The instigator of the project, Dr. James Plumtree, writes: "The material, from 2017 and 2018, was recorded so we could study contemporary versions of the epos. Transcriptions of the Kyrgyz-language performances made it possible to discover the composition methods of these performers and allowed us the incredible opportunity to investigate computational approaches to compare oral epic performances and performers. Since this corpus is also likely to be of use for other researchers with questions and interests different from ours, it has been made accessible to all.

 

The transcriptions, and links to the resulting English-language academic publications, are now available here. Each of the transcriptions contains a link to the original audiovisual recording. Kyrgyz and Russian versions of the research are in preparation.

Thanks are given to Talatantaaly Bakchiev and Doolot Sydykov for agreeing to be part of the project; Prof. Anguelina Popova for organization; AUCA graduate Kamilia Baimuratova for making the recordings; Alymkan Jeenbekova for the transcriptions; Ekaterina Kombarova for the website; the Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives for cataloging and making available the audiovisual recordings; and financial support from the AMICAL Consortium program enabled by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and an AUCA Faculty Research grant.”