Newsletter - January 2004
When you last wrote, you were about to go to a meeting with two other SIL language teams to do some project reviewing and planning together. How did that go?
Very well, thanks! I enjoyed the meeting a lot and definitely came away encouraged and inspired about the work I'm involved in. That said, it was a little overwhelming to be reminded of just how much is involved in a Bible translation project, and how much remains to be done in the Sandawe project before translation can begin in earnest. Hopefully this feeling of being overwhelmed will translate (pun absolutely intended!) into putting more trust in God for the task ahead.
During the meeting we spent some time trying to understand more about the structure and linguistic features of stories in the languages we work on. We used some self-teaching material from an SIL linguistics consultant, but I was asked to give an introduction and overview of the material to start us off.
I enjoyed the chance to get back into 'teaching mode', and it was a nice change to be dealing with the area of linguistics which I most familiar with - I seem to have spent a lot of time recently working in other areas - more of which below!
Yes, you certainly may dare! I can report some actual, tangible, print-outable progress! I have spent a lot of time in the last few months concentrating on getting to grips with Sandawe tone, which is just one part of the phonology (sound system) of the language. After countless sessions with the language helper, lots of head scratching and one rather dramatic eureka moment, I can say with some confidence that I do now 'get' Sandawe tone. Well, to a certain extent, at least! And just before Christmas, hindered somewhat by a cloud-induced power shortage, I managed to type up the fruits of my labours into something which will eventually form one section of the phonology paper.
During the meeting we spent some time trying to understand more about the structure and linguistic features of stories in the languages we work on. We used some self-teaching material from an SIL linguistics consultant, but I was asked to give an introduction and overview of the material to start us off.
I enjoyed the chance to get back into 'teaching mode', and it was a nice change to be dealing with the area of linguistics which I most familiar with - I seem to have spent a lot of time recently working in other areas - more of which below!
This, by the way, is a rare picture of the Sandawe team at work - from right to left, Daniel and Elisabeth Hunziker, and me. It isn't rare that we are at work, I hasten to add, just rare that there is photographic evidence thereof!
So, what are these unfamiliar areas of linguistics that you have been working in recently?
I've spent a lot of time in the last few months writing up the results of the dialect survey, which Daniel, Elisabeth and I did in June and August. The writing up was a long job, but turned out to be quite enjoyable, and certainly very interesting. The findings generally confirmed our initial impressions that Sandawe doesn't differ much as you move around in the Sandawe speaking area. There are, however, some differences which have an impact on issues to do with the spelling of Sandawe words. It is hard to know which way to go on some of these issues.Last time you mentioned 'The Great Phonology Push'. Dare we ask how that is going?…
Yes, you certainly may dare! I can report some actual, tangible, print-outable progress! I have spent a lot of time in the last few months concentrating on getting to grips with Sandawe tone, which is just one part of the phonology (sound system) of the language. After countless sessions with the language helper, lots of head scratching and one rather dramatic eureka moment, I can say with some confidence that I do now 'get' Sandawe tone. Well, to a certain extent, at least! And just before Christmas, hindered somewhat by a cloud-induced power shortage, I managed to type up the fruits of my labours into something which will eventually form one section of the phonology paper.
You sound, umm, quite happy about this progress?!
Yes, just a little! But to be serious for a moment, Sandawe phonology has been the source of many, many struggles in the past - both for me and for my colleagues. It is a great encouragement to have made some progress, although we recognise that there is still some way to go. Some of the remaining areas to work on have an important bearing on Sandawe spelling issues.
What are you up to next? More of the same?
Nope, not at all! In a few days I'm being 'hired out' to work on a different SIL language project, one which is based in Mbeya, a town in southern Tanzania. I'm not abandoning Sandawe for good, but I will be spending a month with the Mbeya project. This time will be part of my training to be a linguistics consultant for SIL. From now on I will be splitting my time between training for this (25%) and working on Sandawe (75%).
With love,
Helen
So will you be doing the same kind of work in Mbeya that you have been doing for Sandawe?
And that's another resounding 'nope, not at all!'. The Mbeya project is about as different as you can get from the Sandawe project. For one thing it involves not one, but nine languages! These languages are all from the Bantu family, whereas Sandawe belongs to the Khoisan family. And whilst there are about 40,000 Sandawe speakers, the total number of speakers for the nine languages in the Mbeya project is, wait for it…, about three million!
The project is coordinated by Martin and Alice Tlustos, two of my SIL colleagues, but the main work of language analysis will be done by the mother tongue speakers themselves, with the guidance of SIL linguists and through the means of various workshops. One of these workshops is taking place this month and I'm going along to help out. It is a phonology workshop (I can't seem to escape phonology, can I?!) and will be taking place mainly in Swahili so there are two pointers for prayer right there!
With love,
Helen