27th Annual Student Research Conference
Language Preservation Project in the Caucasus Region
Kaleb A. Sackett
Dr. Sally Cook, Faculty Mentor
This presentation will focus on language preservation, and specifically the efforts being made to save the endangered language of Tsakhur, a language spoken in Azerbaijan and Dagestan. During a summer field experience internship, I had first-hand experience with both the language and the people who speak it as their mother tongue, in which lexical items were elicited from native speakers, and were cataloged using field linguistics software. Efforts are currently being made to codify Tsakhur, which previously had no written form, in order that its speakers might be able to hold on to their language, which is quickly fading. This language preservation project is in its early stages, and is currently working on developing a dictionary of Tsakhur words, as well as a language primer, to teach children how to be literate in their native tongue. The details of these efforts will be discussed in further detail.
Keywords: language preservation, Caucasus, Tsakhur, dictionary research
Topic(s):Linguistics
Anthropology
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 206-3
Location: VH 1232
Time: 10:00