Investigating language shift and contact-induced language change

This project supports the documentation, analysis, and revitalization of a language that has undergone significant grammatical change. Grounded in theories of language contact, creole formation, and second language acquisition, the study contributes to our understanding of how languages change and adapt over time. Additionally, all the linguistically annotated texts derived from language documentation projects such as this project create machine-readable infrastructure that is vital for training AI models. The project brings together academic researchers and language stakeholders to document and analyze natural language use, creating educational resources and digital archives, and engages youth in research through training in language documentation and linguistics. This research investigates the structure and evolution of a contact language that has undergone significant grammatical change due to generational shifts and external influences. The project documents forty hours of natural speech through sociolinguistic interviews and linguistic elicitation, which are transcribed, annotated, and analyzed using computational tools. The resulting data feed into an open-access digital corpus. The project advances translational research by transforming theoretical inquiry through collaborative-based research that also supports linguistic vitality. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.