documenting endangered languages

Documentation

Documenting Endangered Languages

Claire BowernRice University and CRLC, ANUbowern@rice.eduhttp://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/)