Hi Hussein, I'm just back yesterday from my second summer doing fieldwork whose ultimate goal is documenting *and* describing a minority African language (Badiaranke) of which I am definitely not a native speaker, but which I do by now speak. So: first of all, you definitely do not need to be a native speaker in order to document or describe a language, but you do need to work closely with native speakers (this perhaps goes without saying). Not all native speakers would be good describers of their language or have means to document it, nor are all linguists good at fieldwork - good language description takes a combination of a good understanding of linguistics, good elicitation and interpersonal skills, and good organizational and writing skills on the part of the linguist (who may or may not be a native speaker) as well as good linguistic instincts (e.g. grammaticality judgments, ability to explain fine differences in meaning, etc.) on the part of the native speaker(s), in addition to good command by both parties of a contact language if the linguist is not a native or proficient speaker of the language being studied. In my case, I started my fieldwork as a total non-speaker of Badiaranke but a fluent speaker of Pulaar, which enabled me both to communicate with my consultants and other villagers and to learn Badiaranke more quickly, since it is a related language and has some morpholological and syntactic similarities to Pulaar. But the fact that I now speak Badiaranke enables me to pick up on lots of data in naturally occurring speech, as well as on relevant topics of conversation (e.g. the sociolinguistic status of the language), that I might have missed otherwise; it also greatly speeds up my transcription and translation of texts, helps me make contacts in villages, enables me to understand what is happening around me everyday and at meetings, etc. etc. So no, you do not have to be a native speaker, but it is ALWAYS a good idea to learn to speak the language you are working on.
As for the difference between documentation and description: description involves just that, describing the language's phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics... as comprehensively as possible, in terminology appropriate for the intended audience (e.g. are you writing for other linguists and/or for the native speaker community and/or for non-linguist non-speakers?). Language description is important to linguistic science, by providing data and description of the language that help inform, and possibly change, theories of what language is and how it works. At the same time, it can be valuable for communities where the language is endangered, and non- or semi-speakers want to learn to speak the language. It is possible to describe a language without documenting it, but language documentation - especially of endangered languages - is extremely important as well. Documentation involves the collection of many, many "texts" - speech in as many genres as possible, e.g. conversations, stories, songs, plays, monologs - both in audio (and perhaps video) and written format (transcribed, glossed, and translated). Ideally these recordings (and transcriptions, etc.) should be archived somewhere such that they will not be lost. Description, if well done, is all well and good, but if a language dies out, description without documentation will not allow either linguists or the (former) speech community to hear (and read) the language as it was spoken, and to understand what it was really like. I have much more to say on this subject, but I'm extremely jetlagged and not able to write more now. If you have any more questions or requests for elaboration, I'd be very happy to answer them. Good luck! Rebecca > > Dear Friends, > > Do I need to be a native or fluent speaker of a > language in order > to start documenting and describing it?What is the > difference between > describing and documenting a language?I understand > that any effort in > language description is a step forward in > documenting it. > > Yours, > > Hussein Saeed. > > > > > > > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AfricanLanguages/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AfricanLanguages/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
