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Community-Beneficial Outcomes of Language Documentation Projects in Latin America

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Community-Beneficial Outcomes of Language Documentation Projects in Latin America Community-beneficial outcomes of Language Documentation Projects in Latin America. An investigation of projects funded by the ELDP. Masterarbeit zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades Master of Arts (MA) an der Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz vorgelegt von Andrea URCAN am Institut für Sprachwissenschaft Begutachterin: Assoz. Prof. Mag. Dr.phil. Dina El Zarka Graz, 2018 Acknowledgments I would like to thank Professor El Zarka for her guidance and support, My family for always believing in my decisions, And my friends for making me laugh even in the darkest of times. 2 Table of contents 1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 5 2 Language Endangerment ................................................................................................. 7 2.1 Assessing the status of a language .................................................................................. 8 2.2 Degrees of language endangerment ................................................................................ 9 2.3 Why do languages become endangered?....................................................................... 11 2.4 Why care about endangered languages? ....................................................................... 13 2.4.1 What the community loses ........................................................................................ 13 2.4.2 What science and humanity lose ............................................................................... 14 2.5 Language endangerment in Latin America ................................................................... 17 2.5.1 Linguistic background ............................................................................................... 17 2.5.2 The main causes for language endangerment in Latin America ............................... 19 3 Language documentation and resources for indigenous communities ...................... 21 3.1 What is language documentation and why is it important? .......................................... 22 3.2 Different frameworks for language documentation ...................................................... 24 3.2.1 Linguist-focused model ............................................................................................. 25 3.2.2 Participatory research model ..................................................................................... 26 3.2.3 Community-based research model ............................................................................ 27 3.2.4 Linguistic-training ..................................................................................................... 30 3.3 Resources for indigenous communities ......................................................................... 31 3.3.1 Storybooks ................................................................................................................. 33 3.3.2 Audio and video materials ......................................................................................... 35 3.3.3 Thematic dictionaries ................................................................................................ 37 3.3.4 Vocabulary collections .............................................................................................. 40 3.3.5 Other materials for learning purposes ....................................................................... 41 3.4 Language revitalization ................................................................................................. 44 3.5 Types of revitalization programs ................................................................................... 46 3.5.1 Language classes ....................................................................................................... 47 3.5.2 Immersion-schools ..................................................................................................... 48 3.5.3 Master-apprentice program ........................................................................................ 48 4 Factors influencing language documentation projects ................................................ 50 4.1 External support ............................................................................................................ 50 4.2 Language attitudes ......................................................................................................... 52 3 4.3 Expectations concerning research outcomes ................................................................. 54 4.4 Community engagement ............................................................................................... 56 4.5 Types of speakers .......................................................................................................... 57 4.6 Funding and time ........................................................................................................... 58 4.7 Accessibility and usability of materials ........................................................................ 59 5 An investigation of community-beneficial outcomes of documentation projects in Latin America ......................................................................................................................... 61 5.1 The ELDP and the projects funded in Latin America ................................................... 61 5.2 The questionnaire .......................................................................................................... 64 5.2.1 Results and assessment .............................................................................................. 65 5.3 Case studies ................................................................................................................... 77 5.3.1 The documentation of Chuxnabán Mixe, Carmen Jany ............................................ 77 5.3.2 The Iquito Language Documentation Project, Christine Beier ................................. 80 5.3.3 The documentation of Paunaka and Guarayu, Swintha Danielsen ............................ 85 6 Summary and conclusion ............................................................................................... 91 Table of Illustrations ................................................................................................................ 95 References ................................................................................................................................ 96 Appendix ................................................................................................................................ 106 4 1 Introduction It is an established fact that the future of the numerous languages spoken around the world is not looking bright. According to researchers around 50% of the existing languages are going to die out over the next years. As a result, a number of linguists started to engage in language documentation projects which aim at securing as much linguistic data as possible for the future. In the course of collecting the relevant data, the linguists will work closely with a speech community whose language is under threat of disappearing. After the finalization of a project, plenty of articles can be found in books and journals describing the special linguistic features of the investigated language. But which part do the communities play in the projects apart from providing language input? How do communities benefit from the collaboration with the linguists? The topic of this thesis resulted from these initial deliberations. As the title indicates, the central theme of this thesis revolves around the benefits indigenous communities in Latin America receive because of their collaboration with linguists in language documentation projects. The significance for addressing this topic resulted from the fact that although most researchers feel the need to give something back to the indigenous communities, outcomes produced for their benefit are hardly discussed in the literature. I decided to focus on projects carried out in Latin America for two main reasons. Firstly, according to Peréz Báez et al. (2016: 1) the current literature does not extensively approach the topic of the implementation and the outcomes of language documentation projects in Latin America. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to contribute to this insufficiently studied field of investigation. Secondly, I wanted to concentrate on this area because of the personal connection I have with the people of this continent. In what follows, I will give a brief outline of the present thesis and additionally, I will display the methodology and the objectives of the investigation which was carried out within the context of the thesis. The first chapter provides a brief introduction to the thesis. The second chapter is meant to give an insight into the topic of language endangerment. For this purpose, some general information about the assessment of language vitality and degrees of language endangerment will be presented. Further, the importance of language diversity will be outlined. This chapter also provides facts about the linguistic background of Latin America and lists factors responsible for the language endangerment in South-and Central America. 5 The third chapter is dedicated to language documentation with emphasis on community- beneficial efforts. After discussing the importance of language documentation, three frameworks concerning the involvement of community members in language documentation projects will
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