Typological and historical discovery through language documentation of Walman, Srenge, Aro, and Eho, four critically endangered languages

世界上约五分之一的语言(即1200多种语言)在新几内亚使用。这比欧洲大陆和亚洲所有语言的总和还要多。然而，只有不到5%的新几内亚语言被详细描述，对于大多数人来说，我们几乎一无所知。我们从过去的经验中知道，新几内亚语言表现出罕见的类型学特征，通过这些特征，我们可以更好地了解语言如何随着时间的变化以及语言系统是如何组织的。我们现在必须记录这些特点，因为新几内亚的许多语言都严重濒临灭绝，儿童不再学习这些语言。到本世纪末，新几内亚的大多数语言可能会灭绝或几乎灭绝。语言是人类行为中最复杂的形式，但对于每一种灭绝的语言，我们永远失去了对作为人类意味着什么的这一基本部分的了解。纽约州立大学布法罗分校的Matthew Dryer和语言学家Pamela Brown以及两名研究生将在托里切利山脉或附近的新几内亚北部进行田野调查。他们将完成或创建四种语言的词典、语法和文本集，沃尔曼语、斯伦格语、阿罗语和埃霍语，所有这些语言都属于Torricelli组。这些文件将包括对复杂的动词连词的描述，在类型上不寻常的词缀模式，以及由对象的主题角色决定的词序变化。从该项目收集的数据将可从濒危语言档案馆获得。

About one fifth of the languages of the world (that is, over 1200 languages) are spoken in New Guinea. This is more than all the languages of mainland Europe and Asia combined. Yet fewer than 5% of the languages of New Guinea have been described in any detail and for the majority, we know next to nothing. We know from past experience that New Guinean languages exhibit rare typological features through which we can understand better how language changes through time and how language systems are organized. We must document these features now as many of the languages of New Guinea are seriously endangered and are no longer being learned by young children. Probably a majority of the languages of New Guinea will be extinct or almost extinct by the end of this century. Language is the most complex form of human behavior, but for every language that become extinct, we forever lose knowledge about this essential part of what it means to be human. Matthew Dryer of SUNY at Buffalo along with linguist Pamela Brown and two graduate students will conduct fieldwork in northern New Guinea in or near the Torricelli Mountains. They will complete or create dictionaries, grammars and texts collections for four languages, Walman, Srenge, Aro, and Eho, all of which are of the Torricelli group. The documentation will include descriptions of complex verbal conjunction, typologically unusual infixation patterns, and variations in word order that are determined by the object's thematic role. The data collected from this project will be accessible from the Endangered Languages Archive.