Automated Adaptation Between Kiranti Languages

Minority language communities that are seeking to develop their language may be hampered by a lack of vernacular materials. Large volumes of such materials may be available in a related language. Automated adaptation holds potential to enable these large volumes of materials to be efficiently translated into the resource-scarce language. I describe a project to assess the feasibility of automatically adapting text between Limbu and Yamphu, two languages in Nepal's Kiranti grouping. The approaches taken—essentially a transfer-based system partially hybridized with a Kiranti-specific interlingua—are placed in the context of machine translation efforts worldwide. A key principle embodied in this strategy is that adaptation can transcend the structural obstacles by taking advantage of functional commonalities. That is, what matters most for successful adaptation is that the languages " care about the same kinds of things. " I examine various typological phenomena of these languages to assess this degree of functional commonality. I look at the types of features marked on the finite verb, case-marking systems, the encoding of vertical deixis, object-incorporated verbs, and nominalization issues. As this Kiranti adaptation goal involves adaptation into multiple target languages, I also present a disambiguation strategy that ensures that the manual disambiguation performed for one target language is fed back into the system, such that the same disambiguation will not need to be performed again for other target languages. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It is a blessing to be able to work with people that you really enjoy, and in this regard I have been blessed at every turn. This project could have never happened without the months of work poured into it by Marius Doornenbal and Jeffrey Webster, who have tirelessly dug to find answers and solutions, and coaxed or prodded me along when I needed it. –Thank you! I cannot imagine how this thesis would have come to be but for Dr. Tony Mattina's guidance and his time invested in me over these years. I was already indebted to him for setting my wife on the path where I consequently met her. I am now doubly indebted. –Thank you! It has a been a privilege, too, to receive much-needed help from such a master of Himalayan typology as Dr. David Watters. Not that I've grasped a fraction yet of what's really going on in these languages, but what little of it I've begun to understand is owing in great measure to him. –Thank you! Nowhere …