Doctoral Dissertation Research: A Grammar of Nyang'i with Historical-Comparative Notes

尼扬伊语（Nyang 'i）是乌干达东北部一种几乎灭绝的库利亚克语。自20世纪70年代以来，库利亚克语一直吸引着语言学家的注意，因为它们对东非史前史的启示以及它们在类型学上的独特特征。尽管如此，Nyang 'i仍然几乎完全没有描述和记录。 尼扬伊语不再被用作日常交流的语言，一度被认为已经灭绝;然而，近年来发现了少数半讲尼扬伊语的人，其中只有一人能够流利地制作叙事文本。这些半说话者是补充我们目前对Nyang 'i语言有限理解的最后机会。该项目收集的主要数据将包括一个大型转录和注释的Nyang' i视频和音频记录语音语料库。该语料库将用于编写描述性材料，包括语法和英语-卡拉莫宗-尼扬伊语词典。描述性材料将特别强调东非语言中尚未充分研究的类型学特征，如音调，元音和谐，格标记以及运动，位置和方向的语法指示。 该项目将支持一个新兴的早期职业学者的科学培训。

Nyang'i is a nearly extinct Kuliak language spoken in northeastern Uganda. The Kuliak languages have attracted the attention of linguists since the 1970s due to the light they shed on East African prehistory and to their typologically unique features. Nevertheless, Nyang'i remains almost entirely undescribed and undocumented. Nyang'i is no longer used as a language of everyday communication, and was once believed to be extinct; however, a small number of semi-speakers of Nyang'i have been located in recent years, only one of whom is able to fluently produce narrative texts. These semi-speakers represent the last opportunity to supplement our currently limited understanding of the Nyang'i language.Primary data collected by this project will consist of a large transcribed and annotated corpus of video and audio recorded speech in Nyang'i. This corpus will be used to prepare descriptive materials including a grammar and an English-Karamojong-Nyang'i dictionary. The descriptive materials will include particular emphasis on typological features that remain understudied in East African languages at large such as tone, vowel harmony, case marking, and the grammatical indication of motion, location, and direction. This project will support the scientific training of a rising early-career scholar.