Documentation of Kanamari Language and culture

Stefan Dienst, Johann Wolfgang Goethe University

Project Details:

Individual Postgraduate Fellowship. Duration: 2010-2012. £112,982

Project Summary:

Kanamari (knm) is a language of the Katukinan family spoken by 2,000 people in Brazil’s Amazon region (7°3'30"S 69°41'30"W). This documentation will include audio and video recordings, especially of threatened traditional events, with transcriptions and annotations, and a Kanamari-Portuguese-English dictionary. The data will be archived with ELAR and the Goeldi Museum in Belém, Brazil. The project will provide a phonetic description and a phonological analysis of the language, necessary for an adequate orthography, much desired by the speakers, who will be trained in this orthography, which will also be used for the transcription of the recordings.