This dissertation presents in-depth description and analysis the Zophei sound system within the context of the closely-related Maraic languages. Zophei (or Zyphe, ISO 639-3 ZYP), a previously undocumented member of the Maraic branch of Kuki-Chin (or South-Central Tibeto-Burman) spoken in Southern Thantlang Township, Chin State, Burma/Myanmar and by thousands of speakers in Indianapolis, Indiana. Using primary data elicited during three years of fieldwork, the sound systems of Lawngtlang, Tlawngrang, and Nuitah Zophei are investigated in detail. Special attention is paid to the segmental, syllable structure, and tonal inventories. A long history of language contact in the Maraic-speaking world has brought on radical innovations in syllable structure, vowel systems, and tone that have, as of yet, seen little linguistic analysis. Outside of the present research program, no previous linguistic work on Zophei exists. As such, this thesis endeavors to describe and analyze the sound systems of Zophei varieties.

This doctoral dissertation discusses access to film and video works. Physical and intellectual access to moving image documents is insufficient, often insignificant, at the level of the individual user. Existing access tools suffer from a lack of recognition of the differences between linguistic text communication and image communication. Browsing and relevance judgements are made difficult by the physical realities of film and video documents - one cannot flip through them - and by the habits of serial and passive viewing.

This doctoral dissertation is about collection-level subject access in aggregations of digital collections. The author discusses metadata richness and user interaction.