that munanga linguist

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 ...

So many weeks, so many communities, so many interviews but no updates on this blog since I got all excited about the start of my Kriol Proujek ! Oops! In case you're new here, I'm working on a research project trying to figure out dialects of Kriol. The plan is to visit all the communities east of Katherine where Kriol is spoken, interview people (asking the same questions each time) and work out what differs linguistically (and what doesn't) between communities. It's old fashioned dialectology  basically - not very different from what people in England or America did when they went from state to state or village to village to lookout for different dialects. Except it's with Kriol. Well, two and a half months in and the project is going really well. I've visited seven communities: Bulman, Beswick, Barunga, Jilkminggan, Minyerri, Urapunga and Borroloola and done twenty interviews involving 42 people. That means I now have about 40 hours of Kriol recordings to...

The other day a discussion topic came through via email about 'supporting community researchers in the field'. The discussion topic was introduced as: The ways that linguists work with communities is starting to change. The idea of doing research on or in a community is shifting to doing research with the community. The movement towards community-based and participatory fieldwork models in Linguistics mirrors shifts in other disciplines such as health research. Okay, I know the above was just a quick way to introduce the topic but it tapped into a bigger issue and I felt the need to write the following... *steps up on to soapbox*  Disclaimer: I'm not criticising the many of us who do linguistic fieldwork and try our best (often with great success) to increase local involvement, exchange skills and knowledge and so on. Nor am I criticising the organisations who do deliver great training and do great community-based work. Nor am I implying that this is a redundant ...

I spent last week in Ngukurr and it was great to be back. It’d been eight months since my last visit which is waaay too long. In addition to that, a lot of the time I spent there last year was dedicated to helping the Language Centre . But this trip I actually got to devote some time to doing proper language work again. My academic mission for the week was to find out about what young people know about bush medicine and how much they use it. But on a personal level I was just looking forward to going back, seeing everyone again and seeing the Language Centre in operation again. It was a great week with many highlights, despite my arm being in a cast due to a fractured hand (3 rd metacarpal to be precise). Highlights of the week included: Seeing many many people from Ngukurr who I realise now, kind of for the first time, that I’ve known for a really long time. I was interviewing a guy who’s now 27 and it dawned on me that I’ve known him since he was 19! Kinda f...