[Lexicog] Bai variant words

[Patrick Chew]

Bryan (et alia) -

         So, my thoughts on what you've presented so far ...

         Focus on Jianchuan forms instandard form is great... I personally
prefer adding in annotations that show variation, since it allows
non-standard form lookup and correlates is with standard form. This then
allows all Jianchuan-region speakers with variants access to all lexical
items in question as well as reinforces the "standard" while acknowledging
local flavor.

         I personally would add a Dali-based index to cross-reference into
the Jianchuan data, only in that cross-dialectal dictionary use will
probably come about.
         My own experience with Bai speakers has shown me that it takes
people a few minutes to try and figure out what word to look up/for when
their dialect isn't the one the dictionary happens to be based on. Hence,
my preference for including "non-standard" and "cross-dialectal" materials.

         I've had some exposure to working with some Bai data, but not with
Bai directly, so I won't be able to necessarily help with details, but.. if
you've questions, I'd love to take it off-list and discuss things with you.

cheers,
-Patrick

At 08:32 PM 10/22/2004, Allens wrote:
>Thanks for the replies. Bai has two 'official' versions of its orthography.
>One is based on Jianchuan, one on Dali. I am using the one based on
>Jianchuan. This will be a dictionary not a wordlist. I also have a survey
>book in press which lists word list data for nine dialects (in IPA). The
>dictionary will only have words from the Jianchuan dialect but even within
>Jianchuan county there are variations (which do not generally affect
>intelligibility). So my question pertains to that level of dialect
>difference. And yes, it is connected with literacy issues. My colleague
>working on a literacy program favours not including any variants in order to
>reinforce a standard. I understand this approach, but I wonder whether
>including them with a cross reference to the 'correct' i.e. standard version
>might both help preserve some of the richness of the language and also help
>with literacy.
>
>Bryan
>
>PS Patrick, have you done work on Bai? If so, I'd love to hear from you -
>you can reply to me off the list.




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