CAREER: Documenting and Analyzing Sociolinguistic Variation in the Speech of Holocaust Survivors

种族灭绝往往导致语言灭绝，或使被摧毁的社区所说的语言受到极端危害。对幸存者的历史证词采访对于那些希望描述、分析或振兴这些少数民族语言的人来说是一个关键的数据来源。这些材料在多大程度上也可以用来重建种族灭绝前时期各种语言特征的社会意义，甚至语言变化的方向？这个项目分析了大屠杀幸存者录像证词中的社会语言变化和语言变化。大屠杀是一场史无前例的种族灭绝，对少数民族语言产生了特别毁灭性的影响。虽然这些证词不是专门为语言研究目的而收集的，但它们为语音和语法分析方面的创新项目提供了必要的原始数据。这些项目的目标是评估灭绝种族前社区中陈规定型方言特征的衰落情况，以及在说话者流离失所后引起的语法变化。这笔赠款将用于开发一个新的数字档案馆，其中将包含证词笔录、媒体文件和元数据。这些材料将以无障碍的在线形式提供给研究人员、语言教师和学生以及公众。除了这些研究成果，该项目还包括对语言学博士后学者的研究和专业培训；为本科生和研究生社会语言学课程开发使用口述历史作为语言数据的模块；以及为强化语言课程开发补充课程，使学生熟悉以濒危语言为母语的人的声音。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Genocide often leads to linguicide, or the extreme endangerment of the languages spoken by the communities targeted for destruction. Historical testimony interviews with survivors are a critical source of data for those who wish to describe, analyze, or revitalize these minority languages. To what extent can such materials also be used to reconstruct the social meaning of variable language features or even the direction of language change in the pre-genocide period?This project analyzes sociolinguistic variation and language change in video-recorded testimonies by Holocaust survivors. A genocide of unprecedented scale, the Holocaust had a particularly devastating effect on minority languages. Although the testimonies were not collected specifically for linguistic research purposes, they provide the raw data necessary for innovative projects in phonetic and grammatical analysis. The goal of these projects is to assess the decline of stereotyped dialect features in pre-genocide communities, as well as the actuation of grammatical change after speaker displacement. The grant will fund the development of a new digital archive which will contain testimony transcripts, media files, and metadata. These materials will be made available to researchers, language instructors and students, and members of the public in accessible online formats. In addition to these research outputs, the project includes research and professional training for a postdoctoral scholar in linguistics; the development of modules for undergraduate and graduate sociolinguistics courses on the use of oral histories as language data; and the development of supplementary curricula for intensive language programs, which will familiarize students with the voices of native speakers of endangered varieties.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.