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Usama Soltan - nobody@example.net — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 21:17:30 -0400

Introduction and Resources

In the Language Adoption Project, you're supposed to study a language of your choice, as long as the language is unfamiliar or endangered. There's plenty of these out there, so you shouldn't have trouble finding one. The goal of the project is for you to get to know a language that you haven't known much about before, and apply some of the concepts and analytical tools we discussed in class to that language to test our theory of grammar. For example, you'll need to find out which of the parameters we will talk about are relevant to your adopted language, and whether the langauge presents challenges to the theory we've been proposing. Of course, you're also expected to give some basic information about the language, where it is spoken, by how many speakers. if it's endangered, etc. A link to some guidelines questions for the LAP is given below. THE LAP IS DUE MAY 8th by 1pm. PLEASE LEAVE IT IN MY MAILBOX IN FARRELL HOUSE.

A good resource on languages of the world which I mentioned in class is the “The world atlas of language structures”, which is available in the main library at the Main Atlas Case G1046.E3 W6 2005.

An extensive list of languages and assoicated descriptive grammars is available here:

http://linguistics.buffalo.edu/people/faculty/dryer/dryer/atlas.bib

A shortened list that I created from online resources is available here.

Also, the catalogue I had in class is available online here: https://ssl.kundenserver.de/www.s83009615.einsundeinsshop.de/sess/utn;jsessionid=15452e7b540df1d/shopdata/index.shopscript

As you can see there’s no shortage of languages to work on; just make sure you choose an unfamiliar or endangered language. If you’re not sure if a language is suitable for the LAP, check with me first.

Also try to do some basic online search on the language you initially choose, and see if it interests you still.

LAP guideline questions

Here's a list of some guideline questions that you might want to consider when looking at your LAP language. Some of the questions will be relevant, some will not. Since you're all working on different languages, different aspects of morphological and syntactic typology will arise, but the list should at least give you an idea of what you are expected to be looking for regarding your LAP language.

LAP groups and languages

	Name of Student	LAP language
	Johanna Interian	Basque (Isolate)
	Tim Murray	Ket (Yeniseian)
	Kristian Shaw	Seneca (Iroquoian)
	Alyona Chernova	Georgian (Kartvelian)
	Dana Walters	Irish (Celtic)
	Lindsey Dattels	Tahitian (Austronesian)
	Margaret Kim	Shoshone (Uto-Azetcan)
	Rowan Kelner	Eastern Punjabi (Indo-Aryan)
	Katie Cyr	Ainu (Isolate)
	Tenzing Sherpa	Swahili (Bantu)
	Melissa Hayes	Piraha (Mura)
	Ava Kerr	Farsi (Indo-Iranian)
	Edwin Suh	Latvian (Baltic)
	Ross Berriman	Finnish (Uralic)
	Dana Harris	Samoan (Austronesian)
16.	Joseph Stern	Yiddish (Germanic)
17.	Abe Katz	Lakota (Siouan)
18.	Cary Palmisano	Fijian (Austronesian)
19.	Jesse Bluestein	Guarani (Tupi)
20.	John Gill	Yoruba (Niger-Congo)
21.	Gharri Lewis	Zulu (Niger-Congo)
22.	Lydia Michellson	Mozarabic (Romance with Arabic influences)
23.	Earl Atta-Fynn	Akan (Niger-Congo)

Language Adoption Project - Content

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