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Tibeto-Burman Linguistics Listserv Members:<br>
<br>
I recently have been accepted into the Master of Arts in Linguistics
Program at Payap University, Chiang Mai, Thailand and will travel
there in May to begin my coursework (more on this program here: <a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://ic.payap.ac.th/graduate/linguistics/about.php">http://ic.payap.ac.th/graduate/linguistics/about.php</a>).
This school focuses on Fieldwork and Language
Description/Documentation, as opposed to other Graduate-level
Linguistic programs that may focus on Linguistics solely at a
theoretical level. As it is best to begin the program with a thesis
in mind, I've decided I would like to attempt to write a grammatical
sketch of Sizang Chin (<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.ethnologue.com/language/csy">http://www.ethnologue.com/language/csy</a>)
as my M.A. thesis. I have three years in the program to do so, but
it is best to go in with a large corpus of data. I've already begun
the process.<br>
<br>
I have a website/blog called <i>Sizangkam</i> "The Sizang Language"
(<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://sizangkam.wordpress.com/">http://sizangkam.wordpress.com/</a>)
I originally created it as a small one-stop resource for finding
materials about the Sizang language. Once I learned that I was
accepted to the Master of Arts in Linguistics program, however, I
realized it could be so much more. I've started small projects on
the website, which can be found on the projects page (<a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://sizangkam.wordpress.com/projects/">https://sizangkam.wordpress.com/projects/</a>).
Within these projects is one for recording small scripture passages
from the Sizang Bible to be able to further assess the phonology of
the language, "The Luce Project" where I digitally transcribe the
field notes of Gordon H. Luce that pertain to the Sizang language,
and others. Most notably, however, is my lexicon project. I plan
to create an online Sizang dictionary which will be open-access and
openly-editable (like Wikipedia). To get that started, however, I'm
still extracting data from various sources and searching for
programmers to help provide a platform. This is where part of my
fundraising project kicks in:<br>
<br>
In March, I plan to travel to Frederick and Laurel, Maryland. These
two cities have the highest concentration of Sizang speakers in the
United States. When there, I plan to do several things to help
advance my corpus of linguistic data, including:<br>
<ul>
<li>Word list recording</li>
<li>Audio recording of historical narratives and songs</li>
<li>Audio recording of conversation</li>
<li>Discuss language development and education with community
leaders</li>
<li>(More possibilities still in discussion)</li>
</ul>
<p>I hope to do these things with as many speakers as possible and
with the assistance of community members. Collecting words and
recordings will also help with my dictionary project, as I can
record example sentences and exact pronunciation of each word.
Academically, I believe I can also learn a more about Sizang
syntax, morphology, and phonology than what is already described
in linguistic literature.<br>
</p>
<p>My 30-day campaign to raise $654 dollars (covering lodging and
gasoline for the trip) through Experiment.com, a crowd-funding
website geared toward academic research is almost over. With 35
hours left, I would appreciate any amount of financial
contribution. Please support my project, or spread the word if
anyone you know would be interested in supporting. All raw data
from the trip will be first uploaded to my website and hopefully
later preserved in a linguistic online archive (such as ELAN, for
example).<br>
</p>
<p>Thank you all and have a great day!<br>
</p>
Tyler Davis
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