Investigating interaction in two endangered East Tukano languages: Kotiria [gvc] and Wa'ikhana [pir]

FAIN: FN-271117-20

Kristine S. Stenzel
Regents of the University of Colorado, Boulder (Boulder, CO 80303-1058)

Analysis, annotation, and archiving of recordings of interactional dialogue among speakers of the Kotiria and Wa'ikhana languages from the northwestern Amazonian region.

This research will advance analysis of the data resulting from the NSF-DEL-funded project Grammar and multilingual practices through the lens of everyday interaction in two endangered languages in the East Tukano family. This successful project has produced an extensive documentary corpus of everyday interaction and a set of sociolinguistic interviews involving members of the Kotiria (or Wanano) and Wa'ikhana (or Piratapuyo) language communities in the multilingual Vaupes region of northwestern Amazonia. This large collection of primary linguistic and sociolinguistic data provides vital empirical input for more detailed investigations of research questions related to (i) multilingual speech practices and language contact phenomena; (ii) grammatical structures; and (iii) universal and language-particular properties of everyday informal conversation. The proposed work during the fellowship will result in enhanced annotation of recordings (including English translations, interlinear grammatical analysis, and interactional features) and collaborative production of detailed transcripts from which collections of pertinent instances of structures and actions can be drawn for a variety of planned publications. The project will additionally enhance the documentation archive, deposited at ELAR, to make it more searchable and accessible, with all archival materials open access. (Edited by staff)

Associated Products

Parsing particles in Wa’ikhana (Article)
Title: Parsing particles in Wa’ikhana
Author: Barbara Fox
Author: Kristine Stenzel
Author: Nicholas Williams
Abstract: This article analyzes the use of several response particles in face-to-face interaction in Wa’ikhana, an East Tukano language of northwestern Amazonia. Adopting a Conversation Analysis approach, we explore details of each particle, considering their prosodic shapes, the action contexts in which they occur, and their sequential positioning, all crucial to understanding their meanings in interaction. Our analysis shows that Wa’ikhana response particles exhibit both universal and language-particular properties, thus demonstrating the contributions of data from lesser-studied languages to research on language in social interaction, and the value of an interactional approach in the study of under-described, and often endangered, indigenous languages.
Year: 2020
Primary URL: https://revistas.ufrj.br/index.php/rl/article/view/43715
Primary URL Description: Journal site
Access Model: open access
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Revista Linguiʃtica
Publisher: Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Graduate Program in Linguistics

Comparing rural multilingualism in Lowland South America and Western Africa (Article)
Title: Comparing rural multilingualism in Lowland South America and Western Africa
Author: Kristine Stenzel
Author: Friederike Lüpke
Author: Flora Cabalzar
Author: Thiago Chacon
Author: Aline Cruz
Author: Bruna Franchetto
Author: Antonio Guerreiro
Author: Sergio Meira
Author: Glauber Romling Da Silva
Author: Wilson Silva
Author: Luciana Storto
Author: Leonor Valentino
Author: Hein Van Der Voort
Author: Rachel Watson
Abstract: This article explores and compares multilingualism in small-scale societies of Western Africa and Lowland South America. All are characterized by complex and extensive multilingual practices and regional exchange systems established before the onset of globalization and its varying impacts. Through overviews of the general historical and organizational features of regions, vignette case studies, and a discussion of transformative processes affecting them, we show that small-scale multilingual societies present challenges to existing theorization of language as well as approaches to language description and documentation. We aim to bring these societies and issues to the fore, promoting discussion among a broader audience.
Year: 2020
Primary URL: https://nebraskapressjournals.unl.edu/journal/anthropological-linguistics/
Primary URL Description: Journal site
Access Model: subscription
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Anthropological Linguistics
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press

Toward an interactional approach to multilingualism: Ideologies and practices in the northwest Amazon (Article)
Title: Toward an interactional approach to multilingualism: Ideologies and practices in the northwest Amazon
Author: Kristine Stenzel
Author: Nicholas Williams
Abstract: This study examines language ideologies and communicative practices in the multilingual Vaupés region of northwestern Amazonia. Following a comparative overview of the Vaupés as a ‘small-scale’ language ecology, it discusses claims from existing ethnographic work on the region in light of data from a corpus of video-recordings of sociolinguistic interviews and spontaneous everyday conversations. It shows how a practice-based and interdisciplinary approach combining language documentation methodology and ethnographic, structural linguistic, and interactional perspectives can contribute to understanding of macro and micro aspects of multilingualism, thus contributing to future work on the Vaupés, typologies of small-scale multilingual ecologies, and language contact research.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/language-and-communication%20
Primary URL Description: Journal site
Access Model: subscription
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Language & Communication
Publisher: Elsevier

Kotiria ti bu'eare ya'u khĩ'orithu. (Kotiria Pedagogical Grammar) (Book)
Title: Kotiria ti bu'eare ya'u khĩ'orithu. (Kotiria Pedagogical Grammar)
Author: ASEKK
Editor: Kristine Stenzel
Editor: José Galves Trindade
Editor: Miguel Cabral
Editor: Auxiliadora Ferreira Figueiredo
Abstract: Pedagogical Grammar of Kotiria, developed and illustrated by members of the Kotiria language community. Introductory section on the Kotiria people, language, and orthographic conventions, followed by 39 units covering grammatical structures of the language.
Year: 2022
Primary URL: https://issuu.com/home/published/gramatica_pedag_gica_kotiria-2022
Primary URL Description: Independent publishing site
Access Model: open access
Publisher: Museu do Índio/FUNAI
Type: Edited Volume
ISBN: 978-85-85986-7
Copy sent to NEH?: No

Toward an interactional approach to multilingualism: insights from the Vaupés (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Toward an interactional approach to multilingualism: insights from the Vaupés
Author: Kristine Stenzel
Author: Nicholas Williams
Abstract: Small-scale multilingualism has been described as intrinsically different from more well-known polyglossic forms of multilingualism in contemporary urban/globalized societies. In this talk, we take a closer look at one of the better-known cases of small-scale multilingualism: the Vaupés region of northwest Amazonia. In this highly multilingual society, individuals are commonly proficient in multiple indigenous and colonial (now national) languages. Longstanding norms of exogamous marriages, political equilibrium among groups, and language ideology have traditionally supported this individual polylingualism and societal multilingualism. Local ideologies promote one’s father’s language as the primary marker of social identity and ostensibly mandate loyalty to this patrilect. Indeed, some ethnographic accounts argue that such patrilect-based essentialist ideologies are key in shaping some observed linguistic practices, including avoidance of lexical borrowing and restrained displays of multilingual prowess. Nevertheless, little is known about the actual use of multiple languages in everyday interaction, a gap our work seeks to address. We draw on a large corpus of video recordings of informal, everyday interaction collected from 2017-2019, focusing on cases of code-switching and accommodation, long presumed to be either unattested or highly dispreferred. We present evidence for a wider range of multilingual practices in the Vaupés than previously claimed, demonstrating the everyday accomplishment of multilingualism in social interaction. Our analysis and findings call into question the bifurcation of multilingualism into ‘small-scale’ and ‘modern’(?)/’non-small-scale’(?) types. Instead, we argue for the development of a typology of multilingualisms based on empirical analysis of actual multilingual practices in everyday life.
Date: 6/7/2021
Conference Name: Sociolinguistics Symposium 23, Session “Unsettling multilingualism: insights from non-polyglossic communities around the globe”

Taking an interactional approach to multilingualism: insights from the Vaupés (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Taking an interactional approach to multilingualism: insights from the Vaupés
Author: Kristine Stenzel
Author: Nicholas Williams
Abstract: The Vaupés region is recognized as one of Amazonia’s better-known examples of small-scale societal multilingualism, with individuals commonly described as proficient in multiple indigenous and colonial/national languages. Continuing investigation of Vaupes society, however, is revealing a great deal of internal diversity that includes nuanced dynamics involving how individuals from different ethno-linguistic groups use languages as they navigate diverse social contexts. Analyses of language ideology among Tukanoan groups credits the notion of “loyalty” to one’s father’s language as a force shaping broadly purported linguistic practices, including frequent simultaneous or “receptive” exchanges, curtailed lexical borrowing, and generally restrained displays of multilingual prowess. Nevertheless, little is known about the actual use of multiple languages in people’s daily lives, a gap our work seeks to address through investigation of a large corpus of video recordings of informal, everyday interactions among members of Kotiria and Wa’ikhana (East Tukano) communities. We highlight contrasts between what people say they do (or don’t do, or shouldn’t do), focusing primarily on cases of code-switching and accommodation, both long presumed to be either unattested or highly dispreferred language behaviors. We provide empirical evidence for a wider range of multilingual practices than previously claimed for the Vaupés, demonstrating the everyday accomplishment of multilingualism in social interaction.
Date: 6/25/2021
Conference Name: Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America (SALSA XIII), Workshop “Indigenous Multilingualism in Lowland South America”

From being multilingual to doing multilingualism in the Vaupés (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: From being multilingual to doing multilingualism in the Vaupés
Author: Kristine Stenzel
Author: Nicholas Williams
Abstract: The term ‘multilingual’ can describe societies and individuals, as well as characterize communication involving multiple languages or, minimally, deployment of resources that speakers understand to come from different languages. Such deployment by speakers brings multilingualism into life for particular interactional purposes situated in specific social and sequential contexts. Our research examines multilingual practices in relation to explicit and implicit language ideologies in the “small-scale” multilingual Vaupés setting, and our multi-disciplinary approach facilitates direct comparison of language use in diverse multilingual settings, ultimately contributing to an empirically grounded typology of multilingualisms around the world. Our talk and recent work analyzes data from a large corpus of video recordings of sociolinguistic interviews and spontaneous interaction collected in Kotiria and Wa’ikhana communities between 2017-2020. Our findings illustrate the need to distinguish explicit ideologies, observable in “people’s opinions about the languages around them”, from implicit ideologies, “covert systems of beliefs” revealed in actual language use and how these may compete within speakers in different contexts. Excerpts from interviews and informal everyday interactions demonstrate both speaker perspectives on “being multilingual” (often orienting to explicit ideological norms) and their actual behavior “doing multilingualism” through a range of attested and common practices — from monolingual exchanges to cases of code-switching and accommodation — long presumed rare or highly dispreferred. Our analysis and findings pose the question of whether and how multilingualism “on the ground” might actually differ between “small-scale” and other multilingual scenarios and argue that part of the answer depends on empirical investigation — broad documentation of everyday interaction in a variety of multilingual settings — and comparative interactional analysis.
Date: 7/16/2021
Conference Name: Typology of Small-Scale Multilingualism Conference 2 (SSML2)

---