Documentation of Urgently Endangered Tupian Languages

Dennis Moore, Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi/MCT

Project Details:

Major Documentation Project. Duration: 2003-2006. £57,840

Project Summary:

This project aims at the study and documentation of five of the most urgently endangered native languages of Brazil, which have no other possibility for documentation. These languages are: Mondé, Puruborá, Mekens, Ayuru, and Xipaya. These five languages belong to the lesser-known branches of the Tupi family. Only two have received prior intensive research and none has adequate documentation available.

The general objectives are: to salvage the maximum information about the language and about the traditional culture expressed through the language; for the community and for science, making this information widely available while respecting the wishes and rights of the native communities. An ethnographic consultant is included to help collect cultural information. Academic results will include, where feasible, reference grammars, dictionaries, collections of texts, and extensive and varied recordings which will be digitalized and, to the extent which this is possible, annotated using techniques similar to those of the DOBES documentation project.

Ongoing project description:

Practical language materials will be prepared for the communities, as well as copies of the recordings and transcriptions.