Episode 33: Azeb Amha on Afroasiatic language documentation & description

27th Nov 2021 ~ Field Notes ~ Leave a comment

This month’s episode is with Dr. Azeb Amha from the University of Leiden. Azeb is a linguist with interest in the morphology and syntax of Afroasiatic languages, linguistic typology and in the interdisciplinary fields of anthropological linguistics and sociolinguistics. She has worked extensively on the documentation of languages in Ethiopia, inclunding Oyda, Wolaitta and Zargulla. She is an ELDP grant recipient, and a depositor with Dobes and the Endangered Languages Archive.

Zargulla Documentation team 2017 at K’ak’e. From left to right: Aboye Alade, Birtukan Abebe, Birtukan Bunkula, Shibiru Shiteno, Wudnesh Petros, Teshome Gezahegn, Asmelash Michael, and Azeb Amha (standing at the back).

Things mentioned in this episode:

Oyda language
Aramaic language
Wolaitta language
Amharic language
Semitic language family
Omotic language family
Cushitic language family
Zargulla language deposit at ELAR:Documentation of house construction and terrace farming in Zargulla, an endangered Omotic language

Zargulla Documentation team 2019 at Genbo. From left to right: Teshome Gezahegn, Michael Mina, Amarech Bunkula, Asmelash Michael and Amare Abebe

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 32: Michael Karani on Arusa Ideophone Documentation & Description

26th Oct 202128th Oct 2021 ~ Field Notes ~ Leave a comment

This month’s episode is with Michael Karani from the University of Dar es Salaam. Michael teaches linguistics and communication studies at Dar es Salaam. He holds a BA and an MA in Linguistics from the University of Dar es Salaam and a PhD in African Languages from Stellenbosch University. Michael conducted fieldwork for his native language, Arusa, which is a Maasai dialect spoken in Arusha, northern Tanzania, where he studied the Arusa verb system during his MA studies. For his PhD research he investigated verb morphology and argument structure in the Parakuyo dialect, another Maasai dialect spoken in northern and coastal areas in Tanzania.

In this episode, we discuss Micheal’s current research with Dr Alexander Andrason (Stellenbosch University) on Arusa ‘expressive grammar’, particularly ideophones, interjections and gestures.

Michael Karani posing with Arusa speakers just after an initiation ceremony that took place in Kilindi where Karani collected recordings of stories and songs in a fieldwork in 2016

Things mentioned in this episode:

Michael Karani seated with Arusa speakers during a field work in 2016

Episode 31: Catalan Language Normalization with Guillem Belmar

29th Aug 2021 ~ Field Notes ~ Leave a comment

This month’s episode is with Guillem Belmar from UC Santa Barbara. Guillem focuses his research on language revitalization strategies as well as documentation of endangered or minoritized languages. He has worked on language promotion for many European languages and runs the #europeminoritylanguages project on social media. He is currently involved with the project Maintaining Indigenous Languages within Immigrant Oaxacan Communities in the United States.

In this episode we discuss Guillem’s work with his native language, Catalan, as well as Basque and Frisian. Guillem shares with us his experience working with minority languages in Europe, including his work on New Speaker motivation and language policy and planning.

Guillem giving a lecture at the Sorbian Seminar in Leipzig on using intelligibility in language revitalization

Next month Field Notes will be taking a short break, if you’d like to hear more from the pod, check out the Field Notes Patreon.

Things mentioned in this episode:

Episode 30: Pedro Mateo Pedro on Mayan Language Research & Revitalization

30th Jul 2021 ~ Field Notes ~ Leave a comment

This month’s episode is with Pedro Mateo Pedro from University of Toronto.

Pedro is a native speaker of Q’anjob’al, a Mayan language of Guatemala. His research focuses on the documentation and description of Mayan languages, specifically language acquisition, Mayan languages in contact and dialectal variation.

Pedro received his PhD in linguistics at the University of Kansas in 2010 and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University. Pedro has taught at universities in Guatemala, Mexico and the United States.

Additionally, Pedro has worked on the production of educational materials in Mayan languages in coordination with different institutions in Guatemala, such as the Ministry of Education and the Academy of Maya Languages of Guatemala (ALMG in Spanish). In 2019, Pedro received an award as a distinguished professor at the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, Campus Altiplano.

Pedro documenting the acquisition of Chuj with two native speakers of Chuj: Nicolás Alonzo (left) and Jorge Pérez (right). ~2011, San Mateo Ixtatán, Huehuetenango, Guatemala.

Things mentioned in this episode

Pedro with two Kaqchikel speakers, Magda Sotz’ and Filiberto Patal, conducting a workshop on the teaching method of Mayan languages. In the workshop there were speakers of different Mayan languages, e.g., Kaqchikel, K’iche’, Q’eqchi’, Poqomchi’, Mam, Tz’utujil, Q’anjob’al, and other Mayan languages. ~2018. Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, Campus Altiplano.

Episode 29: Jaime Pérez González on Tseltal & Mocho’ language documentation in Mexico

24th Jun 202122nd Jul 2021 ~ Field Notes ~ Leave a comment

This month’s episode is with Jaime Pérez González is a Tseltal (Maya) researcher, writer, and translator from Tenango, Ocosingo, Chiapas, Mexico. He is a PhD candidate in Linguistics at the University of Texas at Austin. He earned his master’s in American-Indian Linguistics at the Center for Research and Higher Studies in Social Anthropology (CIESAS, Mexico). His MA thesis Predicados expresivos e ideófonos en tseltal won the 2013 Wigberto Jiménez Moreno Prize, awarded by Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) for the best master’s thesis in linguistics. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Hispanic Language and Literatures at the Michoacan University of San Nicolas de Hidalgo (UMICH, Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico).

Since 2008, he has worked on different Tseltal language documentation projects as a collaborator and as a research assistant, and as a researcher. Among the topics he has worked on during these projects are Dialectology and Lexicography (building dictionaries). He started to work on Mocho’ (a cousin Mayan language) in 2015, and he is currently the Principal Investigator of the project “Documentation of Mocho’ (Mayan): Language Preservation through Community Awareness and Engagement” sponsored by the Endangered Language Documentation Programme (ELDP). His research goes from Descriptive Linguistics, Language Documentation and Language revitalization. He has written about fieldwork methodologies, and he is currently working on a Descriptive Grammar of Mocho’.

Things mentioned in this episode:

Listen 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 28: Ryukyuan Language Documentation with Michinori Shimoji

19th May 202117th Jun 2021 ~ Field Notes ~ Leave a comment

Today’s episode is with Michinori Shimoji, an Associate Professor of Linguistics at Kyushu University in Japan. He has a PhD from the Australian National University (ANU). He has published extensively on fieldwork-based descriptions of Ryukyuan languages, particularly Irabu Miyako, which is his father’s native language. His research focuses on empirical and inductive generalizations of linguistic systems and structures, with a particular emphasis on typological generalizations. With Patrick Heinrich and Shinsho Miyara, he is the editor of the Handbook of the Ryukyuan Languages History, Structure, and Use (2015). He is also the editor of An Introduction to Ryukyuan Languages (2011), along with Thomas Pellard.

*toorgoo:* a twin-shaped pair of huge ponds. Serving as the stage in a number of Irabu stories and fables, toorgoo is regarded as an inspirational spot for Irabu people.

Things mentioned in this episode:

Michinori working on an elicitation session with the help of language consultant, Ms. Kimi Namihira, 2010.

Episode 27: Field Notes Live Show with Hilaria Cruz on Field Linguistics & Chatino

6th May 202122nd Jul 2021 ~ Field Notes ~ Leave a comment

The second episode of Season 3 is with Hilaria Cruz from the University of Louisville. Hilaria is a native speaker of Chatino, an endangered Zapotecan language, spoken in the mountains of Oaxaca, Mexico and by Chatino who have migrated to the Southeastern United states including Durham, North Carolina, Atlanta, Georgia, and Huntsville, Alabama. She has collected and archived more than one hundred hours of audio recordings of naturalistic speech in formal and informal settings. She is currently researching the Chatino concepts of the dead in four Eastern Chatino communities. Hilaria and her sister, Emiliana Cruz, created an orthography for the Chatino language and in 2018 created a monolingual children book series to be used as language teaching materials.

This live show was recorded as part of LingFest, a program of online linguistics events aimed at a general audience, on Saturday, April 24, 2021. Access to the unabridged video live stream is available on the Field Notes Patreon.

Hilaria collecting recordings (photo by Erika Castillo Licea)

Things mentioned in this episode

Hilaria’s Chatino deposit at AILLA & ELAR
Chatino language family
Zacatepec Chatino
Tataltepec Chatino
Zenzontepec Chatino
Teojomulco Chatino
Chatino children’s books to purchase & download
Chatino verbs on Wiktionary
“Documenting Sign Language Structure and Language Socialization in the San Juan Quiahije Chatino Signing Community” ELAR deposit by Lynn Hou
“Gesture, Speech and Sign in Chatino Communities” ELAR deposit by Kate Mesh
Hilaria on the Vocal Fries Podcast & Lingthusiasm Podcast

Episode 26: Nancy Kula on Researching Bemba Phonology in Zambia

24th Apr 202117th Jun 2021 ~ Field Notes ~ Leave a comment

Welcome to Season 3 of Field Notes! Field Notes episodes will now be released monthly. This season will feature one insider linguist each month. If you would like to hear more Field Notes content, you can now support Field Notes on Patreon!

This special first episode features Professor Nancy Kula studied phonology for her PhD at the University of Leiden. She has an MA in Linguistics from SOAS, University of London, and a BA in Education with African Languages and Linguistics from the University of Zambia. Following her PhD, she held a post-doctoral position in Leiden and at SOAS for three years and now works at the University of Essex since 2007. She has worked on many topics in phonology including tone and intonation and theoretically works on element theory. She is also interested in Language Policy as it applies to education in multilingual contexts and is currently running a project covering Botswana, Tanzania and Zambia. She has published in international linguistics journals, has edited a number of volumes and serves on international editorial boards.

From Nancy: “With my two main consultants in Kalabo, lovely old lady and her daughter. Zoom kit nicely set up with me trying to look all serious and grown up, not sure why!”

Things mentioned in this episode:

From Nancy: “Fish! Served with vegetables and Nshima. The crucial sentence is “Nibata Litapi” I want fish! Yum!”

Field Notes Live Show at LingFest!

15th Mar 202123rd Apr 2021 ~ Field Notes ~ Leave a comment

Field Notes will be holding its first ever live show at LingFest! Field Notes host & producer Martha Tsutsui Billins will chat with special guest Professor Hilaria Cruz on her work with her native language Chatino, an endangered Zapotecan language spoken in Oaxaca, Mexico. This live show will explore endangered language documentation and revitalization, particularly from the Insider Researcher perspective. No prior linguistics or language documentation knowledge required to attend. Questions from listeners are welcome and will also be discussed.

This event is open to all. Registration and attendance is free, but if you would like to support Field Notes, you can now do so on Patreon! ~~Please register here, to sign up to receive the zoom link to attend. Registration will CLOSE 24 hours prior to the start of the live show (April 23 1:00 PM PDT).~~ Registration is now closed. Stay tuned for the next Field Notes live show by following us on Twitter @lingfieldnotes. Thank you for supporting the pod!

Event will take place on April 24th at 1:00 PM PDT. Convert to your local time zone here.

Episode 25: Tibeto-Burman Field Linguistics with Shobhana Chelliah

18th Feb 202117th Jun 2021 ~ Field Notes ~ Leave a comment

Today’s episode is with Shobhana Chelliah, a Distinguished Research Professor of Linguistics and Associate Dean at the University of North Texas (UNT). Shobhana is a documentary linguist interested in creating descriptions that expand typological discovery, primarily of the Tibeto-Burman languages spoken in Manipur state, India. Her publications include The Grammar of Meithei (Mouton 1997) and the Handbook of Descriptive Linguistic Fieldwork (co-authored with Willem de Reuse, Springer 2010) and the recently-published Springer Brief titled Why Language Documentation Matters. Along with John Peterson, she is the series editor for Brill’s Studies in South and Southwest Asian Languages. She is an Associate Editor of the journal Himalayan Linguistics and is on the Editorial Board of the journal Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area, Journal of South Asian Languages and Linguistics and is on the Advisory Board for the Journal South Asian Languages. She is also the founding director of the Computational Resource of South Asian Languages Archive.

At Nupi Kaithel, a Women’s Market in Manipur in 1990 (photo provided by Shobhana Chelliah)

Things mentioned in this episode

Correction: The two Lamkang scholars who visited UNT were Daniel Tholung and Shekarnong Sankhil. This episode referenced Swamy Ksen, who is a Lamkang language expert Shobhana and her team works with in Manipur.