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.
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)
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!”
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.
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)
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.
Shobhana Chelliah with Mr. Somi Roy reviewing Manipuri text collection to be published in Himalayan Linguistics with curator and director of the Imasi: The Maharaj Kumari Binodini Devi Foundation (Brooklyn, 2009- photo provided by Shobhana Chelliah)
This episode marks the Season Two finale with Professor Pius Akumbu, who is an Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Bamenda, Cameroon and an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the University of Hamburg since January 2019. He received his PhD in Linguistics from The University of Yaounde 1, in Cameroon. His research focuses on the documentation and description of Grassfields Bantu languages of Cameroon, including his mother tongue, Babanki. Additionally, Pius researches multilingualism in Cameroon as well as language planning and policy in Africa. He is an ELDP grant recipient, and a depositor at the Endangered Languages Archive. He is also a member of the KPAAM-CAM project.
Pius Akumbu (left) with some Babanki speakers (Victor Veshi, Prudencia Ngoin, Duh Joseph, and Maley) after a child celebration ceremony
Today’s episode is with Willem de Reuse. Willem specializes in the description of Native American languages, particularly Siouan and Athabaskan languages. He wrote his PhD dissertation on the Siberian Yupik language. He has published on morphological theory, language contact, and historical phonology and philology. He has taught at the University of Chicago, the University of Iowa, Ball State University, and the University of Arizona. His current position is at The Language Conservancy, and he also is affiliated with The University of North Texas. He is the Review Editor of the International Journal of American Linguistics, and he has written the Handbook Of Descriptive Linguistic Fieldwork (2011) with Shobhana Chelliah. He is currently conducting fieldwork in Arizona working with speakers of Apache.
Willem working with Apache consultants in Camp Verde, AZ, Feb- March 2010.Willem working with Han Athabaskan consultants in Fairbanks, Alaska, Sept. 2012.
Today’s episode is with N. Haʻalilio Solomon, an Instructor at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa at Kawaihuelani Center for Hawaiian Language. Haʻalilio is also a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Linguistics at UH at Mānoa. He is a translator for ‘ōlelo Hawaiʻi with Awaiaulu and Hoʻopulapula, and his studies involve language documentation and revitalization, as well as linguistic ideologies and attitudes surrounding ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi. He is the author of the forthcoming book chapter Rescuing Maunalua: Shifting Nomenclatures and the Reconfiguration of Space in Hawaii Kai.
N. Haʻalilio Solomon is a member of the translation training non-profit called Awaiaulu, pictured here at a gala in 2017 honoring the organization’s executive director, Puakea Nogelmeier, and Projects manager, Kauʻi Sai-Dudoit.
This week’s episode is with Sheena Shah, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Hamburg in Germany. She is currently working on a 2-year project documenting siPhuthi. Sheena has conducted linguistic fieldwork on a number of languages in Southern Africa, including several indigenous click languages. Sheena’s mother tongue is Gujarati and for her Ph.D., she worked with Gujarati diaspora communities in London, Johannesburg, and Singapore.
N/uu orthography workshop in 2014 in Upington, South Africa
Today’s episode is with Andrew Harvey and Richard Griscom from Leiden University. Andrew and Richard have just returned from their most recent field trip to Tanzania and in this episode they discuss their current projects (documenting Gorwaa, Hadza and Ihanzu) and teamwork in the field.
Richard (l) and Andrew (r) at Lake Basotu on the road to Haydom, with Mount Hannah in the backgroundAttendees at the language documentation workshop in January 2020
Andrew Harvey is a research fellow at Leiden University. He completed a Bachelor’s Degree at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada, a Master’s Degree at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and a PhD at SOAS, University of London. He has conducted work with Gorwaa, Hadza, and Ihanzu speaker communities and has received funding for projects through the Endangered Languages Documentation Program, as well as the Firebird Foundation for Anthropological Research. The title of his currently funded research is, “Gorwaa, Hadza, and Ihanzu: Grammatical Inquiries in the Tanzanian Rift Valley Area.” His interests include the languages of the Tanzanian Rift, their documentation and description, their formal morphosyntax and the histories and cultures of their speaker communities.
Richard T. Griscom is a post-doctoral researcher at Leiden University. He obtained his bachelor’s and PhD degrees from the University of Oregon. Richard’s research focuses on language documentation, fieldwork methodology, and functional-typological linguistic description and theory, with a special emphasis on the languages of East Africa. Over the past five years, he has been working with the Asimjeeg Datooga and the Hadzabe, both endangered minority language communities of northern Tanzania. He is a recipient of two grants from the Endangered Languages Documentation Programme and is a depositor at the Endangered Languages Archive.
Andrew (l) and Richard (r) at Mzee Asecheek’s house in Eshkesh
