Linguistics Project: Gwen Lowes

An endangered language is being documented, thanks to new technologies and the dedication of a few UO researchers and native speakers

Linguistic graduate student Gwen Lowes was looking for a language to work on. Professor Spike Gildea was looking for a native speaker for his field methods class...

...Bhutan native Pema Chhophyel was looking for a job and a way to make sure his language didn't disappear. When the three came together in Gildea's field methods class in September 2005, good things began to happen for Kurtöp, a language spoken by fewer than 10,000 people in northeastern Bhutan on the southeast slope of the Himalayan Mountains.

When Bhutanese children go to school, they learn Dzongkha, the national language, and English. Dzongkha is a written language spoken by about 130,000 people, most of them in Bhutan. Kurtöp, however, is what linguists call an almost completely undocumented language. Before the field methods class began its work, Kurtöp had no alphabet, no dictionary, no written grammar, no texts at all. Without texts and an alphabet to produce more texts, a language is in danger of disappearing without leaving a record. If it disappears, so will the stories, myths, songs, poetry, and history of its speakers--the entire culture and worldview of a people.

Go to IT Connections for the whole story...