UNT CoRSAL (Computational Resource on South Asian Languages)

Since 2017, UNT Faculty from Linguistics, Information Science, Computer Science and Anthropology began partnering with the UNT Digital Library to create a repository for South Asian languages at UNT. The hosting of this repository known as CoRSAL (Computational Resource on South Asian Languages) houses data in formats that can be easily accessed and used by non-linguists and linguists for a range of purposes including language science, computational linguistics, language reclamation and revitalization, language teaching and investigations into diverse cultures and histories.

CoRSAL supports the archiving of audio, video, and text on the under-resourced languages of South Asia. CoRSAL engages in research at the intersection of language documentation, description, and information science. Material created in field methods courses, as part of federally-funded research projects, or by dedicated community collectors are found within the archive. Formats range from digitized wax cylinder recordings, to experimental recordings in sound-proof booths, to interviews recorded in the marketplace on a cell phone. This variety allows for lasting records of languages to be created from multiple perspectives collected under different circumstances. Learn more https://corsal.unt.edu/

CoRSAL Welcomes its first Archivist in Residence

UNT’s Computational Resource for South Asian Languages Archive (CoRSAL) welcomed its first Archivist in Residence, Marjing Mayanglambam, to UNT during the fall 2022 semester to create an archive of the endangered Pena tradition of Manipur.

Marjing plays the Pena, a mono-string instrument from India’s northeastern state of Manipur, where fewer than two hundred people know how to play this ancient instrument. Like a violin and other bowed instruments, the Pena consists of a neck and body and is played with a bow. The body, called a Maru or Tha, is held against the shoulder where a coconut shell, skinned with buffalo or cowhide, and a wooden fingerboard meet a bamboo neck. On the end of the neck hangs a long, decorative textile, called Shamai, that is similar to a garment that a woman might wear along her waist. The curved wooden bow, or Cheijing, resembles a shepherd’s hook and captures horsehair strings between the handle and the hook.

Music unites the Manipur culture, and playing the Pena is one of the oldest and most sacred traditions of this region; most religious festivals, rituals, social gatherings, and ceremonies include Pena musicians. Upon returning home from UNT, Marjing will follow in his father’s footsteps (also a Pena musician) and will receive the royal attire of a Pena Khongba to wear, called the Mana Phee, from the King of Manipur. “It can be said that the one who receives the Mana Phee is considered one of the highest cultural figures. For me, it’s one of the biggest honors I’ll receive from the royals,” Marjing shares.