Abstract:
Ikema is an endangered dialect of Southern Ryukyuan spoken on Miyakojima Island, Japan. The community is deeply concerned that the younger generation is not acquiring Ikema and has imaginatively tackled this problem by, among things, creating a vernacular musical titled Nishihara Muradate ‘The making of the Nishihara village’. The musical, depicting the migration to Nishihara from their ancestral island, was filmed and made into a DVD.
Using such recordings of Ikema as a springboard, Professor Takubo will discuss the development of the Digital Museum Project, a web-based three-layered digital storage space for endangered languages. The first layer provides open-access exhibit space; the second provides password-protected access for specialist researchers while a third layer contains raw data only accessible to the research group. This talk will conclude with a demonstration of the resource.

Speaker Bio:
Yukinori Takubo is Professor of Linguistics at Kyoto University, Japan. He received Doctor of Litt. in linguistics from Kyoto University. His research interests include generative syntax, pragmatics, discourse management theory, Mental Spaces, formal semantics, and the description and documentation of Ryukyuan languages, sister languages of Japanese.
His academic publications appeared, among others, in Gengo Kenkyu: Journal of the Linguistic Society of Japan, Journal of Japanese Linguistics, Journal of Pragmatics, Journal of Semantics, and Ene: Journal of the Linguistic Society of Korea. He has (co-) authored and (co-) edited fifteen books/book series/special issues of journals, including Nihongo no Kozo: Suironi to Chisikikanri (Structure of Japanese: Inference and Knowledge Management), Nihongo Bunpou (Basic Grammar of Japanese), Shijishi (Demonstrativs), and Iwanami Series of Language Sciences.
He was editor-in-chief of Gengo Kenkyu: Journal of the Linguistic Society of Japan, the vice president of Japan Cognitive Science Science Society, and is currently an executive board member of the Society of Japanese Linguistics and of the Society of Japanese Grammar.
Prior to his current appointment he was a full-time visiting lecturer of Dongguk University, Korea, an Associate Professor of Kobe University, a Professor of Kyushu University. He has also taught at the LSA institute at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and was a Fulbright Scholar in Residence at Carleton College.