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These Kriol interviews make me smile

I'm knee-deep in transcribing Kriol interviews that I did last year for this Kriol Proujek, being ably assisted by some Summer Research Scholars from UQ and, before Christmas, some Kriol-speaking language workers from Ngukurr. (See here for a neat little story about their work).

Pretty regularly, while transcribing, I smile, laugh and really enjoy some of the chat I hear. The lovely examples are endless really. The recordings are just wonderful (in my humble opinion).

I won't go into a lot of detail (or share any examples that might be a bit too personal or identifiable), but here's one that made me giggle this afternoon, when I transcribed the part of the interview where I asked two young guys if they use a regionalised term for 'scavenge': gubarl:

Q: Yu sabi det 'gubarl'?
A: Yuwai! Ai oldei gubarlgubarl grawun faibsen burru eberriwe la grawun!

 Q: Do you know (the word) gubarl?
A: Yeah! I'm always 'gubarl'-ing the ground (for) five cents, from everywhere on the ground!

[giggling ensues]

I don't know... maybe you had to be there, but I lolled. The enthusiasm behind the answer was not what I was expecting!

Moral of the story - Kriol is fun and sociolinguistic interviews are fun too.


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