James A. Matisoff Collection

Part of CoRSAL

Purpose

This is a collection of material collected by Dr. James A. Matisoff throughout his career, including material from Field Methods courses at The University of California at Berkeley and fieldwork with the Lahu people of northern Thailand (ISO 639-3 lhu).

Field Methods material includes handwritten notes and student papers on KokBorok (ISO 639-3 trp) created by Dr. Matisoff, his student, Dan Jurafsky, and language consultant Prashanta Tripura. The notes were used to create a sketch of the grammar of KokBorok and a KokBorok dictionary as the class’s final project. As such, notes address KokBorok morphology and phonology along with several word lists, reconstructions of Proto-KokBorok, and cross-linguistic comparisons. The collection includes a draft of the KokBorok dictionary, as well as outlines and drafts of the grammar sketch in various stages of completion.

Lahu audio, recorded originally on cassette in the 1960’s and 70’s, includes ethnographic descriptions of Lahu social, religious, and subsistence practices, natural conversations, fables, traditional narratives, and humorous anecdotes. Lahu music, both traditional and modern, is also well-represented. Transcription, translations, and interlinear glossing of Lahu audio can be found in the text collection ‘Window onto a Vanished World: Lahu texts from Thailand in the 1960’s.’