Mulleres na Lexicografía / Women in Lexicography

Der-Hwa Victoria Rau (In Chinese: 何德華 Hé Déhuá)

Atayal, Indonesian, Chinese, English, Filipino/Tagalog, Tao/Yami.

1959 (Taipei, Taiwan)

After a B.A. in Taiwan, Prof Rau pursued her studies in the USA and was awarded two separate master’s degrees, one at University of Minnesota and the other at Cornell University. At the latter, she finished her PhD with a dissertation on «A grammar of Atayal», an indigenous language spoken in northern and central Taiwan. This is followed by a prolific academic career at Providence University in her native of Taiwan, where she continued to devote herself to both foreign languages (TESOL) and indigenous languages of Taiwan, many of which severely endangered. It is in the preservation of Yami language, one of these endangered languages, that Prof. Rau has made significant contribution to lexicography. Yami language (in endonym: Tao) is spoken by around 4,000 people on the outlying island of Lanyu (‘Orchid Island’), Taiwan. Maa-neu Dong (a native Yami language educator) came into contact with Prof. Rau back in 1994 with the aim of preserving her native language. In cooperation with Prof. Meng-chien Yang (computer scientist at Providence University), Dr. Ann Hui-Huan Chang (PhD at National Chung Cheng University (NCCU), Taiwan), and numerous technical specialists, they started the compilation of a Yami-Chinese online dictionary as well as pedagogic materials for Yami lessons. Since then, three dictionaries have been published: «Yami Learning Dictionary» (2008), «Yami (Tao) dictionary» (2012), and «Yami Bible Dictionary» (2018). Throughout her academic career, Prof. Rau’s efforts for language preservation and revitalization have spanned through the following stages: ‘Digital archive’ (2000s), ‘Digital learning’ (2010s), and ‘Digital humanities’ (2020s). Starting 2010, Prof Rau has taught at Institute of Linguistics, NCCU, Taiwan. Her latest research has extended its focus to cover two Southeast Asian languages widely spoken by immigrants to Taiwan: Indonesian and Tagalog, two languages in the same language family as indigenous languages of Taiwan.

● Dong, Maa-Neu & D. Victoria Rau (2008). Yami Learning Dictionary (in Chinese). Providence University, Taiwan. https://museum02.digitalarchives.tw/teldap/2008/yamibow/index_LexiquePro.htm ● Rau, Victoria, Maa-neu Dong, and Ann Hui-Huan Chang with Daniel E. Rau and Gerald A. Rau (Eds.). (2012). 達悟語詞典 (Yami (Tao) dictionary). National Taiwan University Press. https://museum02.digitalarchives.tw/validUser?from=/teldap/2008/yamibow/index_TAO.htm ● Rau, Victoria, Maa-neu Dong, and Ann Hui-Huan Chang (Eds.). (2018). 達悟語聖經詞典 (Yami Bible Dictionary). The Bible Society in Taiwan. http://annhhchang.url.tw/YamiBibleWeb/YAMIBIBLEDICTIONARY/lexicon/index.htm

Excerpts: Rau, Victoria, Maa-neu Dong, and Ann Hui-Huan Chang with Daniel E. Rau and Gerald A. Rau (Eds.) (2012). 達悟語詞典 ( Yami (Tao) dictionary). National Taiwan University Press. https://issuu.com/ntupress/docs/9789860325195 The dictionary includes 6,084 entries and offers the following access routes: 1. Yami lemmas (either alphabetically or according to word stem) 2. Equivalents in Chinese (phonologically ordered according to transliteration of Zhuyin) 3. Semantic equivalents in English.

● 生命力. (2013, March 21). 攜手二十年 ‬達悟語詞典傳承不朽 [Video, in Chinese]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ENsJOMSPYc‬‬‬ ● 數位人文社科教學資源中心. (2021, September 10). 計畫回顧系列--特色課程專訪--數位語言學--何德華 [Video, in Chinese]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=9xyCQeD2EnU

推展本土語言傑出貢獻獎 (‘National Awards for Outstanding Contributions to the Promotion of Local Languages’). (2022). Ministry of Education, Taiwan.

References: ● Rau, Victoria. (1992). A grammar of Atayal. PhD Dissertation. Cornell University. https://www.proquest.com/docview/303970867?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true ● Rau, Victoria & Yang, Meng-chien. (2012). 「達悟語線上詞典」的故事 (‘The story behind Tao Online Dictionary’). In Taiwan Digital Archives Expansion Project. https://content.teldap.tw/index/blog/?p=3503 ● Rau, Victoria (何德華). (2022). Faculty personal website of the Institute of Linguistics, National Chung Cheng University. http://rau.ccu.edu.tw Lexicographic works: ● Dong, Maa-Neu & D. Victoria Rau (2008). Yami Learning Dictionary (in Chinese). Providence University, Taiwan. https://museum02.digitalarchives.tw/teldap/2008/yamibow/index_LexiquePro.htm ● Rau, Victoria, Maa-neu Dong, and Ann Hui-Huan Chang with Daniel E. Rau and Gerald A. Rau (Eds.). (2012). 達悟語詞典 (Yami (Tao) dictionary). National Taiwan University Press. https://museum02.digitalarchives.tw/validUser?from=/teldap/2008/yamibow/index_TAO.htm ● Rau, Victoria, Maa-neu Dong, and Ann Hui-Huan Chang (Eds.). (2018). 達悟語聖經詞典 (Yami Bible Dictionary). The Bible Society in Taiwan. http://annhhchang.url.tw/YamiBibleWeb/YAMIBIBLEDICTIONARY/lexicon/index.htm Photo: Private correspondence.

U-Tong Sih

Lola Mosquera Sánchez