Field Notes

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.

Things mentioned in this episode:

• What if…? Imagining non-Western perspectives on pragmatic theory and practice by Felix Ameka & Maria Terkourafi   

Get in touch: 

• Website: https://fieldnotespod.com

Today’s episode is with Dorothea Hoffmann, a documentary linguist who has worked in remote parts of Northern Australia with speakers of MalakMalak, Jaminjung, and Kriol. In North America, she has been involved in language revitalization projects for the Acoma, Ute, Stoney Nakoda, Ho-Chunk and Cowlitz tribes, and First Nations. She is affiliated with the University of Oregon as an Honorary Research Associate and also works as a Linguistic Project Manager for The Language Conservancy. In addition to her linguistic research, Dorothea also is one half of the team that runs a venture called 180forward – an eco-tourism and education business based in New Mexico and the Pacific Northwest.

In this episode, we discuss how as researchers we should be striving not only to help sustain the languages we work with but to go further and aim for regeneration and to help empower and create new speakers. Doro also explains a bit about Dreamtime narratives in MalakMalak, which are traditional creation stories which, among other things, connect speakers to not only their language but also the land.

Things mentioned in this episode:

• MalakMalak language

Get in touch: 

• Website: https://fieldnotespod.com

This week's episode is with Alice Mitchell, a Junior Professor at the Institute for African Studies at the University of Cologne in Germany. Alice holds a BA in German and Linguistics from the University of Oxford, an MA in Language Documentation and Description from SOAS, and a PhD in Linguistics from the University at Buffalo. Her research focuses on the Datooga language of Tanzania, where she has been conducting fieldwork since 2012. 

In this episode, Alice talks us through her work in Tanzania, and her experiences documenting name avoidance and studying children's speech in Datooga. 

Things mentioned in this episode:

• Ep 16: Remote Fieldwork with Richard T. Griscom

Get in touch: 

• Website: https://fieldnotespod.com

Today's episode is with Mary Walworth from the Max Planck Institute. Mary is co-leader of the Comparative Oceanic Languages (CoOL) Project at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany. She received her MA and PhD from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, where she focused primarily on documenting the understudied languages of French Polynesia. She specializes in the historical relationships of Oceanic languages, examining both direct relatedness and indirect, contact-based linguistic development. She has worked with many communities throughout French Polynesia and Vanuatu.

In this episode, Mary shares how her experiences parenting in the field influenced her research and her relationship with the community she collaborates with.

Things mentioned in this episode:

• Rapa language

Get in touch: 

• Website: https://fieldnotespod.com

This week's episode is with Richard T. Griscom, a post-doctoral researcher at Leiden University.  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.

Things mentioned in this episode:

• Firebird Foundation

Richard’s equipment:

• Camcorders: Panasonic HC-X920, Sony FDR-AX53 with HVL-LEIR1, Panasonic HC-V800, GoPro Hero7

Get in touch: 

• Website: https://fieldnotespod.com

Today's episode is with Hannah Gibson, fellow SOASian and Lecturer in Linguistics at the University of Essex. Hannah's research is primarily concerned with linguistic variation, particularly why and how languages change. Much of her work explores the syntax and semantics of the Bantu languages, with a focus on languages spoken in Eastern Africa. She has conducted data collection in Tanzania, Kenya, South Africa and the UK. 

In this episode, Hannah and I discuss her research, what her daily research routine looks like, and why we should think critically about what we mean when we use the term “fieldwork”. 

Things mentioned in this episode:

• Rangi language 

Get in touch: 

• Website: https://fieldnotespod.com

Today's episode is Guillem Belmar, a Linguistics PhD student at UC Santa Barbara. In this episode, we discuss the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on fieldwork. This discussion was inspired by UCSB grad students who have started a group to share and debate online fieldwork, and this post on social media from Guillem, which urged fieldworkers to pause field trip plans in light of the pandemic.

Things mentioned in this episode:

• Mixtec language family

Other things:

• Doing Fieldwork in a Pandemic (crowdsourced Google Doc)

Get in touch: 

• Website: https://fieldnotespod.com

Welcome to Season Two! This is the first episode of Season Two on Field Notes. Although we are living in strange times and fieldwork is not currently possible due to the COVID-19, Field Notes will continue publishing weekly episodes this season to share information and experiences from the field which will hopefully benefit our listeners in the future (when fieldwork is possible again). Until then, hang in there, we are all in this together.

This episode's guest is Jeff Good. Jeff is a professor and chair of the Department of Linguistics at the University of Buffalo in New York. Jeff is a typologist and his research focuses on lesser-documented Batoid languages in the lower Fungom region of Northwest Cameroon. In this episode, Jeff shares how he started working in the lower Fungom region and how he now works with scholars in Cameroon to facilitate language documentation and research from his base in Buffalo.

Things mentioned in this episode: 

• Jeff's website

Get in touch: 

• Website: https://fieldnotespod.com

This week’s interview is the Season 1 finale with Miroslav Valeš (Technical University of Liberec). In this interview, Miroslav discusses his long and varied fieldwork career, and his experiences working with the Lakhota (USA), Shuar (Ecuador) and A Fala (Spain) communities. 

Content Warning:

There is some sensitive material discussed in this interview, including traditional practices that some people may find disturbing.

Things mentioned in this episode: 

• Andalusian Spanish on Wikipedia 

Season 2 will be announced on the Field Notes website and on social media (Instagram and Twitter): @lingfieldnotes

Get in touch: 

Website: https://fieldnotespod.com

Email: [email protected]

Twitter & Instagram: @lingfieldnotes

Today’s episode is with Alex Garcia (University of Barcelona). Alex works with the Northern Alta Community in the Philippines. In this episode, Alex discusses how he started working with speakers of Nothern Alta, and how he learned Northern Alta in order to conduct monolingual fieldwork. 

Things mentioned in this episode: 

Alex's website

Alex's data on Kratylos

Alex’s Northern Alta deposit on ELAR

"Monolingual Fieldwork" Demonstration - Daniel Everett (from LSA)

Alex's equipment: Zoom H4n audio recorder, Rode NTG2 (shotgun microphone), Rode NT4 (cardioid microphone), Canon Legria HF G25 (video camera), Canon Powershot SX400 (SLR camera), Toshiba Z30 & Toshiba Satellite C55 (laptops) 

Philippine Negrito languages

Ilocano language

Tagalog language

Bontok language 

Casiguran Dumagat Agta

Kasiguranin language

Alta on Wikipedia

Northern Alta on Wikipedia 

Get in touch: 

Website: https://fieldnotespod.com

Email: [email protected]

Twitter & Instagram: @lingfieldnotes