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Documenting the Burushaski language: Issues in data collection, transmission, preservation, and revitalization
No full textAs globalization increases so does the loss of world languages. Two most common reasons for language endangerment are: (1) there are few living native speakers, and (2) many children do not learn the language of their parents because other languages are considered more helpful or powerful. While the first scenario leads to rapid extinction, the second scenario, quite common in South Asia and the developing world, leads to slow language attrition and eventual death. The two types of endangered languages are under pressure to differing degrees and in different ways in relation to language maintenance. Many linguists across the world are seeking to document and preserve the so-called “endangered” languages. Taking advantage of the latest state-of-the-art technologies, documentary linguists are making efforts towards documenting and recording oral and written linguistic traditions, translating and annotating documentation materials, compiling grammatical descriptions and dictionaries, and preparing pedagogical materials for language teaching/learning for the ethnic population which claims ownership of the language. The aim of this paper is to discuss the various steps, methods, and challenges in the documentation and revitalization of Burushaski – a linguistic isolate spoken by about 90,000 people in Gilgit, Pakistan (Ethnologue 2005), and (by approximately 300 speakers) in Srinagar, India (first author 2006). Burushaski is primarily orally-preserved and literacy in the native language is practically zero. Its survival is greatly threatened by multilingualism and language shift. Documentation efforts have been conducted by western scholars, but because their publications are mostly in foreign languages (Berger 1974-1998, Tiffou 1999), they are inaccessible to Burushos who are (mainly) literate in Urdu – the prestigious language. Recently, some Pakistani scholars have produced pedagogical materials for the promotion of Burushaski but, because of limited resources and lack of training, such efforts are yet to produce substantial results. Awaiting official standardization, local rivalries have also resulted in a number of competing writing systems. Burushaski is spoken in a socio-culturally conservative and a politically volatile region and documentation efforts by non-natives encounter many obstacles. Presenting a progress report of an ongoing project (starting 2003), this paper examines the various issues in documenting Burushaski, such as: initial encounters in encouraging community participation; social, cultural, political, and financial obstacles in data collection; effective use of information technologies without disrupting community traditions; and different challenges in revitalization efforts. To meet the various project goals, we propose steps in developing an integrated framework sensitive to the issues unique to this particular situation
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Sadaf Munshi Collection
No full textRecording of Piar Karim translating the recipes for nagere šarbat, ɣumaldi, and burus ṣapik given by Ruqayya from Nagar Burushaski to Urdu
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Sadaf Munshi Collection
No full textRecording of Ruqayya sharing a recipe for “Shuwanchale Hoi”, or a Vegetables, in the Nagar dialect. The leafy green is blanched, then drained, and cooked in oil with green onion, coriander, and green peppers
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No full textRecording of Laila Khan reciting a series of situational jokes in the Hunza dialect of Burushaski
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Middle Voice Construction in Burushaski: From the Perspective of a Native Speaker of the Hunza Dialect
Full text linkThis study is about voice system in Burushaski, focusing especially on the middle voice (MV) construction. It claims that the [dd-] verbal prefix is an overt morphological middle marker for MV constructions, while the [n-] verbal prefix is a morphological marker for passive voice. The data primarily come from the Hunza dialect of Burushaski, but analogous phenomena can be observed in other dialects. This research is based on a corpus of 120 dd-prefix verbs. This research has showed that position {-2} on the verb template is occupied by voice-marker in Burushaski. The author argues that the middle marker is a semantic category of its own and that it is clearly distinguished from the reflexive marker in this language. The analysis of the phenomenon in this study only comes from the dialect of Hunza Burushaski, so a lot of research remains to be done on the other three dialects of Burushaski: Yasin dialect, Nagar dialect and Srinagar dialect
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Sadaf Munshi Collection
No full textRecording of Ruqayya sharing a recipe for “Mulo SHuro” in the Nagar dialect. Mulo Shuro is a turnip pizza, where minced turnip is mixed with minced meat, and they are fried and baked into patties
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No full textRecording of Wazir Shafi translating the story of Saada Chinan from the Yasin dialect of Burushaski into Urdu
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Sadaf Munshi Collection
No full textRecording of Ruqayya sharing a recipe for “Ghulmaldi”, a yoghurt dip made for covering thin bread and butter. This is told in the Nagar dialect
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No full textRecording of Ghulamuddin Hunzai translating the story Wahdate Shaan into Urdu
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Personal Narratives and Accounts
No full textRecording of Ghulam Haider reciting a traditional narrative in the Hunza dialect of Burushaski
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