rade/English/Vietnamese dictionary promises to offer a significant contribution to linguistics and related fields as there are no grammars, dictionaries or scholarly publications available on the language to date. A detailed documentation of the Bih lexicon contributes to the field of Austronesian historical linguistics, particularly to Vietnamese scholars interested in the reconstruction of proto-history, such as anthropology, archaeology, folklore, art-history and population genetics. First and foremost, the project will be of use to the Bih people who exhibit the fear of their language loss and wish to have written forms of their lexicon for language preservation. As collaboration with the University of Tay Nguyen and the Center of Daklak Ethnic Research is included, the proposed project is carefully designed to meet the needs of the speaking community as well as those of the academic communities.