Documentation and analysis of Andamang Chini

The Endangered Language Documentation Programme (ELDP) provides grants worldwide to for the linguistic documentation of endangered language and knowledge. Grantees create multimedia collection of endangered languages. These collections are preserved and made freely available through the Endangered Languages Archive (ELAR) housed at the library of SOAS University of London.

Chini is an undocumented and severely endangered language of the Ramu family spoken by about 75 people in inland Madang Province, Papua New Guinea. Most Ramu languages are undocumented and endangered. This project includes six months of fieldwork and another six months of digitization, annotation, and analysis in order to: construct a corpus of the Andamang dialect of Chini; enhance community pride in the language; contribute to a doctoral dissertation on a topic in Chini grammar of importance to linguistic theory; and increase our understanding of the typological characteristics of and historical relationships between the languages of the Sepik-Ramu region. Primary investigator: Joseph Brooks

Project Details


Location: Papua New Guinea, Melanesia, Oceania Organiser(s): Endangered Languages Documentation Programme Project partner(s): University of California, Santa Barbara Funder(s): Arcadia Funding received: £9,479.00 Commencement Date: 01/2009
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