Documenting Domaaki, an Endangered Indo-Aryan Language

世界上大约有7000种语言，其中许多语言没有被记录或分析过，这意味着语言学家对它们的语法系统缺乏全面的了解。当这些语言缺乏文字系统，而剩下的使用者年事已高时，它们特别容易受到侵蚀和流失。在这种情况下，迫切需要在仍有流利使用者的情况下记录和分析这些语言。这项工作不仅为其使用者保留了语言，而且还产生了可以推进理论语言学和类型学研究的语言数据。这个项目将记录一个高度多样化的语言区域中最不为人知的语言之一。这个项目的重要性在于它能够理解语言之间的遗传关系，它有可能加深对世界上语言中缺乏理解的语法特征的语言学理解，并更好地理解一个语系的历史发展。更广泛的影响包括在世界地缘政治上重要的地区促进国际科学伙伴关系。通过对国际同事进行科学培训，促进软外交，从而支持国家利益。另一个更广泛的影响是远程测试和改变文档技术的潜力，扩展了语言学家可用的工具，用于记录旅行受限或具有其他挑战性的语言。语言多样性密集的地区往往位于偏远地区，因此实地方法的创新可以使比目前可能的更多语言的高质量文档成为可能。该项目还将扩大当地大学合作伙伴的语言文档编制能力，为今后在这个语言多样化的地区开展文档编制项目奠定基础。该项目将记录和分析多玛基语，这是一种高度濒危且文献不足的印度雅利安语，仅在巴基斯坦北部的两个村庄使用。据估计，这个地区和印度附近的地区有大约50种不同的语言，来自6个不同的语系。该项目以圣何塞州立大学和阿扎德查谟和克什米尔大学现有的合作伙伴关系为基础，汇集了来自美国和巴基斯坦的语言学家团队。这一伙伴关系的势头是通过美国国务院的一个项目开始的，它将使建立一个向公众开放的数字语料库成为可能。语料库将包括两个村庄的说话者在各种背景下的音频和视频记录，如仪式、民间故事、自发对话和歌曲。这些录音将被转录、注释并翻译成英语和乌尔都语，这将允许对多玛基的语法结构进行深入分析。尽管关于英语还有很多有待研究的地方，但涉及方面助动词、分裂作格和转换-指称转换的结构将是科学研究的丰富领域，特别是关于它们如何在自发语篇中使用。这些数据将进一步阐明印度雅利安家族和多玛基在其中的地位，包括它与近亲罗姆人的相似性。由此产生的语料库和注释将用于语言学家，人类学家和非政府组织在该地区和超越。

Many of the estimated 7000 languages worldwide have not been documented or analyzed, meaning linguists lack a comprehensive understanding of their grammatical systems. When such languages lack a writing system and the remaining speakers are elderly, they are especially susceptible to erosion and loss. In situations such as these, there is an urgent need to document and analyze the languages while there are still fluent speakers. This work not only preserves the language for its speakers but also produces language data that can advance theoretical linguistics and typological studies. This project will document one of the least known languages in a highly diverse linguistic region. The importance of this project lies in its ability to understand the genetic relationships between languages, its potential to deepen the linguistic understanding of grammatical features poorly understood in the world's languages, and to better understand the historical development of a language family. Broader impacts include fostering an international scientific partnership in a geopolitically significant part of the world. Such documentation efforts support the national interest by facilitating soft diplomacy through the scientific training of international colleagues. Another broader impact is the potential to test and transform the technology of documentation at a distance, expanding the tools available to linguists for documenting languages where travel is restricted or otherwise challenging. Areas of dense linguistic diversity often lie in remote regions, so innovations in field methods could enable high quality documentation of more languages than is currently possible. The project will also expand the language documentation capabilities of the local university partner, setting the stage for future documentation projects in this particular linguistically diverse region.This project will document and analyze Domaaki, a highly endangered and underdocumented Indo-Aryan language spoken in only two villages in northern Pakistan. This region, and the nearby region of India, is estimated to have around 50 distinct languages from six different language families. The project brings together a team of linguists from the U.S. and Pakistan, building on an existing partnership between San José State University and the University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir. The momentum of this partnership, started through a U.S. State Department program, will enable the creation of a publicly-accessible digital corpus of the language. The corpus will consist of audio and video recordings from speakers in both villages in a variety of contexts, such as ceremonies, folk stories, spontaneous conversation and songs. The recordings will be transcribed, annotated and translated into English and Urdu, which will allow for in-depth analysis of Domaaki's grammatical structures. Although much is yet to be learned about the language, constructions involving aspectual auxiliaries, split ergativity and switch-reference converbs will be rich areas of scientific investigation, especially with regard to how they are used in spontaneous discourse. These data will shed further light on the Indo-Aryan family and Domaaki's place within it, including its similarity to close relative Romani. The resulting corpus and annotations will be of use to linguists, anthropologists and NGOs in the region and beyond.