English 615: Modern English Linguistics

Guidelines

Remember that I have asked you not to discuss your work with one another or with a tutor.
You may, however, ask me questions.
Do any prep work you like now: look over the questions and take as much time as you want to be sure you understand the terms used.
Access the video as (will be) described on the webpage and in an email. Record the starting time of the first viewing. You have 48 hours from that time to complete the questions below.
You may watch the video as many times as you like.
But don't make yourself crazy. this is the first step in a very lengthy language study process. You cannot, and are not expected to, have all the best and most correct answers. If you take notes, pausing as you go, you should probably not watch this more than three times total.
If you think you know what language this is, please do not search the web or other resources to varify that guess.
You may not consult resources specific to this language (if you think you know what it is) to verify your hypotheses.
You may, however, consult resources on linguistics if you have questions about linguistic terms or concepts.
You may look at your notes, your textbook, or any material in the library or online that pertains to general linguistics, field methods, phonetics, typology, or any other general concept you wish.
If, in your research, you discover information that confirms your guess about what language this is, do not be alarmed. Simply include that fact in your write up, and resist the temptation to read more about the language specifically.
When you write up your work, be sure to give examples of all your claims. Provide glossed examples of absolutely everything. You cannot get full credit for questions which do not contain glossed examples.
My intention in writing these questions is to guide you in laying out all of your data. If there is something you have that is not covered in these questions, find a place to work that in.

Questions

Date and time: When did you view the video for the first time?
Make a list of the phoneme inventory for this language. Remember to use phonetic transcription and provide place manner and voicing for consonants. If there are sounds for which you do not readily have SAMPA symbols, please establish a symbol you will use and do your best to give place manner and voicing of the segment(s) in question. NB: One way to establish place, manner and voicing is to try to recreate the sound yourself and analyze what you are doing when you get it right.
Are there any ways in which the phoneme inventory is unusual?
What is the maximum syllable?
Are there contrasts or segments in this language which are not found in English?
Using all your data, prepare a complete dictionary of this language. List the content words you found (with their part of speech designation) and the function words (with a brief description of their usage or function). Be clear about what is a content word and what is not. It may not be possible to disambiguate affixes from free function words. If you are unsure about any of this, say so.
What is the order of verb and subject and object?
What is the order of noun and adjective?
What is the order of "preposition" and its object?
How do those three orders fit together? That is, typologically, are they as expected?
Does this language mark plurals? If so, how?
Does this language mark possessives? If so, how? Lay out the paradigm of possessive pronouns as completely as you can, pointing out gaps in your data.
Do you have evidence for subject/verb agreement? If so, lay out the paradigm as completely as you can.
Did you gather any numbers? If so, list them.
Were there places where the speaker and linguist did not understand one another? What were the areas of maximal confusion?
This got complicated in places, and I'm sure everyone wanted to just ask for translations. However, do you see any advantages of working without English as an intermediate language?
How confident do you feel about your analysis? what else would you like to do to complete your picture of this language?
What language do you think it is? (note this is just a guess: you don't have to be right.)