15.827, Support: Uru-Chipaya Fieldwork: Doctoral Student, DOBES

[LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List:  Vol-15-827. Wed Mar 10 2004. ISSN: 1068-4875.

Subject: 15.827, Support: Uru-Chipaya Fieldwork: Doctoral Student, DOBES

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1)
Date:  Mon, 2 Feb 2004 17:21:56 -0800
From:  ILCA <ilca at megalink.com>
Subject:  Spanish/Uru-Chipaya and Descriptive Ling: Doctoral Student, DOBES

-------------------------------- Message 1 -------------------------------

Date:  Mon, 2 Feb 2004 17:21:56 -0800
From:  ILCA <ilca at megalink.com>
Subject:  Spanish/Uru-Chipaya and Descriptive Ling: Doctoral Student, DOBES


Doctoral level student in descriptive linguistics needed for the
project:

"A multimedia description of Uru-Chipaya language and culture in its
territorial setting (Peru and Bolivia)"

in the DOBES "Documentation of Endangered Languages Project" financed
by the Volkswagen Foundation (Germany), in collaboration with the Max
Planck Institut (Nijmegen, Holland).


The Instituto de Lengua y Cultura Aymara, "ILCA", La Paz, Bolivia, an
NGO and research institution, working in collaboration with the
Universidad de la Cordillera, La Paz, seeks a linguistics student at
doctoral level to collaborate on a linguistic description of
Uru-chipaya language, as it is presently spoken by some 1800 speakers
in Chipaya and surrounding communities (prov.  Atawallpa, dept. Oruro,
Bolivia). The student might use this opportunity for work on a
doctoral thesis research that could articulate directly with, and
contribute to our project goals.


Project details

This study forms part of the project "A multimedia documentation and
description of uru-chipaya language and culture in its territorial
setting (Peru and Bolivia)" in the DOBES "Documentation of Endangered
Languages Project" financed by the Volkswagen Foundation (Germany) in
collaboration with the Max Planck Institut (Nijmegen, Holland). The
ILCA team co-directs this project with colleagues at the University of
Bonn, Germany, the German-Bolivian team being one of several working
on endangered languages in different parts of the world. For more
information see the DOBES site at: http://www.mpi.nl/DOBES and the
ILCA site: http://www.ilcanet.com (under Uru-Chipaya project).

The main project phase begins around May 2004, and lasts for around 2
years. During this period, the student will form part of a
multidisciplinary team (native Uru-Chipaya and Aymara speakers,
students, anthropologist, multimedia technician) based at
ILCA-Cordillera, and working in collaboration with colleagues in
Germany and Holland, in research planning, fieldwork and data
collection, documentation, linguistic transcriptions, analysis of
results, transference of data to data bases (in English, Spanish and
Uru-Chipaya), and the writing up of periodic project reports. The
project aims to prepare a comprehensive descriptive corpus grammar,
and a pedagogical grammar for speakers, with supporting studies of
linguistic typology, lexicon/semantics, morphology, syntax and
discourse (pragmatics), as well as sociolinguistic surveys. Periodic
workshops in Holland will coordinate project and new technological
advances with other teams.

Our current working relations with Uru-Chipaya communities in Bolivia,
supported by the VW project ethics, demand a high degree of
collaboration with native speakers, rather than the application of
extractive methods. Speakers also control the production and use of
project materials. This entails the training of native-speakers in a
series of workshops in linguistic methods and practice, and in
linguistic and cultural documentation, and the student should
participate in these aspects of the study. Doctoral thesis material
should be shared with the community members at some stage, so a
Spanish translation of key thesis results should be considered.


Requirements

The student should ideally be a fluent Spanish speaker with some
experience working under the conditions in Latin America, and with
Amazonian and/or Andean languages (recording languages are Spanish and
Aymara). He/she should have a high level of training in descriptive
linguistics, and linguistic typology, and a proficiency and interest
in extended periods of fieldwork in rural areas. The project's demand
for a high level of language and cultural documentation in multimedia,
means that the student should have a sound knowledge of the latest
developments in language technology, with an emphasis in digital sound
and visual quality, and its use in phonetics/phonology research and
regional efforts to revive the language (Praat, Transcriber, Shoebox,
Advanced glossing, etc.).

ILCA offers the doctoral student an institutional affiliation with
university status in Bolivia, basic accomodation and modest fieldwork
and living costs in La Paz, and office and library facilities
(computer, e-mail/Internet, use of digital video, cameras, etc.). The
Universidad de la Cordillera also has an excellent up-to-date library
of 35,000 titles.

Write for further details, enclosing a current CV and thesis
interests, to:

Dra. Denise Y. Arnold (Project Co-director)
Prof. Juan de Dios Yapita (Director ILCA)

Instituto de Lengua y Cultura Aymara, ILCA
Casilla 2681
La Paz,
Bolivia,
Sud América


E-mail: ilca at megalink.com
Telf: (00 591 2) 2 396806
Fax: (00 591 2) 2 396815

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