COMPUTER ASSISTED DIALECT ADAPTATION: THE TUCANOAN EXPERIMENT

Abstract

This dissertation provides the theoretical basis for a computer program that adapts textual material from one language of the Tucanoan family to another. Tucanoan languages are spoken by small groups living in southeastern Colombia, northwestern Brazil, northern Peru, and northern Ecuador. This work represents the first attempt to apply principles of machine translation and computational linguistics to indigenous languages of Colombia. It discusses aspects of translation theory relevant to machine translation. Some features of the Tucanoan languages relevant to the adaptation process are discussed in depth, including differences in suffix systems marking case, noun classifiers, and the evidential systems of the various languages. Of particular interest for automated parsing is the problem of null allomorphs of certain morphemes.