scipaReviving Endangered Languages
January 25th 2011 04:06
Linguists are trying to revive endangered languages from dying by using the same technology that images fetuses inside the womb of the mother. This time the image will be that of the tongue, the movement is recorded as videos, while the voice recorder records the spoken language concurrently. Amanda Miller is one of them who is actively involved in studying the dying and endangered languages of African origin.
What they analyze using this technique is the phonetics of these endangered languages as to what is being perceived, articulated and organized in different languages, and Miller is from Ohio university and she like others uses this portable technology to study and understand the phonetics or science of African tribal languages.
What they have achieved as a result is the identification of the fastest movements of consonants in the African languages that are not known to the outside world. For now, the sound is being placed in a mixed bag of International Phonetic Alphabet, which is used for comparison with other similar sounds and languages spoken by people of varied origins and languages.
As of now, Miller has investigated around 40 different click consonants based on the airstream, place and manner of articulation. This is going to help to help in making the spoken language as written languages.
The use of ultrasound in linguistics and phonetics is not a new technology but, of the course the purpose and the notion of the study is quite novel. India too is known for such many languages thriving amongst their tribes, I wonder, how many of the phonetics and linguists will be interested in taking up such a kind of study, as is quite riskier in a number of ways!?
What they analyze using this technique is the phonetics of these endangered languages as to what is being perceived, articulated and organized in different languages, and Miller is from Ohio university and she like others uses this portable technology to study and understand the phonetics or science of African tribal languages.
What they have achieved as a result is the identification of the fastest movements of consonants in the African languages that are not known to the outside world. For now, the sound is being placed in a mixed bag of International Phonetic Alphabet, which is used for comparison with other similar sounds and languages spoken by people of varied origins and languages.
As of now, Miller has investigated around 40 different click consonants based on the airstream, place and manner of articulation. This is going to help to help in making the spoken language as written languages.
The use of ultrasound in linguistics and phonetics is not a new technology but, of the course the purpose and the notion of the study is quite novel. India too is known for such many languages thriving amongst their tribes, I wonder, how many of the phonetics and linguists will be interested in taking up such a kind of study, as is quite riskier in a number of ways!?
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