| FN-50044-08 | Research Programs: Dynamic Language Infrastructure-Documenting Endangered Languages - Fellowships | Bryant Garrett | Penobscot Language Resource Production and Archiving | 7/1/2008 - 6/30/2009 | $50,400.00 | Bryant | | Garrett | | | | Unaffiliated Independent Scholar | Wellington | ME | 04942 | | 2008 | Linguistics | Dynamic Language Infrastructure-Documenting Endangered Languages - Fellowships | Research Programs | 50400 | 0 | 50400 | 0 |
This project proposes to complete the Penobscot Primer and archive it and other Penobscot research from the NSF-funded "Siebert Stabilization and Archiving Project" at the University of Maine at Orono (UMO). The Penobscot Primer is a visually prompted, digital, interactive multimedia spoken language document. Interdisciplinary cooperation between native people, preeminent Algonquian scholars, the Maine Humanities Council, Colby College, and UMO assisted in the development of this well received beta version. This early version, displayed at the Hudson Museum, UMO, and at the Penobscot's Indian Island School for thirteen years, represents a small fraction of the total fieldwork. Verbiage elicited and recorded in response to visual stimulation of the last Penobscot speaker will be digitized, transcribed, and compiled. The Primer and all additional research, which represents thousands of pages of Penobscot language field notes, audio recordings, and digital files, will be catalogued and transferred to UMO. The intellectual merit of this project lies in its foundation formed through collaborative Native and scholarly research spanning seventy-five years. In addition, the Primer's successful presentation of the Penobscot language, using current technology and following phonemic protocol, allows for culturally framed intellectual study and dissemination. The broader impact resulting from this activity will be the public access to a large body of as yet unpublished Penobscot language information. Placement of this volume of material at the UMO site, which is located adjacent to the Penobscot Indian Reservation, will impact Penobscot studies for generations. (Edited by staff) |