第18回CODHセミナー「マイクロ類型論とデジタルアーカイブ構築：バントゥ諸語と日琉諸語の事例から」2023年1月22日 (日曜日) 18:00-19:00@ 国立情報学研究所1810会議室

Building archives for Bantu languages
and utilizing archival data
バントゥ諸語アーカイブの構築とアーカイ
ブデータの活用について
Seunghun J. Leeseunghun@icu.ac.jp
ICU, UniVen, IITG

Acknowledgements• IRC and ILCAA for digitalarchiving• JSPS for BantuDArc, ReNeLDA

Keita Kurabe (ILCAA)
Daisuke Shinagawa (ILCAA)
BantuDArc
Yuko Abe (Lanzhou)
Cherubin Mugisha (Aizu)
Kumiko Miyazaki (Zanzibar)
ECPPT
Elisabeth Selkirk (UMass)
Emily Elfner (York)
Gorka Elordieta (Basque)• NSF for ECPPT

ReNeLDA
Crous Hlungwani (UniVen)
Kristina Riedeal (UFS)
Hannah Gibson (Essex)

Research assistants
BantuDArc
Kiara Johnson
Chrisanne Tuaño (ECPPT)
Sayaka Manabe
Paris B. Fleming
Rachel Liu
Natsumi Taniguchi
Celine Tuaño
Shigeto Kamano
ReNeLDAHaruka Yamazaki
Kiara Johnson (ECPPT)
Kiho Kato (ECPPT)
Marin Hirano
Michinori Suzuki
Rina Furusawa
2

Field Linguistics and data
• Features of data collected in the field• long recordings of interviews• checking pronunciations, words, sentencestructures, semantics etc.

• notebooks taken during the field sessions• notebook records may or may not follow therecording order• After the fieldwork• digitized lists of materials• needed but often not prioritized over othertasksYi, I., Lake, A., Kim, J., Haakman, K., Jewell, J., Babinski, S., & Bowern, C. (2022). Accessibility, Discoverability, and Functionality: An Audit of andRecommendations for Digital Language Archives. Journal of Open Humanities Data, 8, 10. DOI: http://doi.org/10.5334/johd.593

Digital archive and field data
• Digital archiving (from 15 years +, Yi et al. 2022)• Use open-source software whenever possible (Bird and Simon 2003)• Digital archives with Bantu languages created by collaborations
between IRC (AA-ken; Keita Kurabe, Daisuke Shinagawa) and ICU(Seunghun J. Lee)
1)
2)
3)

Bantu Language Digital Archive (BantuDArc)
Effects of Syntactic Constituency on Phonology and Phonetics of Tone
(ECPPT)
Establishment of a Research Network for Exploring the Linguistic Diversity
and Linguistic Dynamism in Africa (ReNeLDA)
4

Where are the digital archives housed?

Image is Mount Popain Myanmar5

Information Resources Center (IRC)
https://irc.aa.tufs.ac.jp/en/Sample projects

Project types and target languages• Diverse projects are available:• Text• Lexicon• VR matreials• analogue materials, etc.

• Languages• Tuvaluan (Austronesian), Old Tibetan(Tibeto-Burman), Sanskrit (IndoAryan), Mongolian (Altaic) and Ainu
6

Resource creating grant (IRC)• Funds cover• Data processing• Research Assistants• Website creation• Collaboration with web designers• IRC offers• reliable server space (as a nationalinstitute)• data storage• web hosting• IRC grants are unique because• they allow researchers to processmaterials in a sharable format• they allow researchers to share
their materials using reliable andsustainable means• Why are they significant?

• during the course of a grant,reseaerchers may not haveenough time and resources tocreate database for future use
7

Two archives with Bantu languages created asa result of a project• ECPPT (DB Year: 2021)• “Effects of Syntactic Constituency on Phonology and Phonetics of Tone (ECPPT)”,
Division Of Behavioral and Cognitive Science, National Science Foundation(#1147083)(2012-2016) PI: Elisabeth Selkirk, Co-PI: Gorka Elordieta, Seunghun Lee• ReNeLDA (DB Year: 2021)• “Establishment of a Research Network for Exploring the Linguistic Diversity andLinguistic Dynamism in Africa (ReNeLDA)” JSPS's Core-to-Core Program: B. AsiaAfrica Science Platforms (2018-2020) PI: Daisuke Shinagawa, Co-PI: Yuko Abe,Seunghun Lee
8

ECPPT Digital Archive (https://ecppt.aa-ken.jp/)• “Effects of Syntactic Constituency on Phonology and Phonetics of Tone (ECPPT)”, Division OfBehavioral and Cognitive Science, National Science Foundation (#1147083)(2012-2016) PI:Elisabeth Selkirk, Co-PI: Gorka Elordieta, Seunghun Lee• Prosody-syntax interface of Xitsonga, Basque, Irish and Luganda
9

Xitsonga ICULD0022-25

https://ecppt.aa-ken.jp/xitsonga.html

10

Xitsonga ICULD-0022: Words from Cuenod(http://doi.org/10.34577/00004820)• a list of Xitsonga words fromCuenod (1962) that areidentified by a Xitsonga nativespeaker as active vocabulary.

• All words were used by thespeaker• Words that the speaker know butnot use in her daily life were notincluded in this database.
• Information about part of speech,
dictionary tone and number ofsyllables is included.
11Xitsonga ICULD-0024: 2012 data, collected in South Africa
350
F0 (Hz)• Available information:• File names• Xitsonga• English translations

400300250200ni vona timbuti timbirhi.
I see two goats
VDP6-2.wav
MT01107TSO201

400
350
F0 (Hz)(http://doi.org/10.34577/00004822)

300
250200ni vona timbuti timbirhi tikulu.
I see two big goats
VDP12-2.wav
MT01111TSO201

12ReNeLDA Digital Archive• “Establishment of a Research Network for Exploring the Linguistic Diversity and Linguistic
Dynamism in Africa (ReNeLDA)” JSPS's Core-to-Core Program: B. Asia-Africa Science Platforms(2018-2020) PI: Daisuke Shinagawa, Co-PI: Yuko Abe, Seunghun Lee• Morphosyntactic microvariation of six southern Bantu languages
13Northern Sotho(https://renelda.aa-ken.jp/northern_s.html)

40000.5(s)1F0 (Hz)

350
300
250
200
150
bɑ-šomiworkers
NSO-01-P004-04-2

14

Northern Sotho Transcriptions(http://doi.org/10.34577/00004813)

Questionnaire: http://repository.tufs.ac.jp/handle/10108/99960

00.5

1(s)

1.52F0 (Hz)300
250200150re-tlɑ-bon-ɑn-ɑ

gosɑsɑ

We will see each other tomorrow./See you tomorrow.
NSO-01-P040-01-1

15

Southern Ndebele(https://renelda.aa-ken.jp/southern_n.html)

00.5

1(s)

1.5

2

F0 (Hz)150

100

ngubaniodlaumuratha

Who is eating the porridge?
NDE-01-P142-01-2

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Types of archives
Project-based archives(ECPPT, ReNeLDA)

Language Family-based archived(BantuDArc)• Pros• Pros• access data from a project archived ina single location• facilitate comparisons across multiplelanguages of a project• Cons• languages from different languagefamilies• knowledge of the project is required
to be able to search for the archive• multiple languages of a language
family in a single archive• Cons• inclusion of various types of data
• they originate from a diverse set ofprojects

17

Bantu Language Digital Archive(BantuDArc) https://bantudarc.aa-ken.jp/

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ICULD0041-Xitsonga

19

ICULD0041-Xitsonga

20Structure of BantuDArc
Archived files

ICULD0041-Xitsonga-sounds.zip(when unzipped)

...

21

ICULD0041-Xitsonga
Metadata and transcriptions(http://doi.org/10.34577/00005139)

Note: duplicates (e.g., 00002, 00003) are excluded in the
published list only.
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Creation of ICULD-0041(Using Praat and Python scripts)
Original Fieldnotes and recordings• scanned notebook• digitally transcribed files• audio files named by• speaker-page.number-line-repetition• AM10Jan12_1-7• “The item on page 1 line 7 produced byspeaker AM on January 12th, 2010.”

Problem and Solution• Problem• cumbersome file naming• difficult to locate an item

• Solution• Reassign file names:• TSO2010• followed by a 5-digit number• With the transcriptions, the files
are easier to locate.

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Example of an entry• Tiers (from top to bottom)• 1: annotation tier• 2: target language (Xitsonga)• 3: gloss (English)• 4: Item ID (speaker ID – number)• 5: Archive ID• Top tier is included• for syllable or segment-level
analyses in the future24

Access request(https://forms.gle/t6jepEJkaw7GbkqMA)• Request is required to be able to access the sound files.
• Once access is granted, applicants will receive link to the zip files.

25

Metadata and transcriptions available as
ICUWPL series (an online repository, free access) [LINK]• ICUWPL13: ReNeLDADB• Northern Sotho, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele,Siswati Tshivenda, Xitsonga• ICUWPL14: ECPPT-DB• Xitsonga, Irish, Basque• ICUWPL21: Bantu Language Digital Archive• Bende, Rundi, Rwa, Swahili, Xitsonga
26

ISLRN(International Standard Language Resource Number)• https://islrn.org/• The International StandardLanguage Resource Number(ISLRN) is a new, unique anduniversal identification
schema for LanguageResources which provides
Language Resources withunique names using astandardized nomenclature.
Currently, we are in the process of applying
for ISLRN to register the digital archives.

27

Example of ISLRN

https://covid-no-mb.org/

https://islrn.org/resources/620-293-539-189-9/
https://db.covid-no-mb.org/
28

アーカイブデータの活用29

Evaluation of archives in Yi et al. (2022)• accessibility• Which language(s) must a user know inorder to navigate sites and collections?
• Is the site accessible to users of screen
readers?
• Are there aspects of the site design that
impede or promote accessibility?

• searchability (finding information)• How easy is it to find information on thesite?
• File manipulation• How usable are the collection materials?
Are there aspects of the site and archive
design that promote or impede the useof materials?

• discoverability• How available is material in collections?
• If restrictions are placed on access, whatis needed to access collections?
• What types of controls are in place, andfor what reason?
30Issues when utilizing archival data
• How to advertise the archives• How to access the archives• How to use the contents in the archives• How to disseminate archival contents• How to maintain the archives• How to share the archive materials with the community

31How to advertise the digital archives• Digital archives are created for• linguists, as well as• computer scientists• speech community members• etc.

• Outreach to the greater research community• Mailing list, SNS• Word of mouth?

32How to advertise the archives• Demands for archives depend on how it is known to others in thefield.
• Pick-up articles by IRC• https://irc.aa.tufs.ac.jp/en/announce/topics/2021-09-27-1187/• Methods?
• Mailing list: LinguistList, Linguistics JP, etc.
• SNS: Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, etc.

33

How to access archives• Freely accessible contents• Basic information about the databases• Sample sound files• Plots of all the data
• all plots can be downloaded (but the size is an issue)• Access requiring registration• tokenized sound files• a repetition of a word or a sentence has a pair of files (wav, TextGrid)• an excel file that contains data by conditions in a searchable format

34

How to access archives
Freely accessible

Access requiring registration
Excel file

Sound files

35How to use the contents in the archives• After accessing contents in the archives, the issue of usabilityemerges.
• For example,• the database ICULD-0041 (Xitsonga data by TSO001) contains 6,653 tokens.
• how can researchers use the contents for their own research?

36

How to disseminate archival contents• Journal articles• Monographs describing data in archives• Descriptions of data in a data journal orconferences• Data in Brief (Elsevier)• Language Resource and Evaluation
Conference (LREC) organized by theEuropean Language Resources Association37

Other issues• How to maintain archives• fragility of private services• If possible, archives should be set up at national or public institutions• For example, IRC at AA-ken, NINJAL etc.

• How to share the archive materials with the community• Data size is large, but internet connectivities are limited.
• Collected data may not directly be usable by community members (or students)• training is needed.

• Suggestions:• smaller file size (mp3 format)• selected files using videos on YouTube38

Case Study:
Data from ICULD0041-Xitsonga[http://doi.org/10.34577/00005139][LINK, http://repository.tufs.ac.jp/handle/10108/117408]

39

Aspects of Xitsonga grammar
Monograph describing the datafrom TSO2010-00001 to TSO2010-06653• Features• data from ICULD-0041• collaborative writing with native speaker linguists• bilingual Preface (Xitsonga, English)• presentations of paradigms• examples are associated with sound files in the database• tonal marking in all examples• pitch tracks are available

Lee, Thembhani, Hlungwani (2022) Aspects of Xitsonga Grammar. Tokyo: ILCAA. Freely downloadable.

40

Aspects of Xitsonga grammar ri-bye ‘a stone’
Class 5/6 nouns (p. 44-45)

04240

ma-ribye ‘stones’
04243

Nominal pardigm• by noun classes• by the presence/absenceof the noun class prefix• by tonal patterns of thenominal root
• in a frame sentence• Previous studies (cf. Baumbach1987)• tone-based classification
was not considered41

Aspects of Xitsonga grammar
verbal constructions
Let’s construction (p. 93)

Potential construction (p.94)
Verbal pardigm• by verbal tone
• by tonal patterns of theverb root
• by the length of theverbal root
• Previous studies (cf. Baumbach1987)• tonal patterns wereabsent
42

Aspects of Xitsonga grammar
negative constructions
Present perfect 1sg (p. 106)

Present perfect (p.109)
Negative pardigm• by verbal tone
• by tonal
patterns ofthe verb root43

Aspects of Xitsonga grammartransitive constructions
Toneless verb H tone object (p. 156)

The descriptions of the databaseallows comparisons of the data

H tone verb H tone object (p.160)

44

The case study• The book “Aspects of Xitsonga Grammar” describes
data from the digital archive (ICULD-0041,http://doi.org/10.34577/00005139).
• Three issues related to archives:• accessibility• discoverability• The book is coupled with the digital archive (citing therecording numbers).

• searchability• Descriptions in a table/text format facilitate the process offinding information.

45

Future issues• Digital archives and companion monographs.
• writing a monograph• resources and time

• publishing a monograph• How to return to the speech community• community-based researchers• materials for local languages

46

Thank you!
Inkomu ngopfu! (Xitsonga)

47