9306363 Hudak This project seeks to compile, edit and publish data from fourteen (14) hitherto undescribed or poorly described languages and geographical dialects of the Tai language family (Red Tai, Black Tai, White Tai, Shan, Western Nung, Nung, Lue, Tho dialects, and Guangxi dialects). The original data were collected and transcribed by William J. Gedney in the 1960s and 1970s in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Thailand, and Laos. Refugees from Burma, China, and northern Vietnam served as informants. The field data obtained consist of extensive wordlists and texts that include folktales, songs, proverbs, poetry, and sentences. For the data comprising the lexicon, it will be necessary to extract each recorded item and check its accuracy, looking for inconsistencies and errors in transcription. In many cases, tones will need to be identified and numbered. The second step will be to index and organize the lexicon into glossaries with consistent alphabetical lists. At the present time, the data for the lexicon exists in a variety of different stages: some are recorded in the original field notebooks; some have been recorded on individual file cards for indexing and alphabetizing; and some are in texts still to be extracted. None has been checked for accuracy. Entries may already have glosses in English, but many have definitions written in Thai. Some have no definitions at all. For each text, the same steps in checking for accuracy must be followed In addition, individual English glosses must be added along with free translations. The expected outcome of this project is a series of three monographs that will complete the publication of Gedney's unpublished field notes. Of these three volumes, one will be devoted to the Lue language (1200 pp. est.), one to Southwestern Tai dialects (500-600 pp. est.), and one to Central Tai dialects (500-600 pp. est.). Each monograph will contain an extensive glossary; texts with interlinear and free translations; and an introductio n that discusses the geographical location and name of each language or dialect, a description of the phonology and syntax, sociolinguistic features, and a discussion of the field methodology employed. The information presented in the three published monographs will be significant on several levels: it will add important new dimensions toward a reconstruction of the history and evolution of the Tai language family; it will help illuminate the relationship of Tai languages to other languages of southeastern and eastern Asia, potentially unifying the number of hypotheses regarding the language groupings in this area; it will provide important sources of data for the study of Tai syntax and discourse; it will be of value to many research problems in general comparative linguistics; and it will provide rich cultural resources pertaining to small ethnic groups whose traditional lifeways are rapidly changing and disappearing.
