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Participatory Research in Linguistics...
Harnesses Native Speaker Intuition. Speeds up Analysis. Improves Accuracy of Results. Empowers Local Communities.
Harnesses Native Speaker Intuition. Speeds up Analysis. Improves Accuracy of Results. Empowers Local Communities.
Photographer Credit: Rodney Ballard
"The key factor leading to success was embracing native speaker intuitions and using them to good advantage to arrive at analysis."
- Kenneth S. Olson, Facilitator (CAR)
Harnesses Native Speaker Intuition
Harnesses Native Speaker Intuition
Native speakers actively register, at a subconscious level, all significant contrasts in their mother-tongue as a natural part of the communication process. PRL workshops help bring this intuition to speakers’ conscious awareness. This is achieved through hands-on activities where native speakers determine whether two comparable sounds are the “same” or “different.”
Another key aspect of PRL workshops is observing how native speakers map the sounds of their language onto graphemes they already know, such as the letters used to write the national language and language(s) of education. Using native speakers' instinctive grapheme choices as a guide for future orthography decisions helps ensure that the new rules will make intuitive sense to the language community.
Speeds Up Analysis & Improves Accuracy of Results
Speeds Up Analysis & Improves Accuracy of Results
Community members are encouraged to fully participate in the research process from the very beginning, bringing their knowledge and experience to bear. Insider involvement results in a faster and often more precise analysis than the traditional approach. This is primarily achieved through the SAME-DIFFERENT Test. Native speakers help determine whether a particular sound (i.e. vowel, consonant, or tone melody) in one word is the “same” or “different” from similarly transcribed words, enabling the work team to quickly and accurately identify the language’s phonemes. In one instance, a linguist who had spent a year of fieldwork studying the phonological system of Ngbugu found resolution to remaining questions on the language's vowel and tone system after a 3-week participatory workshop with 2 native speakers.*
Where previous analysis has been done, community participation augments the analysis by confirming, disproving, or refining observations and hypotheses about the language. In the same workshop on Ngbugu, native speaker transcriptions of their own language led to the discovery of a high, back [-ATR] -- a vowel that had been missed in the past 30+ years of research conducted by outside linguists.
*Olson, Kenneth S. 2024. Ngbugu: A case study for participatory phonology. In Stirtz, Timothy, Michael Cahill and Philip Davison (Eds). Participatory linguistics: Methods and case studies from around the world. Language Documentation & Conservation Special Publication no. 29. [PP 159-165] Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press.
The Traditional Approach
The Traditional Approach
Often does not find all phonemes in the language, especially vowel phonemes
Results in transcription errors which are generally inconsistent and difficult to edit
Takes months or years to develop a thorough analysis
Necessitates an outside linguist studying a language in-depth to understand the exact function of each morpheme
Participatory Research
Participatory Research
Proven effective in identifying relevant contrasts*
Relies on the spelling of native speakers which tends to be systematic & easier to update
Facilitates robust results in a matter of days or weeks
Reduces the amount of in-depth knowledge required by an outside linguist.
*Insiders can easily recognize phonemic contrasts that may be missed by an outside linguist, whose impression is necessarily influenced by his or her own mother-tongue. For example, a PRL workshop studying Ngbugu showed that the contrast between /e/ and /ɛ/ as well as /o/ and /ɔ/ was more robust than previously thought. In addition, a previously unattested vowel /ʊ/ was identified.
Empowers Local Communities
Empowers Local Communities
PRL workshops are designed to provide basic linguistics training for participating community members.
As a result, insiders become...
More aware of the richness, structure, and complexity of their native tongue
More able to make informed decisions in terms of grapheme choices and word boundaries without reliance on an outside "expert"
More equipped to pursue further language analysis and development
PRL workshops have been proven to positively impact community ownership and acceptance of the resultant orthography, as well as generate excitement for further language development. This, in turn, leads to strengthened cultural identity.
"Much of the empowerment of participants, the process of discovery of the phonology, and the enthusiasm about teaching and helping each other could not have been generated without using the type of participatory approach detailed in this case study." -Shane Devereux & Jenita Van den Belt, Facilitators (Southeast Asia)
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