Fieldwork today

[endangered-languages-l at carmen.murdoch.edu.au]

Allan Wechsler speaks my mind:

>Doing real linguistic fieldwork is a dream of mine that I will probably
never be able to satisfy -- I have two kids to raise and send through
college<

Try being a 58 year old physician! I've been a linguistics field work wannabe
for forty years.

>The Malayalam speaker down the hall has agreed to have lunch sometime -- but
I don't think she knows what she's in for.<

The last time I got hold of a Malayalam speaker, she was one of my clients -
she was briefing me on her medical practice so I could cover her practice for
the next month while she went to India! That for the only language in the
world that just MAY have contrasting dental, alveolar, and retroflex stops.

So I'm a linguistic tourist - my wife looks at ruins while I chase after
languages - done Welsh, Yucatec Maya, and Frisian that way. Now she wants to
go to Malta - anybody know where I could get some Maltese tapes?

Bob Richmond
Knoxville TN
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