Introduction and Resources
In the Language Adoption Project (LAP), each student will work on an unfamiliar or endangered language, and turn in a double-spaced 8-page report focusing on some particular linguistic aspect of this language.
You can study any 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. You can choose to focus on a particular aspect of the language that most interests you. Of course, you’re also expected to give some basic information about the language, where it is spoken, by how many speakers, whether it’s endangered, etc. A link to some guidelines questions for the LAP can be seen HERE.
Please note that no two LAP projects can be on the same language. Should two students select the same language, choice will be granted on a “first-come, first-serve” basis.
A mandatory one-page LAP proposal is required by November 7th, specifying the language of the LAP and aspects of interest to be studied.
The LAP written report is due Dec 7th by 12noon. PLEASE SUBMIT A HARD COPY, even if you e-mail your LAP.
- Ethnologue: An encyclopedic reference work cataloging all of the world’s 6,912 known living languages.
- 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. The Atlas is also available online here: http://wals.info/
- I also put my personal copy of the Dictionary of Languages on reserve in the library. You may find that useful.
- An extensive list of languages and assoicated descriptive grammars is available here:
- A shortened list that I created from online resources is available HERE.
Also try to do some basic online search on the language you initially choose, and see if it interests you still. Also, do make sure there is enough information about the language to help you undertake the project.
LAP guideline questions
You can see a list of some guideline questions that you might want to consider when looking at your LAP language by clicking HERE. Some of the questions will be relevant, some will not, but the list should at least give you an idea of what you are expected to be looking for regarding your LAP language.