Suggestions needed

[Robert Inglis]

Hi:

I'm beginning to get involved in research on some of the particular facets
of spoken languages in non-literate cultures.  I'll break down our approach
to the subject, and would appreciate any suggestions for books/journal
articles/web sites dealing with any or all of it.

Firstly, there's the comparative angle - any analysis of the spoken language
of various literate cultures (alphabetically-based, syllabically-based,
etc.) compared with non-literate cultures that reveals trends in intonation
and so forth would be very useful.

Secondly, we want to compare the grammars of these various cultures - and
look for trends in word organization and usage (e.g. incidence of rhyming
words).

Ideally, the most useful thing to have would be a computer program with
representative samples of the recorded speech of members of any non-literate
culture  - - these audio clips would be expressed in wave forms with literal
translations of the speech printed out below, so that as one played the clip
and listened to it one could read along  the corresponding words that are
being said.  This sort of program is, almost undoubtedly, a pipe dream but
should someone know of any sort of variation on it, please pass on the
pertinent info to me.

Thank you very much,
R. Inglis
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