Handheld 'Phraselator' helps preserve North American native languages (fwd)

[Natasha L Warner]

Hi,

does anyone know what the functions of this "Phraselator" are in more
detail than what's described in the newspaper article?  The article
describes a handheld recording device that can record and play back large
numbers of brief recordings.  (The one they describe for kids seems to
have an additional system for specifying what to play back by means of
picture tokens.)  Why would they need to go to a defense contractor for
that?  It seems like it must do something else that isn't described.  If
someone is going around to lots of tribes and using it for many languages,
what is it this device is doing?

Thanks,

Natasha

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Natasha Warner
Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics
University of Arizona
PO Box 210028
Tucson, AZ 85721-0028