ELDP Data Collection: Some Baram Experiences

Dubi Nanda DhakalTej R atna Kansakar,

Yogendra P rasad Yadava, Balaram Prasain,

K rishna Prasad Chalise, K rishna PoudelLinguistic and Ethnographic

Documentation of the Baram Language

(LEDBL), Tribhuvan University

Nepal

Introduction

Linguistic and Ethnographic Document ation of the Baram Language (LEEBL)

has been supported by Endangered La nguage Documentation Programme (E

LDP), School of Oriental land African St udies (SOAS), University of London an

d hosted by Tribhuvan University, Nepal.

May 2007 to April 2010.

Baram language

- A Tibeto Burman language spoken i n western Nepal.

Census (2001): Speakers 342 Our field survey: Speakers below 5

0 in number. All of them are above 50.

Objectives

CCCCCC Ethnographic profile C CCCCCCCCC CCCCCC CCCC C CC CCCC CC

Fieldwork and setting Fieldwork for data collection began in

November 2007. Baram settlements are scattered at a

distance of a few kilometers Agriculture is their main profession Filled up sociolinguistic questionnaires

which helped identify the language consultants

The language is not used in natural setting.

Data collection

Tried to capture several communicative events following Himmelmann (1998)

Ethnographic topics (Franchetto (2006)

Genres (Lupke 2005) Grammar (Leech and Svartvik 1994) Other possible genres

Inventory of communicative events/genres (based on Him

melmann 1998)

Exclamative Directive Conversational Monological Ritual C CCC C CC Others

Please see at the back of the handout.

Language consultants

Dambar Bahadur Baram Age: 56 Can speak for a long time Has been working with since

December 2007 Very useful in making paradigms

and data elicitation for writing grammar

Dambar Bahadur Baram

Mina Baram

Age:68 Can speak for a long time Texts have coherence A good narrator Has contributed several texts

related to procedural texts, reminiscences etc.

Mina Baram

Tok Man Baram

Age: 64 Speaks relatively for a short time Texts have coherence Has contributed texts related to

myths, folk tales, procedural texts etc.

Tok Man Baram

Tek Bahadur Baram

Age: 68 Speaks relatively for a short time Text has coherence Contributed the texts related to

cultural objects and ritual items/processes

Tek Bahadur Baram

Sample annotated lines

ref 029\ut hai hai ŋə... nidum\ELANBegin 00:01:22.060\ELANEnd 00:01:23.560\ELANParticipant RAM\txd हा�इ हा�इ ङ नि�दुम्\tx hai hai ŋə... nidum\mb hai hai ŋə... ŋi- dum\ge what what GF NPST- find\ft whatever available\ftn जे� जे� पा�इन्छ

\ref 032\ut hm... bən pəsdi lə pəchi lə\ELANBegin 00:01:27.770\ELANEnd 00:01:30.480\ELANParticipant RAM\txd ह्म ब� पास्दि��ल पाछिछ ल\tx hm... bən pəsdi lə pəchi lə\mb hm... bən pəs -di lə pəchi lə\ge GF forest enter -NTVZ PART later PART\ft after entering the forest\ftn ब� पासे� पाछिछ त

Methodology

Direct elicitation (for grammar) Narration Role play Stimuli

Stimuli

Photographs Documentary/films Song clips Questions (Typed on the laptop)

Setting

Controlled (Most sessions were recorded in our field office in Gorkha)

Natural (A few texts were recorded in the field)

We are advised to record the sessions so that the recordings do not have any disturbances.

softwares used

ELAN (3.6.0) Toolbox (1.5.3) Audacity (1.2.6) Adobe Premiere Pro (7.0) IMDI (3.0)

Problems

CCCCCCC CCCCCCCC CCCCCCCCCCC Some texts have no coherence Some texts seem to be translation

of the Nepali texts into Baram C CCCCCCCC CC C CCC CCCCCCCC CCC CCCC

esentatiave corpus.

Genres difficult to record Natural conversation Ritual (language, ritual wailing) Riddles Proverbs Songs Formal genres (announcement,

speech, letters etc.) Some sessions related to grammar

Corpus

We have tried to make our corpus representative in terms of communicative events, genres, grammatical sessions etc.

However, some genres are very rare and difficult to record like natural conversation, ritual language, ritual wailing, proverbs, riddles etc.

Conclusion Make an inventory of communicative

events and genres Wor k wi t h di ff er ent speaker s Make an analysis of the texts of differ

ent speakers Make your sessi ons of moder at e l e

ngth. Recordsome sessi ons r el at ed t o gr ammar

as well.

Language consultants

Thank You