Indigenous and Endangered Languages Lab
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Projects
Mayangna Language Project
This is part of an on-going project in collaboration with the late Ken Hale from MIT to write a grammar of the Misumalpan languages of Nicaragua, of which Mayangna is a member.
The Mayangna project has been focusing on identifying the formal properties of the different dialectal variants (Panamahka, Tuahka, Tawahka), as well as on collaborating with the local institutions to produce lexicographic material useful in the bilingual schools. We have also worked on training local Mayangna teachers to become the Mayangna linguists of the future…
More recently, we have been focusing on the presence of Classifier Auxiliaries in the language and how they fit in the general crosslinguistic landscape of classifiers.
Check the Mayangna Girls Webpage for information on a community based project in the Mayangna community.
Tigrinya Language Project
This is an on-going project in collaboration with native Tigrinya speakers in the Lafayette area. The project is made possible by a CLA Deans Incentive Research Grant to Prof. Elena Benedicto.
The purpose of the project is to aid in the preservation of the Tigrinya language through a dictionary, a children’s story book, and a collection of annotated databases. All of which are based on didactic folktales narrated by native speakers.
We would like to express our appreciation to Dr. Nahor Haddish-Berhane, Dr. Genet Medhane, and Fanna Tesfamariam for all the time and effort they have put into the project.