08/21/2008

UK Linguists Collaborate on Documentation of Endangered Language

UK recently hosted three native speakers of Shughni, a minority language spoken by approximately 40,000 people in the Pamir Mountains of eastern Tajikistan and by another 20,000 in Afghanistan. Shughni has no written tradition and is scarcely documented. Because Tajik (a distantly related and mutually unintelligible language) and Russian are the exclusive languages of education, government and the media in Tajikistan, Shughni is considered an endangered language. The three visitors were here to collaborate with members of UK’s Linguistics Program faculty on writing a comprehensive grammar of their language.

With an Arts and Sciences Major Research Grant and additional funding from the English Department, UK’s Linguistics Program brought the three scholars here from Khorog State University in Tajikistan:  they are Dr. Muqbilsho Alamshoev, Dr. Shohnazar Mirzoev, and Ms. Gulnoro Mirzovafoeva. Collaborating with them on the creation of the first-ever grammar of Shughni were four members of the Linguistics Program faculty: Andrew Hippisley and Gregory Stump (both in English) and Mark Lauersdorf and Jeanmarie Rouhier-Willoughby (both in Modern & Classical Languages). Graduate student Amanda Barie and undergraduates James Mastin and Dustin Zerrer were also involved in this project.

The project was also featured in the Lexington Herald-Leader. Click here to read.