RAPID: Plains Indian Sign Language Documentation, Linguistic Database, and Dictionary

这个RAPID项目将为五个在语言学研究中很少受到关注的濒危平原印第安手语（PISL）品种创建一个可访问的、带注释的视频数据库。数据库和PISL文献对语言学、教育、历史和手语研究等学术领域做出了重要的智力贡献，同时也为土著人民做出了文化贡献。该项目的主要输出是由亚利桑那大学维护的视频词典。它的功能将支持PISL类型和其他手语之间的比较分析。PISL词汇和视频的数据集将与部落共享，并可供美国印第安人研究、语言学、人类学和土著教育方面的学者使用。它还将分发给部落，作为全国各种学校和场所的教材。该项目将包括通过开发视频词典/数据库记录部落标志。研究人员将比较1880年和1929年的旧书面文件和词典与现在的标志。PISL社区的部落顾问将作为数据库的签名者。该数据库将通过(a)语音参数标识符，(b)带有符号含义的词源描述，以及(c)基于平原印第安人/土著人民生活的文化背景进行注释和搜索。研究小组对这些符号进行了比较研究，并将其从旧的书面词典转换为现代数字档案，这将有助于识别历史和当代符号之间的异同。由于部落间的通婚和平原地区以前使用的通用语，许多部落都有共同的标志。该项目将使人们能够在这些部落中指定不同的方言，使这项工作成为对新知识的直接贡献，并成为这些部落社区的重要资源。主数据库将包括来自七个部落的手语（一个单一的组合字典），并将在原始数据库的第二份副本中包括一个专门针对基奥瓦手语的方言过滤器，从而产生一个基奥瓦手语专用词典。这将作为一个模型，并通过创建一个更大的数据库来建立未来工作的能力，从这个数据库中可以派生出各个部落的词典。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This RAPID project will create an accessible, annotated video database for five endangered varieties of Plains Indian Sign Language (PISL) that have received little attention in linguistic research. The database and PISL documentation constitute an important intellectual contribution to academic fields including linguistics, education, history, and sign language studies, while also making a cultural contribution to Native peoples. The main output of the project is a video dictionary to be maintained by the University of Arizona. Its functionality will support comparative analysis between PISL types and with other sign languages. The dataset of PISL lexicons and videos will be shared with the tribes and available to scholars in American Indian studies, linguistics, anthropology, and Indigenous education. It will also be distributed to tribes to be used as educational material in a variety of schools and settings across the nation.The project will involve documentation of tribal signs through the development of a video dictionary/database. Researchers will compare older written documentation and dictionaries from 1880 and 1929 with current signs. Tribal consultants from PISL communities will serve as signers for the database. The database will be annotated and searchable by (a) phonological parameter identifiers, (b) etymological descriptions with the meaning of the signs, and (c) cultural context based on the lives of Plains Indians/Indigenous people. The research team's comparative study of these signs as presented visually and converted from older written dictionaries into a modern digital archive will support the identification of similarities and differences among historical and contemporary signs. Many tribes have shared signs due to intertribal marriages and previous lingua franca use across the Plains region. This project will enable the ability to specify different dialects among these tribes, making this work a direct contribution to new knowledge and an important resource for these tribal communities. The master database will include signs from seven tribes (a single combined dictionary) and will include a dialect filter specifically for Kiowa signs in a second copy of the original database, leading to the production of a Kiowa Sign Language-specific dictionary. This will serve as a model and build capacity for future work by creating a larger database from which dictionaries for individual tribes can be derived.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.