Limol #19

Got a run in today! Went to the well with Grace and had to sit on the ground to reach the water this morning. We haven't needed a rope the past few days, but now that the village is back the water has gone down quicker. I felt fast and strong on the run. I like this pace because I think it's good for my heart and won't make me too hungry during the day. Meals lately have been mostly yams and sago with sprinkles of pineapple. Fortunately we have a semi steady supply of our favorite bia up bananas that taste like heaven in every bite. 

It was another hot one today. Well over 90 and very dry. The flies landed on us in swarms, almost like looking through a cloud when taking notes. I translated quite a few verbs and words for the dictionary and recorded some storybooks. Kauga surprised me today by pulling out 90 story books from the school, all with pictures and space for writing in language! I don't know why he didn't think to show me before. There are nine books already written in Ende, about 20 sentences each. And so much more potential! I was hoping for a good story book that I could use to get a bunch of people to tell me the same story so that I could compare how people speak. Especially if I could get the same story in all the different Pahoturi River languages/dialects. So funny that the school has been begging for books when they had books all along. Can't wait to start filling them up. 

For my final project this trip, I'm going to do something nice for Grace for her birthday. I'm going to go around and collect some short stories or memories or nice words that people have around the village about Grace and edit it into one recording, then translate it. I think she will really like that. Tomorrow is Saturday, so perhaps I'll start collecting tomorrow before everyone leaves for the funeral feast in Malam.

I'm finally hitting some breakthroughs with my verb research. After all this collecting, I have conjugation classes and some analyses for why some verbs reduplicate and some don't! Looking forward to a long day of writing tomorrow, with a run in I hope :)

Kate


Comments

  1. ElizabethDecember 3, 2017 at 11:13 AM

    I am imagining your irritation at the swarms(!) of flies.

    The story project in different Pahoturi River languages/dialects sounds like an interesting one. Are you talking about a shared fable or history or something like that?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kate Lynn LindseyDecember 4, 2017 at 10:56 AM

      I would be happy with any shared story in all the languages - if it's culturally relevant then that would be even better! The more comparable data that we have across all the dialects, the more evidence we will have to postulate what proto-pahoturi river sounded like!

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