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Language and Culture Documentation Manual

Sarah Ruth Moeller, Stephen Self, Brenda H. Boerger, and Will Reiman

Here it is--why to document, what to document, and how to document all in one book, with help for the beginning documenter as well as those with experience. It is appropriate for individual use, as a manual in the field, or for classroom instruction. 

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The authors draw on experience from Africa, Europe, Asia and the Pacific to passionately convey why language and culture documentation is urgent and why working ethically is crucial. This is followed by step-by-step instructions about what to document, leading to the specifics needed for writing a documentation proposal. The book includes recommendations for equipment and software, with details about how to get archive quality recordings. Data management and preparing the corpus for archiving are thoroughly covered. The appendices include forms and summaries the reader will want to refer to often. 

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Author

About the Authors

Sarah Ruth Moeller

Sarah is a professor of Computational Language Science at University of Florida. She has a PhD in computational linguistics from University of Colorado Boulder. She earned her MA in descriptive linguistics at Dallas International Univeristy and conducted language documentation fieldwork in the Caucasus Mountains, focusing her research on archiving best practices. She worked with software developers to improve the language documentation specific software SayMore and co-developed the SayMore tutorial.

Stephen Self

Stephen is an independent researcher no longer directly involved with language documentation or even linguistics, but whose heart remains with those who are among their language's last speakers and their communities' last knowers. May they never be forgotten.

Brenda H. Boerger

Brenda H. Boerger received her Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Texas at Austin, writing on a phonological reconstruction of Proto-Gypsy. She and her family lived in the Solomon Islands on and off for 20 years, where she worked in Natügu [ntu] language development and helped train national and expatriate colleagues in linguistics and Bible translation. She is a consultant for Language and Culture Documentation at SIL Global and a Research Fellow at Dallas International University (DIU). Brenda has twice received 12-month, US government fellowships for Documenting Endangered Languages, one to work on a Natügu [ntu] grammar, published in 2023 and another to work on a dictionary and legacy texts, her current task. She also publishes and lectures on translating the Psalms as poetry and song, both in English, as well as minority languages around the world.

Will Reiman

Will Reiman has been gathering and teaching about linguistic and cultural data collections for over a decade. Experiences include media-based data collection in Mozambique, Kenya, Guinea Bissau, and Dallas, Texas, with workshops in those locations as well as Indonesia and British Columbia. He has also been co-instructor of the Language Documentation course at the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics since its inception in 2009. He received his first MA, in Linguistics, from the University of Texas at Arlington, and is currently working on his second, in Information Science, at the University of North Texas.

Contents

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

  1. Part 1: Theory

Chapter 1. What is language endangerment?

  1. Numbers of language
  2. “Endangered” linguistic purity abroad and through time
  3. Causes of language endangerment
  4. Speakers of endangered languages
  5. Assessing language endangerment
  6. Chapter Questions

Chapter 2. What is Language Documentation?

  1. Language documentation as external memory
  2. Language documentation as linguistic and anthropological fieldwork
  3. Language documentation as a shift of focus from earlier fieldwork
  4. The core tasks of language documentation
  5. The Seven Dimensions of Portability
  6. Chapter Questions

Chapter 3. What is Culture Documentation?

  1. Cultural features to document
  2. Discovering and analyzing a community’s cultural heritage through ethnoarts
  3. Sample analysis: Santa Cruz nelâ dance event
  4. Chapter Questions

Chapter 4. Language and Culture Documentation: Themes and Motivations

  1. Increased interest in language and culture documentation
  2. Language Documentation as activism
  3. Who are we trying to convince? The problem of multiple audiences
  4. Finding common ground
  5. The arguments for language and culture documentation
  6. Why not do language and culture documentation
  7. Chapter Questions

Chapter 5. Ethics: Theory, Planning, Reality

  1. Ethics in theory
  2. Planning for ethical field work
  3. Ethical realities in the field
  4. Conclusion
  5. Chapter Questions
  6. Part 2: A Language and Culture Documentation Project

Chapter 6. Planning a Language and Culture Documentation Project

  1. Researching the language and culture
  2. Finding funding sources
  3. Initiating community involvement
  4. Planning a corpus
  5. Making a project schedule
  6. Choosing an archive
  7. Writing a language and culture documentation project proposal
  8. Respecting intellectual property rights
  9. Developing a data management system
  10. Building a team
  11. Training for yourself and others
  12. Selecting equipment, software, and supplies
  13. Making a budget
  14. Obtaining permissions
  15. Planning travel logistics
  16. Conducting an advance visit to the field site (optional)
  17. Chapter Questions

Chapter 7. A Project Proposal

  1. Succinct and compelling title for your documentary project
  2. Introduction/Abstract
  3. Project overview and outcomes
  4. Plan of the corpus
  5. Methodology
  6. Ethics statement, permissions, and community review
  7. Work plan and schedule
  8. Data management plan
  9. Resources and budget
  10. Summary, Significance, Conclusion
  11. References
  12. Appendices
  13. Chapter Questions

Chapter 8. The Documentary Corpus

  1. Goals and characteristics of a documentary corpus
  2. Components of a complete corpus
  3. Five types of data and their sub-types
  4. How much to record
  5. A simple fieldwork approach

Chapter 9. Archives

  1. Finding an archive
  2. Criteria for a responsible archive
  3. Working with an archive
  4. Chapter Questions
  5. Part 3: Methods and Equipment

Chapter 10. Capturing Quality Audio and Visual Data

  1. Desired outcomes for audio and visual data
  2. How to pursue desired outcomes for audio and visual data
  3. Chapter Questions

Chapter 11. Equipment

  1. What to consider when selecting equipment
  2. Basic rules for buying equipment
  3. The core recording tools
  4. Peripheral recording tools
  5. Direct-to-computer recording
  6. Equipment not in the Signal Chain
  7. Final thoughts
  8. Shopping help
  9. Chapter Questions

Chapter 12. Basic Oral Language Documentation (BOLD)

  1. Overview
  2. The BOLD process
  3. BOLD in the field: Who should do what, where, and how
  4. Advantages and disadvantages to BOLD
  5. Computer-assisted oral annotation
  6. Activities for BOLD practice

Chapter 13. Software

  1. Language and Culture Documentation as Digital Activity
  2. Guidelines for selecting software
  3. Core software
  4. A Word about video software
  5. Expanding your software toolkit
  6. Chapter Questions
  7. Part 4: Fieldwork

Chapter 14. Data Management

  1. What is metadata?
  2. Levels of metadata
  3. Gathering metadata
  4. Bundling data
  5. Labeling
  6. Access protocol: A very important piece of metadata
  7. Backing up data
  8. Chapter Questions

Chapter 15. Elicitation: Tips, Techniques, and Tools

  1. Eliciting words
  2. Eliciting grammatical constructions
  3. Eliciting communicative events
  4. Eliciting analytical discussions
  5. Chapter Questions

Chapter 16. Fieldwork Flow

  1. Tips for time management
  2. Arrival logistics
  3. Workflow of sociolinguistic preparation
  4. General workflow of fieldwork tasks
  5. Example workflows for elicited data
  6. Workflow of speech events with oral annotations
  7. Workflow of written transcription
  8. Workflow of analytical discussions
  9. Workflow of cultural events
  10. Workflow of departure logistics
  11. Chapter Questions
  12. Part 5: Post-field Processing

Chapter 17. Archiving

  1. Digitization of legacy materials
  2. Conduct quality assurance
  3. Finish annotations
  4. Finish item-level metadata
  5. Finish the structural skeleton (corpus-level metadata)
  6. Review the documentary corpus
  7. Contact the archive and deposit the corpus
  8. Keep the corpus discoverable and accessible
  9. Chapter Questions

Chapter 18. Description and Publishing in Language and Culture Documentation

  1. The importance of dissemination
  2. Citing an archived corpus
  3. Publishing and language revitalization
  4. Appendices

Appendix A. Ethnoarts Discovery and Analysis Profile

  1. Instructions:
  2. <COMMUNITY NAME>
  3. Step 1: Meet and identify the community
  4. Step 2: Explore the community’s social & conceptual life
  5. Step 3: List cultural events & arts genres in them
  6. Step 4: Identify & record significant events & genres
  7. Step 5: Analyze the selected event(s) and genre(s)
  8. Step 6: AV record the relevant genres and events again, if needed; add appropriate annotation
  9. References—

Appendix B. Oral Informed Consent, Template 1

  1. Group Introduction, General Permission
  2. Permissions From Individuals Being Recorded

Appendix C. Written Informed Consent

  1. Informed Consent Release for Audio/Video/Photo Recording

Appendix D. Funding Sources for Language and Culture Documentation

  1. International Funding
  2. Funding for US nationals or residents

Appendix E: How Much of Which Genres to Collect

Appendix F. What to Collect with Limited Time

Appendix G. Functions of Language

  1. Survival Functions
  2. Social Functions
  3. Self-expressive Functions
  4. Cognitive Functions
  5. Managing conversations

Appendix H. Comparing Major Archives

Appendix I. Archival Best Practice for Audio Files

Appendix J. Checklist for Audio Recording

  1. Before the “performance” begins
  2. Record the event
  3. After the “performance” is over

Appendix K. Oral Annotation Setup

  1. The Basic Setup
  2. Setup for Equipment with no XLR Jacks
  3. Setting Up Menus and Control Use

Appendix L. Segmenting with Audacity

  1. Specific Steps using Audacity to segment files

Appendix M. Metadata Template - Communicative Event

Appendix N. Metadata Template

Appendix O. Script for Capturing Catastrophic Metadata

  1. 1. Slotted Catastrophic Metadata
  2. 2. Conversational Catastrophic Metadata

Appendix P. File Labeling Key

  1. Rules of Digital File Naming

Appendix Q. The Mirrored Recliner

Appendix R. Sample Plan for “Basic Corpus” Fieldwork

Appendix S. Daily Fieldwork Sessions: A Checklist

  1. Before walking out the door
  2. Arriving on site
  3. A Recording session
  4. Before leaving the site
  5. At the end of the day

Appendix T: Corpus Introduction Template

  1. I. Introduction.
  2. II. The language community.
  3. III. Previous work in the language.
  4. IV. The need for documentation.
  5. V. Plan of the corpus.
  6. VI. Terms of use.
  7. VII. Community review.
  8. VIII. Planning.
  9. IX. Methodology.
  10. X. Acknowledgments.
  11. References.
  12. Appendices.

Appendix U: Checklist for Reviewing an LCD Corpus

  1. Glossary
  2. References

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