33.3179, All: ''The Return of the Field Linguist” Field Anecdote: Donlay

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-33-3179. Wed Oct 19 2022. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 33.3179, All: ''The Return of the Field Linguist” Field Anecdote: Donlay

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Editor for this issue: Maria Lucero Guillen Puon <luceroguillen at linguistlist.org>
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Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2022 21:21:37
From: Lucero Guillen [luceroguillen at linguistlist.org]
Subject: ''The Return of the Field Linguist” Field Anecdote: Donlay

 
This year, our theme for the Fund Drive is “The Return of the Field Linguist”,
celebrating 2022 as the year many of us were able to return to our fieldwork
post-pandemic. Throughout the Fund Drive, we hope to share stories of
exceptional field linguists. We hope you enjoy this humorous anecdote from Dr.
Chris Donlay of San Jose State University: 
 
Some years ago I was in China documenting Khatso, an endangered Tibeto-Burman
language spoken in a single farming village in Yunnan Province. The village
leaders gave me an office to work from, and every day my primary consultant,
KUI Li, and I would walk across the village to get lunch. Naturally, the
locals would greet Kui Li during the jaunt, but I couldn’t yet catch what they
were saying. A few months in, after we had built a good rapport, she asked me
if I’d understood exactly what was said. I hadn’t. So, she laughed and
proceeded to explain.
 
A bit of background is needed here. The Khatso village was originally quite
remote, but a couple of decades ago the government built a new highway running
right next to it. An enterprising family built a large restaurant on the
highway, and soon tourist buses began to stop for lunch. After lunch, the
visitors would wander around the open market next door. Mostly, the tourists
were Chinese, but a couple times a month a bus of Europeans would show up.
They didn’t speak Chinese, of course, so they would smile and greet everyone
by slowly saying “hal-lo” in the singsong intonation we use for foreigners and
young children.
 
Now, Khatso is a tonal language; it also has a verb-final structure, and given
arguments are usually omitted – especially first and second person. So this
“hallo” sounded to them like the Khatso phrase [xa55 lo35], containing a noun
and a verb. The verb [lo35] means ‘to herd’ as in herding animals to market.
The noun [xa55] means ‘rat’. So while the tourists were greeting everyone, the
little old ladies in the market heard a bizarre accusation, ‘(you) herd
rats!’. And it didn’t just happen once; busload after busload of foreign
tourists came through making the same accusation. The market ladies were very
perplexed, and this became a topic of conversation throughout the village.
Eventually it reached the ears of some younger folks who knew a bit of
English, and they explained that it wasn’t vile slander, but a simple
greeting. Everyone thought this misunderstanding was hilariously funny – the
Khatso have a great sense of humor – and it spawned two new phrases in the
language. Today, it refers to a foreign tourist or to the activity of hosting
a foreign tourist.
 
That’s why Kui Li was laughing. It turns out that when we walked to lunch, the
villagers weren’t asking after our health, they were saying to her, “Oh,
you’re herding rats today!”
 
Stories like this from the field are priceless... and well worth a donation to
LinguistList. No?
 
Sincerely, 

Lauren Perkins
Managing Editor
Careers Editor
Social Media Lead
The LINGUIST List
________________________
 
To donate to The LINGUIST List’s Fund Drive, please visit
https://funddrive.linguistlist.org/donate/. Even $5 makes a difference!

If you or someone you know have had an exciting, inspiring, or harrowing
experience in the field, or if you have a nugget of wisdom to pass down to
up-and-coming field linguists, we’d love to hear from YOU! 

You can write in to tell your own story, or nominate someone else to tell
theirs, via email at funddrive at linguistlist.org or lauren at linguistlist.org.
With your permission, these stories will be shared with the community during
our annual Fund Drive.  

We look forward to hearing your tales of fantastic fieldwork! 
 


Linguistic Field(s): Not Applicable



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