A query...

[Mark P. Line]

Claire Bowern wrote:
> Dan Everett wrote:
>>
>> I have read many grammars that I am skeptical about at points. But I
>> have no way of checking it out, unless I actually visit the people and
>> do my own field research (which in phonology I have done - i.e. I have
>> visited villages and spent a few days recording and analyzing
>> phonological data, especially prosody, because the claims I had read
>> seemed unlikely. For example one language/people that I still want to
>> visit or would like sound files of is the Arawan language, Culina, for
>> which Pike - many, many years ago - claimed that there were no
>> syllables. Since the dictionary of Culina has words that look like all
>> the other Arawan languages (and I have done fieldwork on all of those) I
>> am betting that Culina has CV and CVV syllables (not the V and CV that
>> some claim) like all the other Arawan languages. If the data were
>> on-line, it would help resolve this mystery - just to take a random
>> example).
>>
>
> You could also email the author of the grammar.

(Only if the author is still alive.)


> For many people (and speech communities) there's a big difference between
> making large amounts of raw data generally available and discussing and
> sharing it with colleagues.

As for speech communities for which this holds, that's the ethical issue
we've already identified.

As for linguists for whom this holds, I've always wanted to meet one in
person so I could ask them 'why'.


-- Mark

Mark P. Line
Polymathix
San Antonio, TX