Field Notes Martha Tsutsui Billins
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- Society & Culture
A podcast about linguistic fieldwork, where seasoned fieldworkers share their stories from the field of language documentation & description.
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Ep. 50: Field Notes Finale! Martha Tsutsui Billins & Laura Tsutsui on Amami Sociolinguistic Research
Happy International Mother Language Day! After 5 seasons, this is the final episode of Field Notes! Today's interview is between Laura Tsutsui (Field Notes producer) and Martha Tsutsui Billins (Field Notes host) on Amami sociolinguistic research, plus a look back at the last five years of podcasting. Thanks so much for listening!
Things mentioned in this episode:
Uchinaa Yamatu-guchi
Yaeyama language
Amami languages
Ryukyuan language family
Uchinaaguchi (Okinawan) language
Miyako language
Dunan (Yonaguni) language
Pragmatic Consequences of Language Shift: A Contrastive Study of Politeness Marker Loss in Northern Ryukyuan (van der Lubbe, Tsutsui & Heinrich, 2021)
Lingthusiasm Podcast
Ep 3: Lyle Campbell on Language Documentation in the Americas
Ep 6: Madoka Hammine on Insider Research in the Ryukyus
Ep 21: Community-Based Documentation with Sheena Shah
Endangered Languages Archive
Ep. 45: Patrick Heinrich on Ryukyuan Language Documentation and Revitalization
Ep. 46: Kate Lindsey on Idi and Ende Language Documentation in Papua New Guinea
JET Programme
National Science Foundation
SBE Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF)
Grandad: Fresno State's Archaeological Field School
SOAS, University of London
International Conference on Language Documentation & Conservation -
Ep. 49: Alexandra Philbin on Irish and Catalan Language Research & Revitalization
This episode is with Alexandra Philbin. Alexandra is originally from Dublin, Ireland, and now lives in València, Spain. She is carrying out doctoral research in the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology at the University of València. Her research focuses on the experiences of urban speakers of minoritized languages, particularly Irish speakers in Dublin and Valencian (Catalan) speakers in València. Before moving to València, she completed an undergraduate degree in World Languages at University College Cork, and a master’s degree in Linguistic Anthropology at Maynooth University. She also taught Irish to adult learners and carried out research on Irish-medium education on behalf of the Irish government. As well as completing her PhD research, Alexandra teaches Irish and works as a Language Revitalization Mentor with the Endangered Languages Project, offering free, online support to those working to promote Indigenous and minoritized languages around the world.
Things mentioned in this episode
Irish language
Galician language
Catalan language
Endangered Languages Project
Ep. 48: Yulha Lhawa on Khroskyabs Language Documentation & Revitalization
Endangered Languages Project Mentorship Program
Ep 24: Pius Akumbu on Insider Research in Babanki
Pop-Up Gaeltacht
Celtic languages
Manx language
Welsh language
Breton language
Cornish language
Scottish Gaelic language
Association of Celtic Students
Alexandra’s email: alexandra AT endangeredlanguages.com
Alexandra on Twitter: @Alexandra_Phil_
Alexandra on Instagram: @irlandesaalavalenciana -
Ep. 48: Yulha Lhawa on Khroskyabs Language Documentation & Revitalization
This month's episode is with Yulha Lhawa from the University of Washington and the Endangered Languages Project.
Yulha Lhawa, originally from Siyuewu Village in Sichuan, China, is a passionate advocate for her community's traditions and language. Growing up as a yak herder, Yulha developed an interest in linguistics during high school. This interest fueled her to create the trilingual book "Warming Your Hands by Moonlight," aimed at preserving local history and folklore. Taking her dedication a step further, Yulha journeyed to the United States from the Himalayas to study linguistics at the University of Oregon. Currently, she's pursuing a Master's in computational linguistics at the University of Washington, hoping to merge her linguistic knowledge with modern technology to contribute to the preservation of her community's cultural heritage.
Things mentioned in this episode
Khroskyabs language
Gyalrongic languages
Tibeto-Burman languages
Endangered Languages Project
Endangered Languages Project Mentorship Program
Khroskyabs on YouTube
Field Notes Patreon -
Ep. 47: Karolina Grzech on Evidentiality and Epistemicity in Quechuan Languages
This month's episode is with Dr. Karolina Grzech at the University of Valencia. Karolina is a documentary and descriptive linguist, working mostly on Quechuan languages and natural language use. Her main topics of research are evidentiality (encoding how we know things) and epistemicity (encoding different aspects of knowledge). She is particularly interested in how these categories play out in natural discourse. She also researches pragmatics in general, and, language endangerment and methodology of linguistic fieldwork, with special reference to the indigenous language of South America. Karolina is also interested in the socio-economic issues which affect minority and endangered languages and the communities which use them.
Finally, if you are interested in learning more about Quechuan languages, last season Field Notes aired an interview with Gladys Camacho Ríos on her work with her native language, South Bolivian Quechua (episode linked below in show notes).
Things mentioned in this episode:
MA in Language Documentation & Description at SOAS, University of London
Endangered Languages Documentation Programme
Endangered Languages Archive
Field Notes Ep. 46: Kate Lindsey on Idi and Ende Language Documentation in Papua New Guinea
Shuar language
Kichwa language
Endangered oral traditions of Kichwa-speaking Ecuador: collaborative documentation of Chibuleo Kichwa / Tradiciones orales amenazadas del Ecuador Kichwa-hablante: documentación colaborativa del Kichwa de Chibuleo(ELAR deposit)
Upper Napo Kichwa: documentation of language and culture (ELAR deposit)
Endangered oral traditions of Kichwa-speaking Ecuador: collaborative documentation of Upper Napo Kichwa / Tradiciones orales amenazadas del Ecuador Kichwa-hablante: documentación colaborativa del Kichwa de Alto Napo (ELAR deposit)
Field Notes Ep. 36: Quechuan Language Documentation & Revitalization with Gladys Camacho Ríos
Language Landscape
Karolina on Google Scholar
Karolina on ResearchGate
Karolina on Academia -
Ep. 46: Kate Lindsey on Idi and Ende Language Documentation in Papua New Guinea
This month's episode is with Dr. Kate Lindsey. Kate is a professor of linguistics and co-director of the Structures of Under-Researched Languages lab at Boston University. Her research has both theoretical and documentary applications. Her theoretical work focuses on the analysis of underspecification and variation in phonological systems supported primarily by field data. Her dissertation utilized original data from eleven months of fieldwork with Ende speakers of Limol village, Papua New Guinea to explore the interaction of so-called ghost elements pervasive in Ende phonology. Current research projects include extended fieldwork in the South Fly area of Papua New Guinea to support the first reference grammar of Ende, a typological study of the Pahoturi River language family, and theoretical analyses of vowel harmony and phonological reduplication.
Things mentioned in this episode
Hopi language
Chuvash language
Nen language
Pahoturi language family
Idi language
Ende language
Ende Tän e Indrang (Light into Ende Tribe)
Kate's email: klindsey@bu.edu
Where There Is No Doctor: A Village Health Care Handbook -
Ep. 45: Patrick Heinrich on Ryukyuan Language Documentation and Revitalization
Field Notes is back for its fifth and final season! Season five's inagural episode is with Patrick Heinrich from the Ca' Foscari University of Venice. Patrick received his Masters degree in Linguistics and Japanese Studies in 1998 from Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf. He completed his PhD in Japanese Studies in 2002 at Duisburg University. He is a sociolinguist who has worked extensively in the Ryukyuan archipelago, and has written many publications on language ideology, language shift, language reclamation, language planning and policy, and language and well-being. Along with Shinsho Miyara and Michinori Shimoji, he is the co-editor of the Handbook of the Ryukyuan Languages (2015). He is also co-editor of Language Crisis in the Ryukyus (2014), along with Mark Anderson.
Things mentioned in this episode:
Ryukyuan language family
Uchinaaguchi (Okinawan) language
Miyako language
Dunan (Yonaguni) language
Yaeyama language
Amami languages
Educated Not to Speak Our Language: Language Attitudes and Newspeakerness in the Yaeyaman Language(Hammine, 2020)
Language Shift in the Ryukyu Islands (Anderson, 2019)
Byron Fija on Ryukyuan Languages in Uchinaaguchi
Ladino language
Yonaguni film
Yonaguni Fotografia Europea photo project (Anush Hamzehian and Vittorio Mortarotti- more info found here and catalogue found here)
Rice Island, Satellite Island, Border Island: Yonaguni Across Time (Heinrich, 2021)
Patrick on ResearchGate
Madoka Hammine on ResearchGate
If you are interested in Ryukyuan linguistics, check out previous Field Notes episodes with Prof. Michinori Shimoji and Madoka Hammine:
Ep 28: Irabu Ryukyuan Language Documentation with Michinori Shimoji
Ep 6: Madoka Hammine on Insider Research in the Ryukyus