Episode 50: Field Notes Finale! Martha Tsutsui Billins & Laura Tsutsui on Amami Sociolinguistic Research

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Happy International Mother Language Day! After 5 seasons, this is the final episode of Field Notes! Today’s interview is between Laura Tsutsui (Field Notes producer) and Martha Tsutsui Billins (Field Notes host) on Amami sociolinguistic research, plus a look back at the last five years of podcasting. Thanks so much for listening! 

Interview session with Sato-san in April, 2019 (Setouchi, Amami)

Things mentioned in this episode: 

Sakura blossoms in Setouchi, Amami (January, 2018)

Listen to this episode here, or on your favorite podcast app! Field Notes is available on Apple Podcasts app (iPhone), Google Play Music (Android), Google Podcasts app (Android), Stitcher, Spotify, Podbean, Podcast Republic, Castbox, Player FM, and several other apps via RSS.

A “Kenmun (tree spirit) house” (April, 2019).

Episode 49: Alexandra Philbin on Irish and Catalan Language Research & Revitalization

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A photo of Alexandra with her partner, Miguel, at a protest in València in June 2023 against the expansion of the city’s port and the environmental destruction it would cause. Both hold signs in Valencian made by local activists, with the sign Alexandra is holding calling for people to support local business. The artichoke references the cultivation of fruit and vegetables in the area surrounding the city.

This episode is with  Alexandra Philbin. Alexandra is originally from Dublin, Ireland, and now lives in València, Spain. She is carrying out doctoral research in the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology at the University of València. Her research focuses on the experiences of urban speakers of minoritized languages, particularly Irish speakers in Dublin and Valencian (Catalan) speakers in València. Before moving to València, she completed an undergraduate degree in World Languages at University College Cork, and a master’s degree in Linguistic Anthropology at Maynooth University. She also taught Irish to adult learners and carried out research on Irish-medium education on behalf of the Irish government. As well as completing her PhD research, Alexandra teaches Irish and works as a Language Revitalization Mentor with the Endangered Languages Project, offering free, online support to those working to promote Indigenous and minoritized languages around the world. 

A piece of urban part spotted by Alexandra in March 2023 in the neighbourhood of El Carme in València. An issue of huge concern in the city, particularly in this area, is how many apartments are being bought by investors and changed from local housing to AirBnBs for tourists. This piece references this, as a speech bubble appears between two faded characters reading, in Valencian, ‘Now we can’t ask the neighbours in apartment 5 for salt’.

Things mentioned in this episode 

Days after an anti-immigrant riot in the centre of Baile Átha Cliath (Dublin) in November 2023, Alexandra saw stickers that had been stuck around the same area of the city in response welcoming refugees and immigrants. Here, a sticker on a pole in Irish that reads ‘A hundred thousand welcomes’.

Listen to this episode here, or on your favorite podcast app! Field Notes is available on Apple Podcasts app (iPhone), Google Play Music (Android), Google Podcasts app (Android), Stitcher, Spotify, Podbean, Podcast Republic, Castbox, Player FM, and several other apps via RSS.

Episode 48: Yulha Lhawa on Khroskyabs Language Documentation & Revitalization

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This month’s episode is with Yulha Lhawa from the University of Washington and the Endangered Languages Project. Yulha Lhawa, originally from Siyuewu Village in Sichuan, China, is a passionate advocate for her community’s traditions and language. Growing up as a yak herder, Yulha developed an interest in linguistics during high school. This interest fueled her to create the trilingual book “Warming Your Hands by Moonlight,” aimed at preserving local history and folklore. Taking her dedication a step further, Yulha journeyed to the United States from the Himalayas to study linguistics at the University of Oregon. Currently, she’s pursuing a Master’s in computational linguistics at the University of Washington, hoping to merge her linguistic knowledge with modern technology to contribute to the preservation of her community’s cultural heritage.

caption: After the dance concluded, a humble request permeated the air: ‘Can you take a picture of us all and bring it back to us?’ The local women, attired in their Tibetan robes, selectively reserved for poignant occasions such as religious ceremonies, pilgrimages, or the elegant embrace of dance performances (photo from Yulha Lhawa).

Things mentioned in this episode

caption: In a light-hearted moment, Yid She Mtso, ‘Do I need to change my clothes? Maybe not because I am so old that no one cares if I’m good-looking.’ (photo from Yulha Lhawa).

Listen to this episode here, or on your favorite podcast app! Field Notes is available on Apple Podcasts app (iPhone), Google Play Music (Android), Google Podcasts app (Android), Stitcher, Spotify, Podbean, Podcast Republic, Castbox, Player FM, and several other apps via RSS.

Episode 47: Karolina Grzech on Evidentiality and  Epistemicity in Quechuan Languages

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This month’s episode is with Dr. Karolina Grzech at the University of Valencia. Karolina is a documentary and descriptive linguist, working mostly on Quechuan languages and natural language use. Her main topics of research are evidentiality (encoding how we know things) and epistemicity (encoding different aspects of knowledge). She is particularly interested in how these categories play out in natural discourse. She also researches pragmatics in general, and, language endangerment and methodology of linguistic fieldwork, with special reference to the indigenous language of South America. Karolina is also interested in the socio-economic issues which affect minority and endangered languages and the communities which use them.

Finally, if you are interested in learning more about Quechuan languages, last season Field Notes aired an interview with Gladys Camacho Ríos on her work with her native language, South Bolivian Quechua (episode linked below in show notes).

Caption:  A typical session of the project: researcher Darwin Grefa interviews Camilo Alvarado, with Karolina Grzech recording at the Tumanangu community near Archidona, Napo province, Ecuador.

Things mentioned in this episode:

Caption: Typical session of the Upper Napo Kichwa documentation project. Wilma Aguinda interviewing Carolina Grefa about her life experience and her work as a midwife.

Listen to this episode here, or on your favorite podcast app! Field Notes is available on Apple Podcasts app (iPhone), Google Play Music (Android), Google Podcasts app (Android), Stitcher, Spotify, Podbean, Podcast Republic, Castbox, Player FM, and several other apps via RSS.

 

Episode 46: Kate Lindsey on Idi and Ende Language Documentation in Papua New Guinea

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This month’s episode is with Dr. Kate Lindsey. Kate is a professor of linguistics and co-director of the Structures of Under-Researched Languages lab at Boston University. Her research has both theoretical and documentary applications. Her theoretical work focuses on the analysis of underspecification and variation in phonological systems supported primarily by field data. Her dissertation utilized original data from eleven months of fieldwork with Ende speakers of Limol village, Papua New Guinea to explore the interaction of so-called ghost elements pervasive in Ende phonology. Current research projects include extended fieldwork in the South Fly area of Papua New Guinea to support the first reference grammar of Ende, a typological study of the Pahoturi River language family, and theoretical analyses of vowel harmony and phonological reduplication.

caption: Kate Lindsey with elder Kidarga Nakllae and his grandson Kidarga, who is conducting a biographical interview. Limol, Papua New Guinea.

Things mentioned in this episode

caption: Kate Lindsey with the Ende Language Committee (Geoff Rowak, Joshua Ben Danipa, Warama Kurupel, Tonny Warama, and Jerry Dareda (far right)) presenting the third dictionary printing.

Listen to this episode here, or on your favorite podcast app! Field Notes is available on Apple Podcasts app (iPhone), Google Play Music (Android), Google Podcasts app (Android), Stitcher, Spotify, Podbean, Podcast Republic, Castbox, Player FM, and several other apps via RSS.

Episode 45: Patrick Heinrich on Ryukyuan Language Documentation and Revitalization

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Field Notes is back for its fifth and final season! Season five’s inagural episode is with Patrick Heinrich from the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. Patrick received his Masters degree in Linguistics and Japanese Studies in 1998 from Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf. He completed his PhD in Japanese Studies in 2002 at Duisburg University. He is a sociolinguist who has worked extensively in the Ryukyuan archipelago, and has written many publications on language ideology, language shift, language reclamation, language planning and policy, and language and well-being. Along with Shinsho Miyara and Michinori Shimoji, he is the co-editor of the Handbook of the Ryukyuan Languages (2015). He is also co-editor of Language Crisis in the Ryukyus (2014), along with Mark Anderson. 

Reiko Yonaha (left) and Otomi Sunagawa (right) assisting Patrick Heinrich in the translation of Yonaguni folk songs

“Don’t drink and drive”: Dunan (Yonaguni-Ryukyuan) in the linguistic landscape of Yonaguni Island

Things mentioned in this episode:

If you are interested in Ryukyuan linguistics, check out previous Field Notes episodes with Prof. Michinori Shimoji and Madoka Hammine:

Listen to this episode here, or on your favorite podcast app! Field Notes is available on Apple Podcasts app (iPhone), Google Play Music (Android), Google Podcasts app (Android), Stitcher, Spotify, Podbean, Podcast Republic, Castbox, Player FM, and several other apps via RSS.

Episode 44: Myfany Turpin on Australian Aboriginal Song-poetry and Documentation

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This month’s very special episode is with Myfany Turpin, an Associate Professor at the University of Sydney. Myfany has been working on Australian Aboriginal songs and languages since 1996. Her research interests include the relationship between language and music, especially of lesser-known cultures; and identifying ways to support the continuation of endangered languages and performance arts. Her work examines Aboriginal song-poetry and its relationship to spoken languages and the documentation of the Kaytetye language and encyclopaedic knowledge, an Arandic language of Central Australia.

caption: Hilda Nambula & Lena Nambula, Amy Nambula and Myfany Turpin working on Kaytetye birds (Photo: M Carew)

Things mentioned in this episode:

caption: Launch of the Kaytetye Dictionary: Robert Janima, Tommy Jangala and the late Tommy Thompson

Listen to this episode here, or on your favorite podcast app! Field Notes is available on Apple Podcasts app (iPhone), Google Play Music (Android), Google Podcasts app (Android), Stitcher, Spotify, Podbean, Podcast Republic, Castbox, Player FM, and several other apps via RSS.

From June 2023, Field Notes will be taking a summer break, so look for new regular episodes coming September 2023. If you’ve already listened to all 44 regular episodes, consider becoming a patron on Patreon to access 20 mini bonus episodes (from the $5/month tier and above). Patreon billing will be paused for existing patrons until October 2023, and new bonus mini episode content (on Patreon) will begin from September 2023. If you would like to support Field Notes on Patreon, you can do so here.

Episode 43: Language Documentation & Revitalization in Canada with Nicholas Welch

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This month’s episode is with Nicholas Welch from Memorial University of Newfoundland. Nicholas is the Canada Research Chair in Change, Adaptation and Revitalization of Aboriginal Languages and Assistant Professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland. He received his B.A. and M.A. in Linguistics from the University of Victoria. His Ph.D. is from the University of Calgary and his dissertation was entitled: “The bearable lightness of being: The encoding of coincidence in two- copula languages“. He has done extensive research on Dene and Algonquian morphosyntax, and has also done language revitalization work with languages of Labrador. In addition to teaching and research, Nicholas is also part of the Indigenous Languages Laboratory and Archive (ILLA) at Memorial University and runs its website and YouTube channel.

Things mentioned in this episode:

Listen to this episode here, or on your favorite podcast app! Field Notes is available on Apple Podcasts app (iPhone), Google Play Music (Android), Google Podcasts app (Android), Stitcher, Spotify, Podbean, Podcast Republic, Castbox, Player FM, and several other apps via RSS.

Episode 42: Michelle Kamigaki-Baron on Pidgin & Secwepemctsín Language Research

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This month’s very special episode is with Michelle Kamigaki-Baron. Michelle is a PhD student in the department of Linguistics at the University of British Columbia. She was born and raised in Hawai’i into a family of coffee plantation laborers from Honaunau, Hawai’i. Her research primarily involves speech production and perception, how these processes are changed in the context of bilingualism or bidialectalism of languages that exist in diglossia, and the continuous nature of language. She works primarily with the Secwepemc community in BC with speakers of the Secwepemctsín language and also with her own community in Hawai’i with speakers of Pidgin and ‘Ōlelo Hawai’i. In her free time Michelle enjoys swimming in the ocean, spending time with friends and family, eating out, thrifting, and trying to kidnap her dog frens. 

Michelle and consultants Bernadette and Louella at the Skeetchestn Indian Band

Things mentioned in this episode:

Michelle with her grandparents a plantation house in Honaunau, Hawaiʻi

Listen to this episode here, or on your favorite podcast app! Field Notes is available on Apple Podcasts app (iPhone), Google Play Music (Android), Google Podcasts app (Android), Stitcher, Spotify, Podbean, Podcast Republic, Castbox, Player FM, and several other apps via RSS.

Episode 41: Ambrocio Gutiérrez Lorenzo on Zapotec Language Documentation & Revitalization

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This month’s episode is with Ambrocio Gutiérrez Lorenzo from the University of Colorado Boulder. Ambrocio earned his PhD at the University of Texas at Austin in 2021. He earned his MA in 2014 at the Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social (CIESAS), Mexico. He is a documentary and descriptive linguist whose research focuses on the syntax and semantics of the Zapotec (Otomanguean) languages of southern Mexico. He has also worked on adjacent areas of phonology and morphology and has broad interests across all the linguistic subfields, including especially discourse analysis and historical linguistics.

He promotes work on indigenous languages by native speakers and members of heritage communities. He himself is a native speaker of Teotitlán del Valle Zapotec and he has collaborated with other Zapotec and non-Zapotec colleagues to develop academic and revitalization materials.

Margarita García Hernández and Ambrocio Gutiérrez in San Miguel del Valle, Oaxaca, Mexico, in July 2022 during and elicitation session. Margarita is a native speaker of San Miguel del Valle Zapotec. This is a screenshot of the elicitation video.

Things mentioned in this episode:

María Reina Pérez and Ambrocio Gutiérrez in San Bartolomé Quialana, Oaxaca, Mexico, in June 2022 when we were talking about some differences in vocabulary between San Bartolomé Quialana Zapotec and Teotitlán del Valle Zapotec (both languages considered as Central Zapotec languages, and the communities are relatively close from each other). This is a screenshot of the elicitation-video.