Linguistic Fieldwork

I realize that although I am a linguist doing fieldwork, most of my writing is about very non-linguistic things. I guess it’s because I require more processing for these extra-linguistic activities while my work leaves me happy and excited (but I write about my findings in the Ende grammar and dictionary).

So let me just tell you what I did today! I woke up at 6:30 and went on a run with about ten girls. Some girls joined late so I paid attention to how the currently running girls invited the others to join and noted this in my notebook later. After the run we had a race across the field and since I came in last, I played a trick and ran back across the field with a big head start. Then I asked the girls what happened and noted those new words in my notebook too. I made them laugh during stretching to thank them for their linguistic help. 

I got home, bucket bathed, ate breakfast, and chatted with A. Then I gathered up my gear and headed to Kagär and Erga’s house, whom I had noticed seemed to be staying in today. With them I ran an elicitation called the Family Problems Picture Task. It involves about 20 pictures of a story in which a man beats his wife, goes to jail, and reconciles with his family. The first task, I record two people describing each picture in random order. The second task, I record them putting the pictures into order and ideally conversing about which goes where. The third task, I record one of the participants telling the story with the pictures to a new person. And the fourth task, I record the other participant telling the story as if she were in the story (first person, using I/me). Kagär and Erga did a great job. I video recorded them so that we can see what they’re talking about. This took about an hour, in the middle of which I had to jog home twice! Once to get an extra mic, and the second time to get a back-up battery! Luckily I’m in good running shape.  After the task I played a video on my computer for the people gathered as a small thank you for the work. 

After this, I went and sat in the community hall and began transcribing the recordings. I loaded the video files onto the computer, split each file into segments and then write down what is said in each segment. Finally I translate it into English. Transcription is hard work and I find that sitting in the hall allows people to come when they’re interested and leave when they’re bored. I did a first pass of transcription for about 10 minutes of recording which took me about 2 hours.

After this, I spotted a group of men playing cards and so I went up to them and asked if they could spare two people. Yuga and Käza were chosen/volunteered and I took them to Kagär’s house to the the Family Problem Picture Task again. They chose a different order than the first pair so it was interesting. 

After they finished and left, it was already early evening and Kagär and her husband Giniya were sitting near me just relaxing. Another query on my agenda is figuring out the kinship system. So together I drew up a family tree of Kagär and Giniya then recorded each of them saying the name for the relationship of each person in their tree and what that person calls them. This turned out to be a really great way to organize the system! There’s a lot of variation in some of the kin terms and so if I want to find out which term is most common, I simply need to draw trees, record what people say and then do a count! Moreover, I’ll have a really beautiful village tree by the end!

After this it was already late afternoon. I packed up my recording equipment and headed home. There, I finished my laundry which I had left to soak in a bucket for the day and tuned in to a conversation happening nearby. In it, I learned that Warama needs a calendar and in fact many people want/need calendars. After this, I hung my clothes to dry, and brought everything into the house. I got out the art supplies and made Warama a small calendar to reference and a template so that I can make more for people who help me. A helpful way to say thank you. Wagiba came home from fishing with plenty of fish, which made me happy since I missed lunch and had only eaten a banana and quarter of sago in the morning. While dinner cooked, I took my laptop under the mosquito net on the balcony and uploaded all the recordings for the day, filled in the metadata for each one, and segmented the recordings for transcription tomorrow. I also added some new words to the dictionary. I made a backup of all the files, then sat down for dinner with Wagiba, Warama, and Ibetty. After dinner I finished up a bit more segmentation, cleaned up the first aid supply room. Had a laugh with Wagiba, when I asked her to come get rid of a big spider, then brushed teeth and went to bed. Now I’m laying in bed with the sat phone out the window, typing up this blog post on my phone and answering sat phone messages from throughout the day. 

All in all, a great day!

Kate