Omaha and Ponca Digital Dictionary

Recipient: Awakuni-Swetland, Mark Joseph (Lincoln, NE 68588-0368 USA) in affiliation with University of Nebraska, Lincoln (Lincoln, NE 68588 USA)

Goal: The preparation of an online dictionary of Omaha and Ponca, mutually intelligible Siouan languages spoken in Nebraska and Oklahoma.

Description: The project would create a comprehensive dictionary of Omaha and Ponca at a time when there are only a few dozen elderly fluent speakers. Data would be drawn from archival and published documents from nearly a dozen sources. The largest source is an unpublished word list compiled by ethnologist James Owen Dorsey in the late nineteenth century, which includes approximately 20,000 entries written in a complicated orthography. All materials would be digitized and transcribed into the contemporary orthographies used by tribal members and educators. The dictionary would be in a Structured Queried Language database that conforms to standards promulgated under the Electronic Metastructure for Endangered Languages Data. Omaha has a complex verbal morphology with the possibility of multiple affixes. All words, especially verbs, would be analyzed to determine their roots, their appropriate placement in the dictionary, and which affixed forms should be included. The dictionary would contain a brief grammatical sketch, including a description of the phonemes of the language, its major phonological and morphological patterns, and an outline of sentence structure. This project would make freely available to native communities, students, and researchers a vast collection of Omaha and Ponca language.

Grant: 191639 / PD-50007-08,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Program: Documenting Endangered Languages - Preservation,   Year Awarded: 2008

Documenting Plains Apache: Fieldwork, Archives, and Database

Recipient: O'Neill, Sean (Norman, OK 73019 USA) in affiliation with University of Oklahoma, Norman

Goal: Fieldwork on the grammar, lexicon, and storytelling traditions of the Plains Apache, speakers of an endangered Athabaskan language in Oklahoma. The project would result in a database, which would be used to produce a dictionary and a collection of texts.

Description: This project would produce new material on Plains Apache, a scarcely documented Athabaskan language formerly known as Kiowa-Apache. The original homeland of the Athabaskan family most likely lies in northwestern Canada and Alaska (where the bulk of the languages are spoken today), suggesting a one-time southward migration of the ancestors of the present-day speakers of Plains Apache. When working with a group of closely related languages, it is often possible to reconstruct earlier forms of speech by studying minute differences that have arisen in each of the daughter languages, because each language preserves the material in a slightly different way. Since Plains Apache is the most divergent member of the Apachean branch of Athabaskan, new material on this language variety would play a vital role in reconstructing the prehistory of the Athabaskan-speaking peoples. From another perspective, the speakers of Plains Apache have been in close contact with neighboring Kiowa speakers for well over 100 years, and it would be interesting to assess the degree of influence between these languages. Because the vast majority of the speakers are elderly, this work is urgent. First, I plan to elicit new material on the grammar, lexicon, and storytelling traditions of Plains Apache in order to expand and complete its existing documentation. Second, I would combine the new data with existing archival materials in a database, from which a series of publications would be produced, including a practical dictionary for the tribe, an analytical lexicon with extensive grammatical information, and a collection of narrative texts. Graduate students and a community speaker would be trained in both fieldwork and database construction.

Grant: 191640 / PD-50008-08,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Program: Documenting Endangered Languages - Preservation,   Year Awarded: 2008

Kinyarwanda-Swahili-English Dictionary on the Kamusi Model

Recipient: Gould, Mica (Grambling, LA 71245 USA) in affiliation with Grambling State University

Goal: Development of a Web-based trilingual dictionary for Kinyarwanda, Swahili, and English. The two African languages are widely spoken in East and Central Africa. Online collaboration tools would facilitate lexicographical work and allow users to propose additions, subject to editorial approval.

Description: The Project will develop a Kinyarwanda-Swahili-English internet based trilingual dictionary.

Grant: 189845 / PW-50143-08,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Program: Humanities Collections and Reference Resources,   Year Awarded: 2008

Lummi Video Curriculum Project

Recipient: Kinley, Sharon (Bellingham, WA 98226 USA) in affiliation with Northwest Indian College

Description: The Northwest Indian College is committed to providing Native language and culture education. Coast Salish languages are considered highly endangered. Effective language programs are urgently needed. The College is located on Lummi Nation. There are less than ten speakers of the Lummi language. With grant funds, the College's Coast Salish Institute will employ digital technology in the production of 13 videos that teach Lummi language and culture. Print-based curricula will be developed to accompany each video. Educators at Lummi will be coached in the use of the newly created curricula. A two-day, hands-on conference that will be attended by at least 75 language and culture educators from at least 25 tribes will provide an opportunity to share this approach to curriculum development. Coast Salish Institute staff and consultants will work with Language and Culture Departments from other tribes to help them begin to develop similar curricula for their tribe.

Grant: 189576 / AD-50017-08,   Division: Education Programs,   Program: Humanities Initiatives for Faculty: TCUs,   Year Awarded: 2008

Universal Scripts Project

Recipient: Anderson, Deborah Winthrop (Berkeley, CA 94720-2650 USA) in affiliation with University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley, CA 94720 USA)

Goal: Incorporation into the Unicode standard of 15 historical and minority language scripts.

Description: Although computer users in many parts of the world can now communicate using their own native writing systems, there are still at least 40 linguistic minority scripts, and about 40 more scripts of historical importance, that are difficult or impossible to use because they are not yet part of the international character encoding standard, known as Unicode. And because continued corporate interest and support for these scripts is uncertain, communication among the groups who use them, and long-term access to their written cultural and historical resources, is threatened. This project will fund proposals to adopt 9 modern and 6 historical scripts into the standard, and will foster collaboration among scholars, users, and institutions to continue working on more proposals, so that computers will ultimately support all the world's scripts.

Grant: 184585 / PR-50004-07,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Program: Preservation and Access Research and Development,   Year Awarded: 2007

To Sanction, To Give Authority, To Bring to Life: Gi-bugadin-a-maa-goom

Recipient: Belgarde, Nyleta (Mahnomen, MN 56557-0478 USA) in affiliation with White Earth Tribal and Community College (Mahnomen, MN 56557 USA)

Goal: The development of a digital resource to support the preservation and revitalization of the Ojibwe language and culture.

Description: This proposed project involves four partnering institutions who are interested in developing a unique digital resource to support the preservation and revitialization of the Ojibwe language of the Anishinaabeg people of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. The institutions include Itasca Community College (ICC), the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD), the University of Pennsylvania (PENN) - specifically the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, and the White Earth Tribal and Community College (WETCC). This consortium, working together with the faculty at White Earth, will combine state-of-the-art technology with traditional Anishinaabeg ways of knowledge to create a digital archive of stories and artifacts from the community.

Grant: 184626 / AD-50007-07,   Division: Education Programs,   Program: Humanities Initiatives for Faculty: TCUs,   Year Awarded: 2007

The Impact of Academic Podcasting: Emerging Technologies in the Foreign Language Classroom

Recipient: Facer, Betty Rose (Norfolk, VA 23508 USA) in affiliation with Old Dominion University Research Foundation

Goal: A study of the impact of podcasting technology in the teaching of foreign language courses.

Description: The goal of this project is to build upon previous work by the principal investigator to determine if the use of podcasting technology in foreign language courses results in increased pedagogical effectiveness and greater student learning outcomes. The proposed study will examine the academic use of podcasting in beginning to advanced language, literature, and culture courses for the 2007-2008 academic year, including Arabic, German, Italian, Spanish, and Foreign Literatures in English Translation. The evaluation will provide evidence of the benefits of podcasting for foreign language instruction for publication in professional journals to promote the widespread adoption of strategies and materials developed by the project. It will provide evidence that podcasting has measurable instructional benefits. This will be used in subsequent studies that will scale up the use of new instructional practices to other courses that proved to be most successful for academic podcasting.

Grant: 186663 / HD-50088-07,   Division: Digital Humanities,   Program: Digital Humanities Start-Up Grants,   Year Awarded: 2007

Endowment for Arabic Language Study

Recipient: Hungerford, Constance Cain (Swarthmore, PA 19081 USA) in affiliation with Swarthmore College

Goal: Endowment for faculty positions in the teaching of Modern Standard Arabic.

Description: Swarthmore College seeks an NEH Challenge Grant in the amount of $600,000, to be matched (4:1) by $2,400,000 in non-federal funds, to endow a program of language instruction in Modern Standard Arabic. The program will significantly strengthen both Swarthmore’s interdisciplinary Islamic studies program and the College’s distinctive ability to develop in students the knowledge and skills necessary to build common purpose across differences of culture, experience, and ideologies. The new program also will enhance a nascent collaboration in Islamic/Middle Eastern Studies within the Tri-College Consortium, which is made up of Swarthmore and its sister institutions Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges.

Grant: 178915 / CH-50269-06,   Division: Challenge Grants,   Program: Challenge Grants,   Year Awarded: 2006

Universal Scripts Project

Recipient: Anderson, Deborah Winthrop (Berkeley, CA 94720 USA) in affiliation with University of California, Berkeley

Goal: Incorporation into the Unicode standard of 14 historical and minority language scripts.

Description: While the scripts most commonly used today can be viewed and sent electronically over the Internet, those of about 30 linguistic minorities and 60 historical scripts cannot, as they are not included in the international character encoding standard,Unicode. Without a standardized encoding, digital access to texts in these scripts is difficult. Since continued corporate interest is uncertain, access to the written cultural & historical resources of many groups is in danger of being cut off. This project will fund Unicode proposals for 9 modern and 5 historical scripts, and foster collaboration among scholars, users, and institutions to continue work on script proposals so that computers will ultimately support all scripts.

Grant: 174296 / PA-51171-05,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Program: Preservation/Access Projects,   Year Awarded: 2005

Arapesh Grammar and Digital Language Archive

Recipient: Dobrin, Lise M (Charlottesville, VA 22901-2936 USA) in affiliation with University of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA 22903 USA)

Goal: The preparation of a reference grammar of Cemaun Arapesh, an endangered Sepik River language of Papua New Guinea, and the creation of a digital language archive and of a multilingual Web site for educational purposes.

Grant: 176546 / PA-51496-05,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Program: Preservation/Access Projects,   Year Awarded: 2005

The REALIA Project: An Online Public Media Archive for Language Instruction

Recipient: Jansson, Eric (Ann Arbor, MI 78626 USA) in affiliation with Ithaka Harbors, Inc. (New York, NY 10021 USA)

Goal: The development of an online archive of visual materials for teaching foreign languages and cultures.

Grant: 175762 / EE-50205-05,   Division: Education Programs,   Program: Teaching and Learning Resources and Curriculum Development,   Year Awarded: 2005

Smithsonian Cherokee Language Materials and Languages Revitalization

Recipient: Duncan, Barbara R (Cherokee, NC 28719 USA) in affiliation with Museum of the Cherokee Indian

Goal: A project to digitize Cherokee language materials in the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History and to work with Cherokee elders to translate and assess these materials.

Grant: 176545 / PA-51495-05,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Program: Preservation/Access Projects,   Year Awarded: 2005

Hispanic Studies in South Texas

Recipient: Johnson-Vela, Michelle Renee (Kingsville, TX 78363-8202 USA) in affiliation with Texas A & M University at Kingsville

Goal: A year-long series of workshops in Hispanic Studies for faculty from four Texas A&M campuses with the aim of developing a cooperative doctoral program in Hispanic Studies.

Grant: 174273 / HI-50049-05,   Division: Education Programs,   Program: Presidentially Designated Institutions,   Year Awarded: 2005

Reformatting Audio Materials of the Native American Language and Music Archives of the Berkeley Language Center

Recipient: Hinton, Leanne (Berkeley, CA 94720-2650 USA) in affiliation with University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley, CA 94720 USA)

Goal: Digitization and enhanced cataloging of linguistic sound recordings and associated transcriptions with field notes that contain samples of American Indian languages in cultural context, such as music and stories. They will be available on the Berkeley Language Center website and CD-ROM copies.

Description: This project involves the conversion of 1000+ hours of field recordings held at the Berkeley Language Center and thousands of pages of field notes held at the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages to digital format and access to the sound files and images via the Internet or other digital media such as CD-ROM. A web-based catalog of the recordings has already been created and is functional. This proposal would fund the digitization of the collection and the creation of audio files and image files accessible, when appropriate, over the Internet, thereby facilitating access by scholars, Native Americans, and the general public to the linguistic and cultural heritage of more than 100 Native American communities.

Grant: 167998 / PA-50624-04,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Program: Preservation/Access Projects,   Year Awarded: 2004

Creating a Web-based Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America (AILLA)

Recipient: Sherzer, Joel F (Austin, TX 78712 USA) in affiliation with University of Texas, Austin

Goal: The creation of an online database of audio and textual materials related to the indigenous languages of Latin America, many of which are endangered or already extinct.

Grant: 162772 / PA-50182-03,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Program: Preservation/Access Projects,   Year Awarded: 2003

The Art of Teaching Italian Through Italian Art

Recipient: Severino, Roberto (Washington DC, DC 20016 USA) in affiliation with Italian Cultural Society of Washington, DC (Bethesda, MD 20814 USA)

Goal: A four-week institute for 25 high school teachers of Italian to study Italian culture and language through art.

Grant: 165480 / ES-50033-03,   Division: Education Programs,   Program: Institutes for School Teachers,   Year Awarded: 2003

Creating an On-Line Language Lab and Revising Ojibwe Language Curriculum

Recipient: Bisonette, David (Hayward, WI 54843 USA) in affiliation with Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College

Goal: A project to develop a standardized two-year Ojibwe language program based on new audio materials and a curriculum guide prepared in consultation with elders according to proficiency standards of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.

Grant: 119003 / HI-21028-03,   Division: Education Programs,   Program: Presidentially Designated Institutions,   Year Awarded: 2003

Sino-Tibetan Etymological Dictionary and Thesaurus (STEDT)

Recipient: Matisoff, James A (Berkeley, CA 94720 USA) in affiliation with University of California, Berkeley

Goal: The compilation of an etymological dictionary and thematic thesaurus of Proto-Sino-Tibetan, the common ancestor of languages spoken in China, India, and Southeast Asia by over a billion speakers.

Grant: 158350 / PA-24168-02,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Program: Preservation/Access Projects,   Year Awarded: 2002

FLTEACH: A Model for Professional Development and Foreign Language Instruction

Recipient: LeLoup, Jean W (Cortland, NY 13045 USA) in affiliation with SUNY Research Foundation, College at Cortland (Cortland, NY 13045-1265 USA)

Goal: The continuation and expansion of an electronic discussion list and web-based resource which has served foreign language teachers for almost a decade.

Grant: 142086 / ED-22243-02,   Division: Education Programs,   Program: Education Development and Demonstration,   Year Awarded: 2002

Creating an Electronic Database and Dictionary of the Alutiiq Eskimo-English Language

Recipient: Oliverio, Giulia (Fairbanks, AL 99775 USA) in affiliation with University of Alaska, Fairbanks (Fairbanks, AK 99775 USA)

Goal: The creation of a hardbound Alutiiq-English dictionary and an electronic database containing about 9,000 lexical entries of this Eskimo language spoken in Alaska and Siberia.

Grant: 158348 / PA-24162-02,   Division: Preservation and Access,   Program: Preservation/Access Projects,   Year Awarded: 2002