Field Notes

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 t...

This episode marks the Season Two finale with Professor Pius Akumbu , an Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Bamenda, Cameroon, and an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the University of Hamburg. His research focuses on the documentation and description of Grassfields Bantu languages of Cameroon, including his mother tongue, Babanki . Additionally, Pius researches multilingualis...

This week's episode is with Willem de Reuse. Willem specializes in the description of Native American languages, particularly Siouan and Athabaskan languages. He wrote his Ph. D. 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 Sta...

Today's episode is with N. Haʻalilio Solomon , who is an Instructor at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa at Kawaihuelani Center for Hawaiian Language , where he is also a Ph. D. candidate in the Department of Linguistics . Haʻalilio is also a translator for ‘ōlelo Hawaiʻi with Awaiaulu and Hoʻopulapula, and his studies involve language documentation and revitalization, as well as linguistic ideol...

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 dia...

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 practic...

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 R...

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...

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 h...

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 m...

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...

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...

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...

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 pe...

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 ELA...

Today's episode is part two of our Q&A episode with Vera Ferreira ( CIDLeS  &  ELDP ) & Hugo Cardoso (University of Lisbon). In this episode, we discuss questions from listeners such as "How can fieldworkers deal with the often tragic and uncomfortable circumstances in the field?", "How can we reduce our environmental impact in the field?" and "How to deal with difficult recording situations". Jus...

Today's episode is with Vera Ferreira ( CIDLeS & ELDP ) & Hugo Cardoso (University of Lisbon). In this episode, Martha, Hugo & Vera discuss questions sent in from listeners. Questions include "How can collected data be shared in a meaningful way with communities" and "What do researchers prioritise during their documentation projects?". If you would like to hear more about Vera's fieldwork with th...

This episode is with Lauren Gawne who does fieldwork in Nepal working with speakers of Yolmo and Syuba . Lauren has experience as both a successful grant applicant and as a grant committee assessor. In this episode, she shares her advice for navigating applying for funding in the current overly-competitive and under-resourced environment.  Things mentioned in this episode: Lauren's website Lingthu...

This episode is with Andrew Harvey, who is a documentary linguist working with speakers of two previously un-documented languages, Ihanzu and Gorwaa (Tanzania). Andrew discusses his research, the seredipitous beginning to his work with the Gorwaa community, and how community collaboration has impacted the documentation and description of Ihanzu and Gorwaa.  Things mentioned in this episode: Andrew...

This episode is with insider researcher Madoka Hammine, who is a PhD student at University of Lapland in Finland. Madoka works on her heritage language, Yaeyama (Ryukyuan), as both a linguist and a language activist. Her PhD project is entitled: "embracing multilingualism in education", based on her fieldwork in both in Finland and Miyara village (Ishigaki, Japan). Things mentioned in this episode...

This episode is with  Khairunnisa , who is researching variation and politeness strategies in her own language, Sasak (Lombok, Indonesia). In this episode, Khairunnisa discusses how working as an insider researcher influences her research methods, and how she manages the challenges of adhering to expected societal norms in her own community.  Things mentioned in this episode:  Sasak on  Wikipedia...

In this episode, Hugo Cardoso discusses his work with the creole-speaking communities of Diu and Kerala and the Portuguese Burgher community (Eastern Sri Lanka).  Things mentioned in this episode: Hugo's profile on the University of Lisbon website:  http://www.clul.ulisboa.pt/en/researchers-en/39-cardoso-hugo Hugo's ELAR deposit: Documentation of Sri Lanka Portuguese Hugo's equipment: Marantz audi...

In this episode, Lyle Campbell shares stories from his work in the Americas, discusses what has changed in the field of Documentary Linguistics since he started his career, and gives some food-related advice to new field workers.  Things mentioned in this episode:  Endangered Languages Project: http://www.endangeredlanguages.com Catalogue of Endangered Languages: http://ling.hawaii.edu/research-cu...

Vera Ferreira discusses her fieldwork in Europe working with the Minderico (Portugal), Fala (Spain), and Bavarian (Germany) communities.  Things mentioned in this episode:  CIDLeS:  http://www.cidles.eu Fala language on Wikipedia   Bavarian language on Wikipedia   Minderico language on Wikipedia   Get in touch:  Website:  https://fieldnotespod.com Email:  fieldnotespod@gmail.com Twitter & Instagra...

Welcome to Field Notes! This podcast aims to share the stories of linguists doing fieldwork to document, describe, and research languages (especially endangered/minority languages). In Season One, we will be interviewing several field linguists about their work and how they would advise new fieldworkers and students thinking about getting into field linguistics. Things mentioned in this episode: U...