Gtaʔ [gaq] is also known as Didey. The materials in the first-ever Gtaʔ Talking Dictionary were collected, annotated and transcribed by Living Tongues researchers Gregory D. S. Anderson and Opino Gomango, under the auspices of the Munda Languages Initiative, in part made possible by Grant Award PD 50025-13 from the National Endowment for the Humanities. To date, over six thousand words and sentences, as well as numerous short texts, have been collected to document this language. The primary consultant on this project was Budra Raspeda, and other consultants also participated. We also have legacy materials on Gtaʔ dating back some 50 years.
There are roughly 3,500-4,000 speakers of Gtaʔ (also known in the literature as Gata', Didey, Didayi, Didei, Dire, Gataq, Geta’, Getaq, Gta Asa), but this represents probably less than half of the Didey ethnic group. Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages began working with speakers of Gtaʔ in 2010 as they occupy villages either together with the Bonda or in nearby locales, and their endangered language is heavily influenced by Remo, another language that was documented as part of the Munda Languages Initiative.
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The Gtaʔ language materials were officially archived at PARADISEC: https://catalog.paradisec.org.au/collections/GA1
Language documentation materials include: audio and video files of words, phrases, and oral texts in Gtaʔ (also known as Gata', Didey, Didayi, Didei, Dire, Gataq, Geta’, Getaq, Gta Asa) with accompanying ELAN annotations. Collected, annotated and transcribed by Gregory D. S. Anderson and Opino Gomango. Project deliverables included translations and glosses of 32 legacy texts in Plains Gtaʔ in manuscript form, with associated lexicon as well as digitized lexical audio files dating from the 1960s-1980s. The archival deposit at PARADISEC (Collection GA1) includes 31 newly collected and transcribed Hill Gtaʔ oral texts in video and audio format, with associated time-aligned ELAN annotations (some in audio format only), 6,500 elicited lexical items also incorporated into the online Gtaʔ Talking Dictionary, as well as around 2,200 elicited sentences and phrases with transcriptions, and over 200 photos. Archived by Anna Luisa Daigneault for Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages, with digital assistance from Kristen Wenz, Keith Burgelin, Katie Li and Aliya Slayton. This project was in part made possible by Grant Award PD 50025-13 from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Gregory Anderson (collector), 2010; Gta' Language Recordings (GA1), Digital collection managed by PARADISEC. [Open Access] DOI: 10.4225/72/58c16dfa053f9