Dr. George Aaron Broadwell
How do you start to describe and understand the grammar of a language which is completely unfamiliar to you? In this course, we work on transcribing, recording, and analyzing data from a language which is new to all of us, using the best currently available software for language documentation. Over the course of the semester, we work collaboratively as a group to produce a preliminary documentation of the lexicon, phonology, morphology, and syntax of this language. This course is taught in cooperation with a language consultant who will come to our class meetings and meet with students outside of class to provide linguistic data. Because the amount of linguistic data gathered in class and in outside sessions will quickly become enormous, this course also focuses on data-management and organizational skills in language documentation.
A prerequisite for this course is two prior courses in linguistics or permission of the instructor.