Essentials of Language Documentation
≥
Trends in Linguistics
Studies and Monographs 178
Editors
Walter Bisang
Hans Henrich Hock
Werner Winter
Mouton de Gruyter
Berlin · New York
Essentials of
Language Documentation
edited by
Jost Gippert
Nikolaus P. Himmelmann
Ulrike Mosel
Mouton de Gruyter
Berlin · New York
Mouton de Gruyter (formerly Mouton, The Hague)
is a Division of Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin.
Ț
ȍ Printed on acid-free paper which falls within the guidelines
of the ANSI to ensure permanence and durability.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Essentials of language documentation / edited by Jost Gippert, Niko-
laus P. Himmelmann, Ulrike Mosel.
p. cm.
Ϫ (Trends in linguistics. Studies and monographs ; 178)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-3-11-018864-6 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 3-11-018864-3 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Linguistics
Ϫ Documentation.
2. Language and languages
Ϫ
Documentation.
I. Gippert, Jost.
II. Himmelmann, Nikolaus P.,
1959
Ϫ
III. Mosel, Ulrike
IV. Series
P128.D63E85
2006
025.06
141Ϫdc22
2006001315
ISBN-13: 978-3-11-018864-6
ISBN-10: 3-11-018864-3
ISSN 1861-4302
Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Bibliothek
Die Deutsche Bibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;
detailed bibliographic data is available in the Internet at
Ͻhttp://dnb.ddb.deϾ.
” Copyright 2006 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, D-10785 Berlin
All rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages. No part of this
book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechan-
ical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, with-
out permission in writing from the publisher.
Cover design: Christopher Schneider, Berlin.
Printed in Germany.
Editors’ preface
Language documentation is concerned with the methods, tools, and theoreti
-
cal underpinnings for compiling a representative and lasting multipurpose
record of a natural language or one of its varieties. It is a rapidly emerging
new field in linguistics and related disciplines working with little-known
speech communities. While in terms of its most recent history, language
documentation has co-evolved with the increasing concern for language
endangerment, it is not only of interest for work on endangered languages
but for all areas of linguistics and neighboring disciplines concerned with
setting new standards regarding the empirical foundations of their research.
Among other things, this means that the quality of primary data is carefully
and constantly monitored and documented, that the interfaces between pri-
mary data and various types of analysis are made explicit and critically
reviewed, and that provisions are taken to ensure the long-term preservation
of primary data so that it can be used in new theoretical ventures as well as
in (re
-)evaluating and testing well-established theories.
This volume presents in-depth introductions into major aspects of lan-
guage documentation, including a definition of what it means to “document
a language,” overviews on fieldwork ethics and practicalities and data
processing, discussions on how to provide a basic annotation of digitally-
stored multimedia corpora of primary data, as well as long-term perspectives
on the preservation and use of such corpora. It combines theoretical and
practical considerations and makes specific suggestions for the most com-
mon problems encountered in language documentation.
The volume should prove to be most useful to students and researchers
concerned with documenting little-known languages and language varie-
ties. In addition to linguists and anthropologists, this includes students and
researchers in various regional studies and philologies such as African
Studies, Indology, Turkology, Semitic Studies, or South American Studies.
The book presupposes familiarity with the basic concepts and terminology
of descriptive linguistics (for example, basic units such as phoneme or lex-
eme), but most chapters will also be accessible and useful to non-
specialists, including educators, language planners, politicians, and govern-
ment officials concerned with linguistic minorities.
vi
Preface
Nearly all chapters of this volume are based on a series of lectures and
seminars presented during the First International Summer School on Lan-
guage Documentation: Methods and Technology held in Frankfurt/Main
(Sept. 1–11, 2004). While not a textbook in the strict sense (which would in-
clude exercises, etc.), the volume is designed to serve as the main source of
readings for a university class on language documentation (for third-year
students and above). Parts of it can also be used as readings in fieldmethod
classes and classes in linguistic anthropology. However, it is not a guide to
linguistic
fieldwork.
Instead,
it
focuses
on
issues
which
are
typically
not
men-
tioned at all, or all too briefly, in fieldwork manuals such as, for example,
the cooperative interaction between researcher(s) and speech community,
orthography development, the function of metadata, archiving recordings
and transcripts. When used as a textbook in a language documentation class,
it should be complemented with readings on linguistic fieldwork and lin-
guistic anthropology from other sources (see further Section 5 of Chapter 1).
Of major import to documentary linguistics is the technology used in
recording and preserving linguistic primary data, most of which is IT-
related today. Since this is a rapidly changing field, we have kept the dis-
cussion of specific technological aspects and procedures to an absolute
minimum, focusing on conceptual issues and practicalities which we be-
lieve will stay with us for some time to come. Nevertheless, a considerable
number of technical standards, software programs, and institutions con-
cerned with corpus building and preservation are mentioned in this book in
order to provide examples for a given conceptual issue or a recommended
general procedure. The appendix provides an alphabetical list of all the
abbreviations used in this regard, as well as internet links providing more
up-to-date information on them. This information is continuously updated
on the book’s website at:
http://titus.uni-frankfurt.de/ld
On this website, the reader will also find video and audio files for some of
the examples given in this book as well as links and suggestions for topics
which could not be adequately dealt with here.
Finally, it bears emphasizing once again that language documentation in
many ways is still a rather new discipline where many basic concepts and
procedures are in the process of being tested and fully elaborated (see also
Section 3.2 in Chapter 1). In particular, while considerable progress has
been made in recent years with regard to the compilation and archiving
aspects of language documentation, to date there is very little experience
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