Using Cards to Identifying Phonemes

The majority of the first week of Workshop 1 should be spent investigating the language's vowels, consonants and tonal system. This is done by comparing the sounds of words that have been written out on "cards" (i.e. slips of paper).* However, it is encouraged to also incoporate other types of activities into the week, such as revising texts and discussing word categories (see Text-Marking), to help prevent participants from becoming too bored with sorting cards to continue. 

Facilitators will need to plan time before each card session to organize the cards and write words onto whiteboards. After the language's set of vowels, consonants and tones have been determined, the facilitator should carefully choose words for use in frame activities, based on the guidance provided under "Select Representative Words."

*Much of what follows is the same as the Participatory Research in Linguistics method used by Kutsch Lojenga.

Stage 1: Verify & Correct Cards

Before the workshop, the facilitator will have prepared a data set of over 1,000 words written on cards.* Before these cards are used to study the language's sound system, each word needs to be reviewed with the participants for accurate spelling (the group's best initial guess), meaning, word category and word form (such as plural formation). Guides for facilitating card-checking sessions are posted below. 

*Refer to Prepare Cards for instructions on how to format these cards.

Overview: Correcting Cards

Materials Needed

• 1500 prepared cards

• Whiteboards + colored markers (at least 4 colors)

• Notebooks for all staff & participants

• Regular pencils + erasers

Instructions

1. Use the guides below to sort words by word category and class. 

2. Starting with nouns, check the word on each card for accurate spelling (the group's best initial guess), meaning, word category and word form (such as plural formation). 

3. Repeat the same process for verbs and, lastly if applicable, modifiers. 

Stage 2: Check Vowels 

After the cards have been checked and corrected, the team can move on to verifying the language's vowels. During these sessions, cards are sorted into piles based on their vowel qualities and later by their vowel features (if applicable). Guides for faclititating vowel checking sessions are posted below. 

Overview: Checking Vowels

Materials Needed

• Prepared cards (nouns, verbs & modifiers)

• 2 whiteboards + colored markers (at least 4 colors)

• Notebooks for all staff & participants

• Regular pencils + erasers

Instructions

1. Sort noun cards by syllable pattern, then by vowel. 

2. Following the guides below, have participants read the nouns in each group aloud and sort them by their vowel quality. First check words that have the same vowel in every syllable (for example, CaCa) then words that have mixed vowels (such as CiCa).

3. Repeat the same process for verbs and, lastly if applicable, modifiers. 

4. After the vowel qualities of each word have been confirmed, use the same method to further sort cards by vowel features (as applicable). 

Stage 3: Check Consonants

After all words have been checked for vowel quality and other vowel features, the team will need to compare and contrast similar consonants. As before, word categories should be kept separate, with nouns being evaluated first. Use the guidelines posted below to check consonant sounds. Skip any comparisons that are not relevant to the language. 

Overview: Checking Consonants

Materials Needed

• Prepared cards (nouns, verbs & modifiers)

• Whiteboard + colored markers (at least 4 colors)

• Notebooks for all staff & participants

• Regular pencils + erasers

Instructions

1. Using the guide below, identify a set of consonants that sound similar enough to potentially be confusing. Place nouns that have either of these consonants in a particular syllable position (for example, word-medial or word-final) together in a single pile.

2.  Have participants read the group of nouns aloud and sort them by their consonant sound.

3. Repeat this process with all sets of potentially confusing consonants. After all noun cards have been checked, check the consonants of verbs and, lastly, modifiers. 

4. Also decide spelling rules for approximates and similar sounding vowels, using the language's syllable patterns, vowel sequences and modified consonants as a guide. 

Stage 4: Identify Tone Melodies (Words in isolation)

The activity posted below is the first step in a 2-part study of tone. This step involves listening to words in isolation and sorting them by their surface tone melodies.* The outcome will give the team an initial idea of how many tones the language may have.

This activity does not include discussions on how to label the tones or whether the tones need to be represented in the writing system. The only goal at this stage is to simply sort the words by their tone melody.

Be sure to first test all words for vowel quality and any relevant vowel features before sorting them by tone. Identify the tones of nouns before sorting verbs. 

*The second step of tone analysis involves listening to a carefully chosen subset of words in the context of a frame (see Researching Tones with Frames). 

Overview: Tone Melodies

Materials Needed

• Prepared cards (nouns, verbs & modifiers)*

• Notebooks for all staff & participants

• Regular pencils + erasers

Instructions

1. Sort words by word category and syllable pattern.

2. Using the guide below, have participants read the words in each pile aloud and sort them by their surface tones.

*For this activity, it is recommended to sort cards directly rather than using a whiteboard

Select Representative Words

Materials Needed

• Checked cards (nouns & verbs)

• Prepared List of Representative Verbs (See Selecting Frames & Representative Verbs for Morpheme Study)  

• Notebook + pencil

Instructions (Facilitators)

1. Use the Representative Noun Guide below to carefully choose a set of nouns that will adequately represent the language's noun classes, vowels and tones for a study on morphology. 

2. Using the guide on Checking Representative Verbs, make sure that the representative verb list chosen during the preparation stage adequately represents the language's vowels and tones.