OLAC Record oai:sinica.edu.tw:Formosan

Metadata
Title:		Academia Sinica Formosan Language Digital Library
		Academia Sinica Formosan Language Archive
Contributor:		National Science Council
		Institute of Linguistics, Preparatory Office, Academia Sinica
Contributor (consultant):		Lu Yu-zhi
Contributor (transcriber):		leeve kazaalae
		Elizabeth Zeitoun
		John Kinshnieck
		Hui-chen Yu
Coverage:		TGN: Chung-hua Min-kuo (nation)
		Taiwan
Date Available:		2001, December
Date Created:		1992
Date Modified:		1992-2001
Description:		The Formosan languages belong to a widespread language family called "Austronesian", which include all the languages spoken throughout the islands of the Pacific and Indian Ocean (Madagascar, Indonesian, the Philippines, Taiwan, New Guinea, New Zealand, Hawaii and the islands of Micronesia, Melanesia and Polynesia). A few languages are found in the Malay peninsula and in the Indo-Chinese peninsula (Vietnam and Cambodia). The Formosan languages exhibit very rich linguistic diversity and the variations that oppose different dialects/languages are enormous. These languages are extremely useful in comparative work but though they have been known to be on the verge of extinction for years, Formosan languages, Formosan linguistics as a specific field has bloomed only very recently, with the participation of more scholars adopting different contemporary linguistic approaches to investigate individual languages or establishing cross-linguistic comparisons. Unlike Chinese, the Formosan languages do not have any writing system and the lack of written records dampen our knowledge of extinct languages. Today, while elders are still able to speak their mother tongues fluently, the young cannot, as a result of migration in the cities and the prevalence of Mandarin Chinese in every day life. We are currently making attempts to record and maintain these languages but we believe that collecting and/or editing existing texts (sentences, textbooks, folktales, narratives) in a digital format constitute the most precious legacy for future generation. In order to achieve our goal, we hope that more people will devote to the study of the Formosan languages and integrate our project. The Formosan Language Archive contains: (i) texts, (ii) a geographical information system and (iii) four databases on related publication. 1. Texts: During the first year project, we have drawn the emphasis on Rukai, a Formosan language which stretches across the south of Taiwan and includes six different dialects (Mantauran, Maga, Tona, Budai, Labuan and Tanan). We provide a search system that enables users to choose one of these dialects and download recorded texts. Each text is divided into sentences and every sentence is translated in both Chinese and English. Glosses allow users to understand the meaning of each word. Users can also listen to the pronunciation of each sentence through the recorded sound file. Every word is analyzed and each morpheme separated by a hyphen. Search permits to understand the use of the various affixes that occur in the language and the lexical category of each word. Currently information on the Mantauran dialect can be searched online. 2. Geographical Information System:The geographical information system permits a search of basic lexical items in the Formosan languages and an identification of cognates and non-cognates and their mapping onto the map of Taiwan. 3. Related Publications:In the past few months, we have constructed four databases that permit publication queries pertaining to: linguistics, language teaching, literature and music.
		http://www.ling.sinica.edu.tw/formosan/en/default.htm
		http://www.ling.sinica.edu.tw/formosan/ch/default.htm
Format:		Duration: 737 minute. MP3 file.
		We have drawn the emphasis on Rukai, a Formosan language which stretches across the south of Taiwan and includes six different dialects (Mantauran, Maga, Tona, Budai, Labuan and Tanan).
Identifier:		http://www.ling.sinica.edu.tw/formosan/
Language:		English; en-us
		Mandarin Chinese; x-sil-CHN
Language (ISO639):		eng
		cmn
Publisher:		http://www.ling.sinica.edu.tw/
		Academia Sinica
		Institute of Linguistics, Preparatory Office Academia Sinica
		http://www.sinica.edu.tw/
References:		http://www.sinica.edu.tw/SinicaCorpus/
		Academia Sinica Balanced Corpus of Modern Chinese
		http://www.sinica.edu.tw/Early_Mandarin/
		Academia Sinica Tagged Corpus of Early Mandarin Chinese
Rights:		Copyright 2001 Institute of Linguistics (Preparatory Office), Academia Sinica. All rights reserved.
Source:		Language: Rukai, Dialect:Mantauran,Informant:Yu-zhi Lu, Fieldworker: ElizabethZeitoun and Hui-chuan Lin, Data collected: 1992, 1997-1999 ,Chinese and EnglishTranslations: 1992-2001, Proof-reading and editing: 1999-2001 .The presentvolume aims at narrating the memories of our late Mantauran (Rukai) informant,Lu Yu-zhi, who passed away on May 6, 2000, as they were recorded between August1992 and November 1998, then later edited and revised between January 1999 andMay 2001. The volume is divided into two major parts: the first part consistsof 178 paragraphs translated into Chinese and English with ethnographicillustrations (maps, photos and additional data). The second part providesmorphemic analyses, glosses and linguistic annotations. An index provide a listof major lexical items (derivations are not included, as they will appear inZeitoun c). This work represents the result of years ofcollaboration. Elizabeth Zeitoun began fieldwork on Mantauran (Rukai) in August1992 and later trained Hui-chuan Lin in ethno-linguistics (Sept 1997~), whoeventually published a series of textbooks on Mantauran (Lin 1999). Theinvestigation out of which the present volume grew began as an exploration inthe life of our late informant and the discovery - for both authors - of afascinating world but was not, in the early stages, directed toward the writingof her memories. Two stories - the first on marriage, the second on childbirth- were collected along with other folktales in August 1992 during the veryfirst period of fieldwork on Mantauran. The others were recorded betweenNovember 1997 and November 1998 as short paragraphs to illustrate lexical itemsof the Thematic dictionary (see Lin and Zeitoun 1997) that we were, at thetime, compiling. When it became apparent that these narratives were too longand did not fit into a dictionary, we decided to put them together in aseparate volume where we conserved, however, the major themes that formed thebasis of the Thematic dictionary. We re-organized and edited the data in such away that it could read as a novel. The manuscript was revised and correctedover the years (January 1999 ~ May 2001) but the original (i.e., Mantauran)version was finished, entirely read to Lu Yu-zhi and approved by her during ourlast fieldwork sessions in January 1999.
Subject:		Rukai language
		Dialect Mantauran
Subject (ISO639):		dru
Type:		lexicon: Lexical_categories
		annotation: English_glosses
		annotation: Affixes
		annotation: Chinese_glosses
		transcription: IPA
Type (DCMI):		Sound
		Image
		Text
OLAC Info
Archive:		Academia Sinica Collections
Description:		http://www.language-archives.org/archive/sinica.edu.tw
GetRecord:		OAI-PMH request for OLAC format
GetRecord:		Pre-generated XML file
OAI Info
OaiIdentifier:		oai:sinica.edu.tw:Formosan
DateStamp:		2002-12-14
GetRecord:		OAI-PMH request for simple DC format
Search Info
Citation:		leeve kazaalae (transcriber); Elizabeth Zeitoun (transcriber); Lu Yu-zhi (consultant); John Kinshnieck (transcriber); Hui-chen Yu (transcriber); National Science Council; Institute of Linguistics, Preparatory Office, Academia Sinica. 1992. http://www.ling.sinica.edu.tw/.
Terms:		area_Asia area_Europe country_CN country_GB country_TW dcmi_Image dcmi_Sound dcmi_Text iso639_cmn iso639_dru iso639_eng
Inferred Metadata
Country:		Taiwan
Area:		Asia