Category Archives: Special Publications

This volume features state-of-the art typological research, based on corpora from 64 spoken languages and one signed language. It is primarily intended to counteract the written bias in current corpus-based typology, and to illustrate how language documentation data is crucial for this endeavour. The volume does, however, reflect the unfortunate historical bias towards spoken languages, which is also reflected in the title of the volume, and we sincerely regret if this is construed as perpetrating the ongoing marginalization of signed language in linguistic research, and elsewhere.

The role of language documentation in corpus-based typology
Stefan Schnell, Geoffrey Haig & Frank Seifart. 1–28.

Child language documentation: The sketch acquisition project
Birgit Hellwig, Rebecca Defina, Evan Kidd, Shanley E. M. Allen, Lucinda Davidson & Barbara F. Kelly. 29–58.

Prosodic segmentation and cross-linguistic comparison in CorpAfroAs and CorTypo: Corpus-driven and corpus-based approaches
Amina Mettouchi & Martine Vanhove. 59–113.

Combining documentary linguistics and corpus phonetics to advance corpus-based typology
Frank Seifart. 115–139.

Universals of reference in discourse and grammar: Evidence from the Multi-CAST collection of spoken corpora
Geoffrey Haig, Stefan Schnell & Nils N. Schiborr. 141–177.

Language vs individuals in cross-linguistic corpus typology
Danielle Barth, Nicholas Evans, I Wayan Arka, Henrik Bergqvist, Diana Forker, Sonja Gipper, Gabrielle Hodge, Eri Kashima, Yuki Kasuga, Carine Kawakami, Yukinori Kimoto, Dominique Knuchel, Norikazu Kogura, Keita Kurabe, John Mansfield, Heiko Narrog, Desak Pratiwi, Eka Putu, Saskia van Putten, Chikako Senge & Olena Tykhostup. 179–232.

This research topic of yours – is it a research topic at all? Using comparative interactional data for a fine-grained reanalysis of traditional concepts
Pavel Ozerov. 233–280.

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SP24: Phonetic fieldwork in southern New Guinea

Edited by

Kate L. Lindsey & Dineke Schokkin

ISBN-13: 978-0-9979673-2-6

SP24 Full volume

Introduction: Phonetic fieldwork in southern New Guinea

Kate L. Lindsey & Dineke Schokkin

1. The phonetics of Southern New Guinea languages: an overview

Nicholas Evans

Abstract: This article provides an overview of the phonologies of Southern New Guinea languages, based on the six languages in this special issue plus two others for which JIPA illustrations have recently been published –Yelmek (Yelmek-Maklew family), Ngkolmpu, Nmbo and Nen (Yam family), Idi and Ende (Pahoturi River), Bitur (Marind-Anim branch of Trans-New Guinea) and Urama (Kiwaian branch of Trans-New Guinea). It surveys overall inventory sizes (maximal 28 consonants and 8 vowels, in Nmbo, minimal 13 consonants plus 5 vowels in Urama), and the most important segment types characteristic of the region, including retroflexion in Idi and Ende, labial-velar stops (Nen, Nmbo), rounded stops (Nmbo), relatively large liquid inventories (Pahoturi River) and prenasalised stop phonemes (Ngkolmpu, Nen, Nmbo).

2. A phonetic description of Yelmek
Tina Gregor

Abstract: This paper provides a first description of the phonetics and phonology of a language from the Yelmek-Maklew family, a language family without a genealogical link to any other language family in New Guinea or elsewhere. The variety under consideration in this paper is used by people from the village of Wanam, located in the Papuan Province on the Indonesian side of New Guinea. Wanam is the northernmost of the four villages attributed to the Yelmek branch of the family (ISO 639-3:jel, glottocode: yelm1242). The variety in question has 13 consonant phonemes and 7 vowel phonemes. The vowel inventory includes a phonemic schwa, which is distinct from the epenthetic schwa that is used to split illicit consonant cluster. Noteworthy suprasegmental features include the absence of word-level stress and the fact that interrogative and declarative utterances have the same basic pitch contour.

3. Phonetics and Phonology of Ngkolmpu

Matthew J. Carroll

Abstract: This paper describes the phonetics and phonology of segments in Ngkolmpu, a language spoken in the Merauke region of Indonesian Papua. The language is a member of the the Tonda-Kanum branch of the Yam family and displays a fairly typical segmental inventory for a Yam language with some notable exceptions. There are sixteen phonemic consonantal segments. As commonly found in Papuan languages, the primary manner distinction of stops is between voiceless oral stops and prenasalised stops. Rather unusually, both the plain oral stops and the prenasalised stops are voiceless for the oral period of the articulation. There are seven phonemic vowels and one epenthetic vowel whose distribution is phonotactically determined.

4. The phonetics of Nmbo (Nɐmbo) with some comments on its phonology (Yam family; Morehead district)

Eri Kashima

Abstract: This paper presents aspects of the phonetics and phonology of the Nmbo language as spoken by the Kerake tribe peoples of southern Western Province, Papua New Guinea. The paper is primarily concerned with the phonetics of consonants and vowels, but also presents description and audio examples of stress and clausal intonation patterns.

5. Phonetics and phonology of Idi
Dineke Schokkin, Volker Gast, Nicholas Evans, & Christian Döhler

Abstract: This paper provides a first description of the phonetics and phonology of Idi (Pahoturi River; ISO 639-3: idi, glottocode: idii1243) as spoken by about 1,000 people in the villages of Dimsisi and Sibidiri, located in the Morehead District of Western Province, Papua New Guinea. Idi has a fairly large inventory of 21 consonant phonemes and 8 vowel phonemes. As with other languages spoken in the region, the two central vowels show a hybrid status and could be analysed as sometimes phonemic and sometimes epenthetic. Other noteworthy characteristics are the presence of vowel harmony, voiced and voiceless retroflex plosives/affricates, nasality as a “floating” feature, and coarticulated labial-velar plosives, although the latter most likely originated as loan phonemes from Nen.

6. The phonet i cs of Bitur
Phillip G. Rogers

Abstract: This paper offers a description of the phonetics of Bitur, a language spoken by less than a thousand people in Western Province, Papua New Guinea. With just thirteen consonants and five vowels, the phoneme inventory of Bitur is fairly typical of a Papuan language and yet relatively small in its more immediate geographic and genealogical contexts. The consonants of Bitur represent five manners of articulation and span four places of articulation. Prenasalized stops are noticeably absent, despite their prevalence in the region and among related languages. The low central vowel /a/ assimilates in height to nearby mid and high vowels, and it provides a means to distinguish high vowels from approximants. The Bitur syllable consists minimally of a vowel nucleus with simple onsets and codas allowed. Vowel length is not contrastive, but it seems to be the most salient prosodic feature of the Bitur word. As the first substantial phonetic description of a Lower Fly language— the least-known language group in Southern New Guinea—this paper represents an important contribution to our understanding of Papuan languages.

7. A phonetic sketch of Urama
Jason Brown, Alex Muir, & Robbie Petterson

Abstract: This paper provides a phonetic sketch of Urama (Glottocode: uram1241), one of the varieties of the Northeast Kiwai group (iso code: kiw). Urama’s consonant and vowel inventories, with 12 and 5 members respectively, are characteristic of Papuan languages generally. Vowel length is contrastive, but may be in the process of being lost. Urama exhibits a pitch accent system, but only a few words are found in which tone alone distinguishes meaning.

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SP23: Theoretical reflections around the role of fieldwork in linguistics and linguistic anthropology: Contributions of Indigenous researchers from southern Mexico

This is an English translation of an earlier Special Publication in Spanish:

Cruz Cruz, Emiliana, ed. 2020. Reflexiones teóricas en torno a la función del tra- bajo de campo en lingüística-antropológica: Contribuciones de investigadores indí- genas del sur de México . Language Documentation & Conservation Special Publication 22.

These six articles, all fruit of the work of Indigenous researchers, come to us at an important moment, feeding the existing debates on “fieldwork” led by Indigenous researchers in the social sciences generally. Yet the volume Theoretical reflections around the role of fieldwork in linguistics and anthropology: Contributions of Indigenous researchers from southern Mexico is a pioneering study into the critiques, discourses, and limitations associated with fieldwork and research in the places where we live and where our families live. This critical edge must be considered when thinking about fieldwork and research in general.

SP23: Theoretical reflections around the role of fieldwork in linguistics and linguistic anthropology: Contributions of Indigenous researchers from southern Mexico

Introduction
Foreword
Translators’ introduction
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About the authors
Cultural glossary for the translations
Ethical principles in linguistic fieldwork methodologies–According to whom?
Abstract: This article seeks to establish a dialogue between the methodological proposals that have been put forward for linguistic fieldwork and the growing experiences of Indigenous linguists. It is well known that the theorizing of the methodologies that dictate linguists’ interactions in their communities of study is carried out from a perspective foreign to both the language and the community. These methodologies are designed for and guided by non-Indigenous academics,…
Between the academy and the community: The trickster who dances at the party and shows her tongue
Abstract: Explored here are the complexities and challenges that arise from my experience as an Indigenous researcher. As a linguist and anthropologist, I move between both academic and community spaces. During the last two decades, a good part of my research has focused on the documentation and revitalization of Indigenous languages, in particular the Chatino languages. This article addresses my experience as an Indigenous researcher navigating these two spaces with…
“And what are you getting out of this?” Experiencing fieldwork in your community of origin: From reflection into emotional healing
Abstract: In this essay I share my fieldwork experience as a Zapotec researcher trained in anthropological and linguistic methodologies. I suggest that fieldwork is experienced differently by colleagues of non-Indigenous origin based on ethical, political and internal relationships that cross my academic projects and my personal life.
Activism and research for the promotion of literacy in Chatino: Experiences and reflections from fieldwork
Abstract: In this article, as an insider researcher, I explore my experiences during fieldwork. I discuss personal emotions related to linguistic discrimination and internalization of speakers’ negative attitudes toward their language. Also, I discuss the local power relations in the community social network to which my family belongs, and the violence I experience as a woman. As a local researcher I unveil the realities and adversities that I face doing…
Between insiders and outsiders: When an indigenous researcher conducts studies in her own community
Abstract: This work presents the experiences of an Indigenous researcher carrying out linguistic and ethnographic studies within her own community. A growing number of Indigenous peoples are venturing into documentation, description and promotion of their languages of origin. As a field, linguistic documentation and linguistic description were created by and for members of academic institutions that were historically distant from collaborative work with the speakers of Indigenous languages. The author’s…
Sk’an jtsatsubtastik ko’ontontik: Dialogues, challenges, and complexities of being a Tsotsil researcher
Abstract: The article reflects on the experiences of a researcher of Tsotsil origin trained in the fields of linguistics and anthropological linguistics, who lives in the same territorial space of the study community. Specifically, it examines the implications and challenges of being a woman, a Tsotsil and a researcher, who, on the one hand, delves into the social and community spaces that are exclusive to men, and on the other,…

SP22: Reflexiones teóricas en torno a la función del trabajo de campo en lingüística- antropológica: Contribuciones de investigadores indígenas del sur de México

Editora: Emiliana Cruz Cruz

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SP21: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Language Documentation

Edited by Susan D. Penfield
ISBN: 978-0-9856211-9-3

Introduction: Interdisciplinary Research in Language Documentation
Susan D. Penfield

Interdisciplinarity in areal documentation: Experiences from Lower Fungom, Cameroon
Jeffrey Good

Child language documentation: A pilot project in Papua New Guinea
Birgit Hellwig

Domain-driven documentation: The case of landscape
Niclas Burenhult

Endangered Language Documentation: The challenges of interdisciplinary research in ethnobiology
Jonathan Amith

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SP20: Collaborative Approaches to the Challenges of Language Documentation and Conservation

Edited by Wilson de Lima Silva & Katherine J. Riestenberg

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SP19: Documentation and Maintenance of Contact Languages from South Asia to East Asia

Edited by Mário Pinharanda-Nunes and Hugo C. Cardoso

2019 ISBN 978-0-9973295-6-8

In the time spanning from Himmelmann’s (1998) seminal article, the practice of language documentation has understandably developed a discernible focus on endangered, minority, and lesser described languages.

As a result of the realization of the global pervasiveness of language endangerment, these associated endeavours have significantly expanded their vitality and visibility in recent years. However, contact languages have been to some extent absent from discourses on language endangerment, but also from institutional initiatives to counter the situation. In practice, contact languages have also been and continue to be the object of language documentation, description, and revitalization efforts, as demonstrated in this special volume with concrete reference to the regions of South, Southeast, and East Asia.

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SP18: Archival Returns: Central Australia and Beyond

ISBN: 978-0-9973295-7-5

Edited by Linda Barwick, Jennifer Green, and Petronella Vaarzon-Morel

Co-published with Sydney University Press

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SP17: Language and Toponymy in Alaska and Beyond

Papers in Honor of James Kari

Edited by Gary Holton & Thomas F. Thornton
ISBN 978-0-9973295-4-4
March 1, 2019

It is difficult to imagine place names research in Alaska without the work of James Kari. Through his tireless field work and advocacy, Dr. Kari has collaborated with speakers of all of Alaska’s Dene languages to help build a comprehensive record of Dene geographic knowledge. When Jim came to Alaska in 1972, the documentation of Dene languages was fragmentary at best, and the only records of Native place names were those found inaccurately spelled on maps and gazetteers. Now nearly a half a century later we are surrounded by Native names—from K’esugi Ridge in Susitna Valley to Troth Yeddha’ on the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus. The increased visibility of Alaska Native place names today is due in no small part to Jim’s efforts. His work has inspired a generation of scholars, including the contributors to this volume, and continues to set the standard for toponymy research in Alaska and beyond.

A print version of this volume, in paper with sewn binding, will be published by the Alaska Native Language Center Press in July 2019.

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SP16: Methodological tools for linguistic description and typology

ISBN: 978-0-9973295-5-1

Edited by Aimée Lahaussois and Marine Vuillermet

This volume is an outcome of a collaborative multi-year research project on Questionnaires for linguistic description and typology. For the purposes of the project, we use Questionnaire (with a capital Q) as a general term to cover any kind of methodological tool designed to elicit linguistic expressions, including word lists, visual stimuli, descriptive templates, field manuals, and the like. This volume thus brings together articles about written questionnaires and visual stimuli, which due to their epistemological differences are rarely considered together, and treats them as sub-types of the large category of methodological tools that help linguists carry out descriptive and comparative work.

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SP15: Reflections on Language Documentation 20 Years after Himmelmann 1998

Edited by Bradley McDonnell, Andrea L. Berez-Kroeker & Gary Holton

University of Hawai‘i Press
ISBN 978-0-9973295-3-7
December 31, 2018

This volume reflects on key issues in the field of language documentation on the 20 year anniversary of Nikolaus Himmelmann’s seminal article “Documentary and descriptive linguistics” in the journal Linguistics. Himmelmann’s central argument that language documentation should “be conceived of as a fairly independent field of linguistic inquiry and practice” has prompted major theoretical and practical shifts, helping to establish documentary linguistics as a genuine subfield of linguistics. Now 20 years later we are able ask: how has this new field evolved? Continue reading →

SP14: A Descriptive Grammar of Shilluk

By Bert Remijsen & Otto Gwado Ayoker
ISBN: 978-0-9973295-2-9

This special publication of Language Documentation & Conservation presents descriptive analyses on topics in the grammar of Shilluk, a Nilo Saharan language spoken primarily in South Sudan. A salient characteristic of Shilluk is that it is rich in fusional morphology. That is, stem-internal changes, particularly in terms of tone and vowel length, have a high functional load in the paradigms of verbs and nouns. From 2008 onwards, we have built up a detailed understanding of these contrasts and their role in the grammar. Accountability is a central concern in documentary and descriptive linguistics, and it is one that has determined the design of this publication in various ways. One way we are ensuring that our description is accountable is by including sound examples. We do this because the phenomena themselves are sounds; transcriptions based on the sounds are hypotheses. Aside from making the work more accountable, sound examples embedded in publications make the phenomena more accessible, reducing the threshold between the reader and an unfamiliar language.

This grammar represents a long-term project. It will be published in instalments.

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SP13: Documenting Variation in Endangered Languages

Documenting Variation in Endangered Languages

edited by
Kristine A. Hildebrandt, Carmen Jany & Wilson Silva
ISBN10: 0997329505

The papers in this special publication are the result of presentations and follow-up dialogue on emergent and alternative methods to documenting variation in endangered, minority, or otherwise under-represented languages. Recent decades have seen a burgeoning interest in many aspects of language documentation and field linguistics and there is also a great deal of material dealing with language variation in major languages.
In contrast, intersections of language variation in endangered and minority languages are still few in number. Yet examples of those few cases published on the intersection of language documentation and language variation reveal exciting potentials for linguistics as a discipline, challenging and supporting classical models, creating new models and predictions.

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SP12: The Social Cognition Parallax Interview Corpus (SCOPIC)

Edited by Danielle Barth and Nicholas Evans
ISBN 0-9973295-1-3

The Social Cognition Parallax Interview Corpus (SCOPIC) provides naturalistic but cross-linguistically-matched corpus data with enriched annotations of grammatical categories relevant to social cognition. By ‘parallax corpus’ we mean ‘broadly comparable formulations resulting from a comparable task’, to avoid the implications of ‘parallel corpus’ that there will be exact semantic equivalence across languages. The problem with that, from a semantic typologist’s point of view, is that it can only be achieved by privileging the semantic structure of the source language in the translations, and that it prevents us from studying the fundamental question of how languages – or the formulation practices of language communities – bias the expression of particular categories in language-specific ways. This volume will grow incrementally with new chapters added in coming years.

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SP10: African language documentation: new data, methods and approaches

Seyfeddinipur_2016

Edited by Mandana Seyfeddinipur
University of Hawai‘i Press
ISBN-13: 978-0-9856211-6-2

Over the past 20 years, language documentation activities have been increasing all over the world. Major funding initiatives in Germany (Dokumentation Bedrohter Sprachen (DoBeS) funded by Volkswagen Stiftung), the UK (Endangered Languages Documentation Programme (ELDP) funded by Arcadia) and the US (Documentation of Endangered Languages (DEL) funded by the National Science Foundation) have enabled more and more scholars and students to conduct fieldwork and to document languages for which little or no documentation exists. Continue reading →

SP11: Mutsun-English English-Mutsun Dictionary, mutsun-inkiS inkiS-mutsun riica pappel

University of Hawai‘i Press
ISBN-13: 978-0-9856211-8-6

The Mutsun-English English-Mutsun Dictionary
By Natasha Warner, Lynnika Butler and Quirina Geary

Mutsun is a Costanoan language (part of the Utian language family) from California in the area around the modern towns of San Juan Bautista, Hollister, and Gilroy. The last fluent speaker of Mutsun, Mrs. Ascension Solarsano, died in 1930. Because of her work and the work of earlier native Mutsun speakers with early linguists, there is a large written corpus of Mutsun. This dictionary was compiled by analyzing that documentation. The dictionary is written to be useful both for language revitalization and for linguistic research.

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SP09: Language Documentation and Conservation in Europe

Edited by Vera Ferreira and Peter Bouda

University of Hawai‘i Press
ISBN-13: 978-0-9856211-5-5

Europe is a continent with low linguistic diversity and the number of minority and endangered languages is reduced in comparison to other parts of the world. Consequently, Europe is not in the focus of the researchers working on language documentation. Apart from some “major” minority languages in Europe (Catalan, Galician, Breton, Welsh, Basque, etc.), several of the European endangered languages are not known in detail (even in the academia) or documented in a concise and comprehensive way. Primary data on these languages, reflecting their everyday use, is almost non-existent. Moreover, the linguistic diversity in Europe is also unknown to the general public.

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