I am a field linguist with a dual research program. First, I am interested in endangered language documentation and helping speaker communities record, maintain and revitalize their own languages. Second, I am interested in language structure from a typological perspective, and believe it is best studied in natural discourse. My work in documenting the Khatso language combines these two approaches.
I spent a year doing fieldwork in Xingmeng, from April 2012 to April 2013, with a follow-up visit in October 2014. With my native speaker assistant, kʰuɛi⁴⁴ li²⁴ 奎丽 (in photo, right), we recorded more than 50 hours of Khatso in both audio and video formats. These recordings include both elicited data and natural discourse. The elicited data comprise phonetic and phonological material, vocabulary and short phrases from more than 25 speakers. A number of discourse genres were captured, featuring more than 30 speakers, from instructions and personal anecdotes to spontaneous conversation and traditional narratives.
These data serve as the foundation of my academic work, which include a grammar, several articles and conference publications (all of which are listed elsewhere on this site). Transcription and translation work of these recordings continues, and a dictionary is also planned in the future.
My gratitude goes to the National Science Foundation (BCS-1226804), ACLS/Mellon and the Endangered Language Fund for underwriting this documentation project.
Chris Donlay (段克礼)
chrisdonlay @ yahoo . com
I spent a year doing fieldwork in Xingmeng, from April 2012 to April 2013, with a follow-up visit in October 2014. With my native speaker assistant, kʰuɛi⁴⁴ li²⁴ 奎丽 (in photo, right), we recorded more than 50 hours of Khatso in both audio and video formats. These recordings include both elicited data and natural discourse. The elicited data comprise phonetic and phonological material, vocabulary and short phrases from more than 25 speakers. A number of discourse genres were captured, featuring more than 30 speakers, from instructions and personal anecdotes to spontaneous conversation and traditional narratives.
These data serve as the foundation of my academic work, which include a grammar, several articles and conference publications (all of which are listed elsewhere on this site). Transcription and translation work of these recordings continues, and a dictionary is also planned in the future.
My gratitude goes to the National Science Foundation (BCS-1226804), ACLS/Mellon and the Endangered Language Fund for underwriting this documentation project.
Chris Donlay (段克礼)
chrisdonlay @ yahoo . com