Episodes

Wednesday Apr 19, 2023
Ep. 43: Language Documentation & Revitalization in Canada with Nicholas Welch
Wednesday Apr 19, 2023
Wednesday Apr 19, 2023
This month's episode is with Nicholas Welch from Memorial University of Newfoundland. Nicholas is the Canada Research Chair in Change, Adaptation and Revitalization of Aboriginal Languages and Assistant Professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland. He received his B.A. and M.A. in Linguistics from the University of Victoria. His Ph.D. is from the University of Calgary and his dissertation was entitled: "The bearable lightness of being: The encoding of coincidence in two- copula languages". He has done extensive research on Dene and Algonquian morphosyntax, and has also done language revitalization work with languages of Labrador. In addition to teaching and research, Nicholas also runs the YouTube channel, Labrador Languages Preservation Laboratory (LLPL).
Things mentioned in this episode:

Tuesday Jan 31, 2023
Ep. 42: Michelle Kamigaki-Baron on Pidgin & Secwepemctsín Language Research
Tuesday Jan 31, 2023
Tuesday Jan 31, 2023
This month's very special episode is with Michelle Kamigaki-Baron. Michelle is a PhD student in the department of Linguistics at the University of British Columbia. She was born and raised in Hawai’i into a family of coffee plantation laborers from Honaunau, Hawai’i. Her research primarily involves speech production and perception, how these processes are changed in the context of bilingualism or bidialectalism of languages that exist in diglossia, and the continuous nature of language. She works primarily with the Secwepemc community in BC with speakers of the Secwepemctsín language and also with her own community in Hawai’i with speakers of Pidgin and ‘Ōlelo Hawai’i. In her free time Michelle enjoys swimming in the ocean, spending time with friends and family, eating out, thrifting, and trying to kidnap her dog frens.
Things mentioned in this episode:

Friday Dec 30, 2022
Friday Dec 30, 2022
This month’s episode is with Ambrocio Gutiérrez Lorenzo from the University of Colorado Boulder. Ambrocio earned his PhD at the University of Texas at Austin in 2021. He earned his MA in 2014 at the Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social (CIESAS), Mexico. He is a documentary and descriptive linguist whose research focuses on the syntax and semantics of the Zapotec (Otomanguean) languages of southern Mexico. He has also worked on adjacent areas of phonology and morphology and has broad interests across all the linguistic subfields, including especially discourse analysis and historical linguistics.
He promotes work on indigenous languages by native speakers and members of heritage communities. He himself is a native speaker of Teotitlán del Valle Zapotec and he has collaborated with other Zapotec and non-Zapotec colleagues to develop academic and revitalization materials.
Things mentioned in this episode:

Friday Nov 25, 2022
Ep. 40: Jessica Coon on Mayan Language Documentation & Consulting on Arrival
Friday Nov 25, 2022
Friday Nov 25, 2022
Today's episode is with Jessica Coon, an Associate Professor in the Department of Linguistics at McGill University and Canada Research Chair in Syntax and Indigenous Languages.
Much of Jessica’s work has focused on Mayan languages, in particular Ch’ol (a language of southern Mexico) and Chuj (a language of Guatemala). She has also researched Mi’gmaq, an Algonquian language of eastern Canada. In addition to theoretical work on these languages, She has worked to build collaborations with the communities of speakers who are working to document, promote, and revitalize these languages. At McGill, Jessica co-leads the Montreal Under-documented Languages and Linguistics Lab. She is also the current director of the Indigenous Studies and Community Engagement Initiative (ISCEI).
Jessica was also a consultant on the film Arrival, which features a field linguist as the main protagonist, played by Amy Adams.
Things mentioned in this episode:

Wednesday Oct 26, 2022
Ep. 39: Eric W. Campbell on Otomanguean Language Documentation & Mobilization
Wednesday Oct 26, 2022
Wednesday Oct 26, 2022
This month's episode is with Eric W. Campbell, an Associate Professor of linguistics at University of California, Santa Barbara. Eric received his PhD from the University of Texas at Austin in 2014. Eric is a field linguist who is interested in all levels of linguistic structure and historical linguistics. Eric approaches language in its social and cultural context, focusing on less-studied languages, especially the Otomanguean languages spoken in Mexico and California.
Things mentioned in this episode:
- Zapotec languages
- Purépecha language
- Chatino languages
- Zenzontepec Chatino
- Otomanguean languages
- Mayan languages
- Mixtec language
- San Martín Duraznos Mixtec (ELAR Deposit)
- The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman (1997)
- Hmong language
- MICOP
- Endangered Languages Documentation Programme
- Transient Waves (Eric’s band)
- Mexican Indigenous Languages Promotion and Advocacy project (MILPA)
- Radio Indigena 94.1 FM
- Ep 27: Field Notes Live Show with Hilaria Cruz on Field Linguistics & Chatino
- Let's Learn Mixteco (Carmen Hernández Martínez)
- Let's Learn Mixteco Youtube channel (Carmen Hernández Martínez)
- Sà'án Sàvǐ ñà Yukúnanǐ (Jeremías Salazar & Guillem Belmar)
- Comachuen P'orhe Youtube channel (Martín Gabriel Ruiz)

Thursday Sep 29, 2022
Ep. 38: Anthony C. Woodbury on Language Documentation & Field Linguistics Training
Thursday Sep 29, 2022
Thursday Sep 29, 2022
This month's guest is Anthony C. Woodbury, Professor of Linguistics at the University of Texas at Austin. Woodbury has taught in the UT Linguistics Department since 1980, serving as its chair for nine years. He was elected Fellow of the Linguistic Society of America in 2017, and Vice-President and President of the Society for 2022 and 2023. Woodbury's research focuses on the Indigenous languages of the Americas, and how they reveal general as well as historic linguistic diversity and creativity on the parts of their speakers. He began work with Unangan-Yupik-Inuit languages in 1974, especially Cup’ik in Chevak, Alaska, and in 2003 he became engaged, together with a cohort of then-graduate students, in the documentation and description of Chatino, an Otomanguean language group of Oaxaca, Mexico. Themes in his writing have included tone and prosody; morphology, syntax, and historical linguistics; ethnopoetics and speech play and verbal art; and language documentation, revitalization, and the role of linguistics in the struggle for human rights and intellectual justice, especially under conditions of language shift that is directly or indirectly coerced. He is also co-director, with Patience Epps, of the digital Archive for Indigenous Languages of Latin America at UT's Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies. He now centers his teaching on Ph.D. and other training in linguistics for speakers of Indigenous languages of the Americas.
Things mentioned in this episode:
5. Sugt’stun (Pacific Yupik) language
6. Cugtun (Central Alaskan Yupik) language
7. Nora England Oral History Project
8. Anthony C. Woodbury on Google Scholar and Academia
11. Superlinguo Blog
Recommended Reading:
Anthony C. Woodbury (2003). Defining documentary linguistics. In Peter K. Austin (ed.) Language Documentation and Description, vol 1. London: SOAS. pp. 35-51 http://www.elpublishing.org/docs/1/01/ldd01_05.pdf
Anthony Woodbury, Compiler/Editor. 1984. Cev’armiut qanemciit qulirait=llu: Eskimo narratives and tales from Chevak, Alaska. Told by Tom Imgalrea, Jacob Nash, Thomas Moses, Leo Moses, and Mary Kokrak; translated by Leo Moses and Anthony Woodbury. Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska. 88 pp. [Cup’ik texts with linguistic and cultural introduction.] Text Audio
Emiliana Cruz & Anthony C. Woodbury. Collaboration in the context of teaching, scholarship, and language revitalization: Experience from the Chatino Language Documentation Project. Language Documentation & Conservation 8: 262-286. Special issue: Keren Rice & Bruna Franchetto, (guest eds.), Community Collaboration in the Americas. http://hdl.handle.net/10125/24607

Tuesday Aug 30, 2022
Ep. 37: Linguistic Fieldwork with Claire Bowern
Tuesday Aug 30, 2022
Tuesday Aug 30, 2022
Welcome to a new season of Field Notes! This month, Claire Bowern is on the pod for Season Four's inaugural episode. Claire Bowern is a historical linguist whose research is centered around language change and language documentation in Indigenous Australia. She received her BA in LInguistics and Classics from the Australian National University, and her PhD in linguistics from Harvard University. She works with speakers of endangered languages, with archival sound and print materials, and uses computational and phylogenetic methods. She is currently the editor of the journal Diachronica. She is a professor in Linguistics at Yale University, and is also the author of Linguistic Fieldwork: A Practical Guide (2008).
Things mentioned in this episode:
- Bardi language
- Pama–Nyungan language
- Ngalia language
- Australian Aboriginal English
- Australian Kriol
- River in Kullilli (with Toby Adams)
- Kullilli Ngulkana
- Field Notes Ep 19: Dreamtime Narratives & Language Sustainability with Dorothea Hoffmann
- MalakMalak language
-
Claire on Twitter: @anggarrgoon

Wednesday Mar 30, 2022
Ep. 36: Quechuan Language Documentation & Revitalization with Gladys Camacho Ríos
Wednesday Mar 30, 2022
Wednesday Mar 30, 2022
In this final Season 3 episode, Gladys Camacho Ríos discusses her work on her native language, South Bolivian Quechua. Gladys works with elderly monolingual Quechua speakers in rural Bolivia. She is a PhD candidate in Linguistics at the University of Texas at Austin. She previously earned two MA degrees; one in Latin American Studies from New York University in 2016 and a MA in Linguistics from the University of Texas at Austin in 2019. Field Notes will be back in August 2022 with monthly episodes for Season 4.
Things mentioned in this episode:

Tuesday Feb 01, 2022
Ep 35: Azamgarhi Language Documentation with Maaz Shaikh
Tuesday Feb 01, 2022
Tuesday Feb 01, 2022
Today’s episode is with Maaz Shaikh, a Junior Research Fellow pursuing his Ph.D. at the Centre for Linguistics, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, India. Maaz is an emerging linguist having research interests primarily in language documentation and description, along with language revitalization, phonology, morpho-syntax, and historical linguistics. Last year, Maaz successfully defended his M.Phil. thesis at JNU on his heritage language Azamgarhi—a unique Indo-Aryan language, of which he is a semi-speaker. In this episode we will hear from Maaz on his experiences and opinions of “documenting” a language as an “insider” to the community. Besides his areal interests of his native Indo-Aryan region, he is also now documenting Zangskari, an endangered language of Ladakh (India).
Things mentioned in this episode:

Wednesday Dec 29, 2021
Ep 34: Ana D. Alonso Ortiz on Zapotec Language Documentation & Revitalization
Wednesday Dec 29, 2021
Wednesday Dec 29, 2021
Ana D. Alonso Ortiz is a Zapotec researcher and translator from Oaxaca, Mexico. She is an Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director of the Amerindian Studies and Bilingual Education master’s program at the University of Queretaro. Her research focuses on the language description and language revitalization of Yalalag Zapotec, specifically promoting the language by working with child language acquisition.
She is currently developing a language course of Zapotec as a Second Language. Ana has worked on the production of educational materials in Zapotec in coordination with the Dill Yel Nbán Collective, a group of Zapotec scholars who seek to promote the Zapotec language. Ana received her PhD from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 2021.
Things mentioned in this episode:
- Zapotec Languages
- Yalálag Zapotec
- Ana on Academia
- Ana on Twitter: @AnaAlonsoOrtiz
Get in touch:
Website: https://fieldnotespod.com
Email: fieldnotespod@gmail.com
Twitter & Instagram: @lingfieldnotes