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Documentation
Documenting Endangered Languages
Claire BowernRice University and CRLC, [email protected]://www.ruf.rice.edu/~bowern(talk slides will be available from anggarrgoon.org)
Documentation
Overview
Documentation and Description Documentation in action
Types Tools (Illustrated with Yan-nhaŋu work)
Documentation
Why endangered languages?
Last chance for data Perhaps only one chance for data Many languages are endangered Techniques particularly developed by
linguists working on these languages BUT, points apply to non-endangered
languages too.
Documentation
What is documentation?
Documentation
What is documentation?
Consider the following linguistic artifacts:
Documentation Language Artifacts
Multilingual translations
Documentation Artifacts
Letters and Lessons
Documentation Artifacts
Ritual Objects
Documentation Artifacts
Items produced by linguists…
Documentation Artifacts
Sound recordings
Documentation Documentation |
Points to note
Different audiences Accidental vs Planned “Raw” vs value-added More or less durable
Documentation Documentation and Description
Description vs Documentation
Himmelmann (1996): Description: grammars, dictionaries,
articles, etc Documentation: a record of the language;
some attempt to be “exhaustive”, or at least “representative”
Systematising the creation of records (not leaving the artifacts to chance)
Descriptions can be produced from documentations, but not vice versa.
Documentation Documentation and Description
Why worry about the primary materials?
After all, it’s the PhD/article/grammar that earns the linguist tenure/DETYA brownie points/a job.
Documentation Documentation and Description
Why worry?
Production of better theory/description Raw materials are useful in themselves
(e.g. data recorded for ref grammar may be useful for phonetics)
Need to be able to go back to the primary materials (e.g. for corpus work)
Ethical considerations – for endangered language communities.
Documentation Documentation in Practice
A ‘documentation’ of a language
Documentation Documentation in Practice
What goes into a documentation? Type of materials and their media
(how it’s recorded) Genres of language (what’s recorded) Extent and purpose of analysis (what’s
done with it) Quantity of all of the above Project: THE SPEAKERS
(illustrated with Yan-nhaŋu)
Documentation Documentation in Practice
(Brief intro to Yan-nhaŋu)
“Salvage” documentation project (recording as much as possible in a form that’ll be useful to a maximal audience)
Few previous records Capell’s wordlist – NOT Yan-nhaŋu! Bentley James: draft dictionary and texts, with a
focus on marine resource management Few speakers 2-year project funded by ELDP (Hans Rausing
Project)
Documentation Documentation in Practice
Documentation Documentation in Practice
The documentation team:
Yan-nhaŋu speakers and community members, in particular: Laurie Baymarrwaŋa, Ŋamarrkuḻi
(Ŋarritjan), Margaret Nyuŋunyuŋu, Laurie Milinditj, Rayba Nyaŋbal, Rita Gularrbanga.
Linguists, Anthros, others: Bentley James (ANU), Salome Harris Claire Bowern (Rice/ANU) Vica Papp, Michelle Morrison (Rice)
Documentation Documentation in Practice
Why?
Little record of the language (of concern to speakers)
Part of active movement to increase profile of Yan-nhaŋu at Milingimbi
My historical research on Yolŋu (Yan-nhaŋu important and conservative)
Documentation Documentation in Practice
Documentary Materials
Audio Video Text Photographs (Old records and new)
Documentation Documentation in Practice
Yan-nhaŋu Materials
Concentration on text and audio (with some video and photos)
Level of comfort with video (of researcher and consultants)
Usefulness of outcomes (easier to process and to use in community)
Video: weaving, manikay.
Documentation Documentation in Practice
Materials:
1 speaker More than one
Planned Elicitation, translation, ritual
Plays, scripted dialogue, ritual
Unplanned (or semiplanned)
Narratives, vernacular definitions, etc
conversation
Documentation Documentation in Practice
Yan-nhaŋu
Elicitation Texts Semi-planned materials (e.g. MPI stimulus
materials (video description), frog stories Manikay, Buŋguḻ (Songs, dancing) Vernacular definitions, Culturally important
vocabulary (Little conversation) Non-linguistic documentation
Documentation Documentation |
Samples of stimulus materials and fieldwork tools
Documentation Documentation in Practice
MPI video clip
Documentation Documentation in Practice
Frog story
Documentation Documentation in Practice
Analysis/Derivatives Time-aligned transcripts
E.g. using Elan Linked materials
Import/Export b/w Shoebox and Elan Interlinearised materials
Documentation Documentation in Practice
Elan
Documentation Documentation in Practice
Documentation Documentation |
Materials
Community materials Descriptive materials
Learner’s Guide Dictionary
Documentation Documentation |
Documentation Documentation in Practice
Metadata
‘data about data’ Emphasis on documenting the
documentation Important to know what’s been
recorded, from whom, genre, extent of transcription and analysis, etc
Materials in a format that others might be able to use
Documentation Documentation in Practice
Documentation
Summary and Discussion
Documentation Documentation: Summary
Some Features of Documentation: Not just language (also songs, cultural
practices, ethnoclassification, etc) Multimedia/Digital Metadata Archiving provisions (NOT field notes in
shoebox under the bed)
Documentation Documentation: Summary
Problems
A huge job! Places (unreasonable) demands on the
linguist, who has to be a sound engineer, botanist, anthro, community coordinator, web designer, etc, as well as Indiana Jones-type linguist.
Requires a huge amount of time to do a proper job. (e.g. tape transcription; 2 mins of transcription per hour)
Huge reliance on dedicated speakers and community
Documentation Documentation: Summary
Problems, cont the uselessness of knowing the right
answer to the wrong question. (Ursula Le Guin)
A large corpus might not contain the relevant data
Or, it might contain it but the answer might not be findable
Some problems only soluble with elicitation.
Documentation Documentation: Summary
For more information:
ELDP (http://www.hrelp.org) Essentials of Language Documentation
(Gippert, Himmelmann and Mosel, eds) Linguistic Fieldwork: A Practical Guide
(Bowern) Tools:
Elan: (http://www.lat-mpi.eu/tools/elan/) Praat: (http://www.praat.org) Toolbox:
(http://www.sil.org/computing/toolbox/)