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Linguistics
Languages & Communication Bldg
255 S Central Campus Dr Rm 2300
Salt Lake City, Ut 84112-0492

Office: 2300 LNCO
Office Phone: 587-0720
Email:

The goal of this project is to document Arapaso, a previously undocumented Tukanoan language spoken by a fewer than 300 people in the Upper Rio Negro region of Brazil. The researcher will produce a typological overview of the language based on the analysis of texts and lexical materials collected from the communities. Using phonological, morphological, and syntactic analysis, the Dr. Silva will provide the first comprehensive description of the language. The data that are generated from the project, which will be in the form of audio and video recordings, will be available online to the Arapaso people at the Amazonian Museum in Manaus. The work will also be accessible to the scientific community, through the CAIL archives at the University of Utah, and through AILLA at the University of Texas at Austin.

Project Grants: Endangered Language Fund: Endangered Language Fund 2006

The goal of this project is to undertake fieldwork to document Desano, an endangered Eastern Tukanoan language. Desano is spoken in both Brazil and Colombia; this project, for various practical reasons, concentrates on the Brazilian groups. According to FOIRN, the official indigenous organization in the region, Desano has an estimate of 800 speakers in Brazil in some 50 communities spread along tributaries of the Papurí, Tiquié, and Vaupés rivers. The outcome of this project will include a corpus of materials such as digital audio and video recordings and text collections. A descriptive grammar and a dictionary will also be produced as a long term goal.

Project Grants: FTG0155 Documentation of Desano - Eastern Tukanoan: School of Oriental and African Studies 2008

The principal goal of the project is to produce a booklet with traditional Desano stories to aid in the educational and revitalization programs sought by the community members and FOIRN (Federação das Organizações Indígenas do Rio Negro). Desano is a highly endangered Eastern Tukanoan language of the Upper Rio Negro region in Brazil.
All the traditional narratives will be recorded digitally in audio and video since it will be easy to archive and disseminate (respecting the rights and wishes of the indigenous communities and FOIRN). Desano leaders from Desano communities have met and decided that they would like to have our linguistic assistance to help them collect the material and work with the community members in order to transcribe the texts using the orthographic forms commonly used in the area.
This project is divided into: (1) field work – data collection, text recording; (2) transcription of the texts in the Desano communities, using their orthographic form, and analyses of texts in the community with participation of community members; (3) editing the texts to be published (to be done using the facilities at CAIL – Center for American Indian Languages, at the U of Utah). This project has the full support from the Desano leaders and the Desano community members.

Collaborators: Joshua Bowles;

Project Grants: Endangered Language Fund: The Endangered Language Fund 2007