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Show COLLEGE OF HUMANITIES UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH ABSTRACTS Abby Kaplan 44 BILINGUAL AUDIOBOOK IN SOUTHERN PAIUTE AND ENGLISH Chloe Brent (Abby Kaplan) Department of Linguistics University of Utah Southern Paiute, an endangered Uto-Aztecan language spoken in the Southwestern United States, is estimated to have fewer than 100 speakers. In summer 2012,1 worked with Eleanor Tom, a native-speaking elder from the Cedar Band of Paiutes, to create a bilingual children's book (Paiute-English): W h y the Moon Paints Her Face Black: Axanixay Maasahoych-oong Tooqara Paruh-xing. Funding for this project was provided by the Colorado Plateau CESU, and the book was published by Capitol Reef Natural History Association. As the book neared completion, I realized that there was a critical component lacking: audio. A pronunciation key at the beginning of the book helps readers know h o w each symbol should be pronounced, but this is not enough to allow for fluid pronunciation and correct prosody. There's a world of difference between seeing a word written and hearing it spoken. The written version was not enough. For this project, then, funded by the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, I again worked with Eleanor, this time recording her telling the story with a Sennheiser Z o o m H4N and e w 112-p G3 Omni La-valier. Eleanor cannot read Southern Paiute, so I read each line to her and she repeated it. I also recorded myself reading the English version. I next took these audio files and pieced them together using Avid Media Composer. I made two versions: one in Paiute only; the other in both Paiute and English, to follow the format of the book. To indicate the turning of a page, I recorded crows cawing. In an effort to distribute the audio materials, I have contacted the National Park Service and the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah. Discussion with each of these parties is ongoing. There will likely be links on each of their websites to listen to the audio. With funding received from the Second Language Teaching and Research Center, I will also create CDs so the materials can be used without access to the internet. |
