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Language Documentation and Archiving for Northeast Indian Languages
This is an accelerated course for community language documenters, language revivalists, folklore and oral literature specialists, digital archivists, and linguists interested in the documentation and description of the languages of the Tibeto-Burman family. The curriculum provides training to take a digital object from its creation to a structured archival package such that it can be readily ingested in a state-of-art digital archive. The four modules involve hands-on activities which will result in a documentary language collection that is ready for archiving and use by communities and researchers.
Format: hybrid; sessions in-person or via ZOOM
10 sessions, 2 hours each of class time; 10 sessions, 2 hours each of lab time
Office hours once per week to address questions
| Date | Lead | Topic | Objectives | Readings and Assignments |
| March 25 | Prof. Ramesh C Gaur | Inaugural | Introduce the Certificate course
Book release of CoRSAL occasional publications Introduce Tetso College (Principal Khing) Introduce the resource persons (ShobhanaChelliah will lead) MS, IGNCA, Chief Guest |
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| 26 March | MB, SLC | Introduction; Creating a language collection; Facilitating the creation of a regional or community repository | To use a language documentation kit for audio and video recording
To understand what to collect and why To understand project file management vs. archival file management To explore repositories for archiving To understand legal and ethical considerations for collection of and access to indigenous materials To understand the difference between archiving repositories and websites |
Collaborative Language Archiving Curriculum Module 1 and 2 |
| 27 March | MH | Installing software | To familiarize with technologies for processing and providing intellectual access to data,
To review installation process of KeyMan, SayMore, and Flex.
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Why Language Documentation Matters Chapters 1-2
Collaborative Language Archiving Curriculum Module 2 |
| 29 March-02 April | MB | Data management and metadata creation | To understand the basic types of metadata
To learn how to use a metadata editor To understand additional metadata needs for archive users To use software (SayMore) to manage your files |
Why Language Documentation Matters Chapters 3-4
Collaborative Language Archiving Curriculum Module 3 |
| 05-09 April | SLC | Making materials accessible for use: transcription | Transcribing connected text. Discuss the uses of connected text for language revitalization, pedagogy, and description. Set up and transcribe using SayMore. Discuss IPA versus practical orthography, introduce KeyMan. | From Source to Analysis, Chapter 1
Curriculum Module 3 |
| 11-15 April | MH, BH, SLC | Making materials accessible for use: word lists | Flex install and review of basic features. Practice adding words through “collect words”. Discuss semantic domains and rapid word collection. Add through Lexicon edit. Discuss fields and dictionary formats. Swipe in words from existing databases. Adding video, audio, and images. File naming and data management for these resources.
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From Source to Analysis, Chapter 2 |
| 19-23 April | SLC, BH | Making materials accessible for use: Translation | Translating words, translating clauses. Annotating connected text. Use FLEx Texts baseline. Discuss what constitutes a clause and determines a line. Discuss punctuation versus diacritics. Discuss standardization of orthography for analysis (word breaks and representing allomorphy on the baseline). | Collaborative Language Archiving Curriculum Module 4
From Source to Analysis, Chapter 3 |
| 26-30 April | BH, SLC | Making materials accessible: morphological annotation | Prepping for annotation. What to read, how to create lists of abbreviations, what to understand about grammar of related languages. What are the major categories? What kinds of morphology will you encounter? What zones should you expect? Create your own lists and possible abbreviations. Pass one of glossing – Using the Gloss tab, enter lexeme glosses and free translations; discuss word net hierarchies, discuss translations quagmires. Discuss functional: semantic glossing. Discuss what is ready for archiving, metadata needed, file naming | From Source to Analysis, Chapter 4-6 |
| 03 -07 May | MD, SLC | Disseminate your corpus: Use the corpus | Writing a guide to your IGT. Applying Leipzig Glossing Rules principles and implementation. Discuss hierarchical glossing rules principles and implementation. Use your corpus: Discuss uses of the corpus for dictionary creation and grammatical description. Use the Concordance feature. Using examples for grammatical discovery. Moving example to a text document. Discuss how to cite your corpus. | From Source to Analysis, Chapter 7-8 |
| 10-14 May | MD, SLC, MH | Disseminate: IGT collections at CoRSAL | .Format, front matter, agreements, the final look | Languages of the Barak Valley |
| 17-21 May | team | Closing ceremony | Where to from here… |
Texts: Chelliah, Shobhana. (2021). Why Language Documentation Matters. Springer Briefs in Linguistics. Dordrecht: Springer Academic Press.
Chelliah, Shobhana and Samson Lotven. 2021. From Source to Analysis: A fieldworker’s guide to annotation. UNT open books.
Computational Resource for South Asian Languages. (2020). Collaborative Language Archiving Curriculum. Retrieved [03 02 2023] from https://corsal.unt.edu/curriculum.
Haokip, Pauthang; Chelliah, Shobhana Lakshmi (series editor); Burke, Mary & Heaton, Marty (volume editors). Annotated Texts of the Languages of the Barak Valley: Thadou, Saihriem, Hrangkhol, Ranglong, book, 2021; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1808476/: accessed February 11, 2022), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu.