Cushitic/Omotic Cognate Database Project
{'Code': '04040500', 'Directorate': {'Abbreviation': 'SBE', 'LongName': 'Direct For Social, Behav & Economic Scie'}, 'Division': {'Abbreviation': 'BCS', 'LongName': 'Division Of Behavioral and Cognitive Sci'}}
{'SignBlockName': 'Paul G. Chapin', 'PO_EMAI': None, 'PO_PHON': None}
Abstract Narrative:                                                                                                                                                  The fundamental activity of historical linguistics is                      reconstructing the nature of an ancient language, no longer                     spoken, on the basis of the properties of its present-day                       descendants.  Based on such a reconstruction, one can determine a               great deal about the historical relationships between the                       present-day languages, and the peoples who speak them; one can                  also move closer to a general theory of language change, one of                 the primary goals of linguistic science.                                                                                                                             The first major step in linguistic reconstruction is to                    identify cognates, words in the related languages which have a                  common origin in the ancestral language.  Getting to the stage                  where this can be done in a comprehensive and reliable way can                  take years, even generations of research on the present-day                     languages, but until this stage is reached, reconstruction can                  only be sketchy and speculative.                                                                                                                                     The Cushitic and Omotic language families, subfamilies of                  the Afroasiatic family of languages, have now reached the stage                 of description where a systematic identification of cognates,                   preparatory to reconstruction of the proto-languages of these                   families, can be undertaken.  The aim of the project is to carry                out this effort, using newly developed computational tools which                should make the process much faster and more reliable than has                  been the case in the past.  These families comprise more than                   eighty languages of northeast Africa, and a historical account of               their development and their subgrouping would be of great value                 to the field.                                                                                                                                                        The Principal Investigator is a noted historical linguist                  and lexicographer, who has been engaged in research on Cushitic                 and Omotic languages for some fifteen years.  He has a firm                     command of the relevant literature, the theoretical issues in                   linguistic reconstruction, and the computer techniques to be                    employed, all of which equip him thoroughly to carry out the                    project successfully.
{'FirstName': 'Gene', 'LastName': 'Gragg', 'PI_MID_INIT': 'B', 'PI_SUFX_NAME': None, 'PI_FULL_NAME': 'Gene B Gragg', 'EmailAddress': 'g-gragg@uchicago.edu', 'NSF_ID': '000372387', 'StartDate': '09/01/1987', 'EndDate': None, 'RoleCode': 'Principal Investigator'}
{'Name': 'University of Chicago', 'CityName': 'CHICAGO', 'ZipCode': '606375418', 'PhoneNumber': '7737028669', 'StreetAddress': '5801 S ELLIS AVE', 'StreetAddress2': None, 'CountryName': 'United States', 'StateName': 'Illinois', 'StateCode': 'IL', 'CONGRESSDISTRICT': '01', 'CONGRESS_DISTRICT_ORG': 'IL01', 'ORG_UEI_NUM': 'ZUE9HKT2CLC9', 'ORG_LGL_BUS_NAME': 'UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO', 'ORG_PRNT_UEI_NUM': 'ZUE9HKT2CLC9'}
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{'Code': '1311', 'Text': 'Linguistics'}
{'url': 'https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/download?DownloadFileName=1987&All=true', 'xml': '8711739.xml'}