Multidialectal Lexical Documentation of Yaminahua, Nahua, and Sharanahua

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.

This project documents dialectal variation in Yaminahua, Nahua, and Sharanahua, three Panoan languages that form part of a large dialect complex extending across western Brazil, eastern Peru, and northeastern Bolivia. This project documents the four primary varieties spoken in Peru: Yaminahua of the Sepahua river, Yaminahua of the Yurúa river, Nahua (Yora), and Sharanahua. The total speaker population for all varieties is under 1400, and the speaker communities are geographically dispersed and largely shifting to Spanish. This project focuses on the documentation of migration and contact histories and linguistic attitudes toward variation, particularly lexical and phonological variation. Primary investigator: Kelsey Neely

Project Details


Location: Peru, South America, Peru, Peru, Americas, United States of America Organiser(s): Endangered Languages Documentation Programme Project partner(s): University of Texas at Austin Funder(s): Arcadia Funding received: £124,699.00 Commencement Date: 01/2015 Project Status: Active
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