IPF0426: A comprehensive documentation of Talamancan Bribri (Chibchan, Costa Rica)
Abstract
This postdoctoral project, financed by the Endangered Languages Documentation Programme (ELDP, https://eldp.net/), aims at the creation of a comprehensive corpus of the two Talamancan dialects of Bríbri, an endangered language spoken in the Costa Rica-Panama border area. Bribri is a tonal, ergative Chibchan language. Linguistic research will be focused on its ergativity and the expression of information structure.
The language varieties to be researched during this project are those spoken in the towns of Kachabri, Coroma and Amubre (cp. Jara Murillo, 2004a). According to the 2011 census data, there are only about 5,000 speakers living in and around this area (INEC, 2011).
During this documentation project, which runs from late 2024 to late 2026, video recordings in various naturalistic settings will be gathered and will be complemented with documentation of spontaneous speech, different genres of oral tradition, culturally-relevant sites, etc., as requested by the communities involved. The resulting multimedia collection will be deposited with ELAR (Endangered Languages Archive, https://www.elararchive.org/), as per their Licensing Agreement.
Literature cited:
Jara Murillo, Carla Victoria. 2004. Observaciones para el estudio dialectológico de la lengua Bribri. Estudios de Lingüística Chibcha XXIII. 89-120.
Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos de Costa Rica (INEC). 2011. X Censo Nacional de Población y VI de Vivienda 2011 Resultados Generales.
Principal investigators
Financer
Other international foundations
Duration of project
Start date: 12/2024
End date: 11/2026
