BF Journal: 10/30 - 11/5

As promised, here is a picture of me and Bakari.

I am the fashionable one

10/30

The coup stuff occurred, but other than streets being filled with random crap and stores being closed, not much changed for us.  Except the curfew is a not going to be fun this weekend.  But I think things could be much worse so I am not really complaining.  Except that I am?

10/31

Today was more of same.  I got some work done because the coup activities didn’t really affect us.  There was a small demonstration near our house and a few folks tried to break down the doors of the hotel across the street.  They thought it had some connection to the president.  Anyways, they failed.  Nobody bothered us, but our gate was locked anyways.  I went running afterwards and Jeff sat outside and chatted with people.  I don’t want to sound dismissive of the coup, it is a big deal.  It just didn’t endanger me, which is what most of you reading this blog probably care about.

Also, enjoy your candy.  Except the candy corn because nobody should not eat sugary earwax.  

11/1

Now that the president left, things are returning to normal.  Small shops were open today and street vendors were out.  There is still a curfew tonight, but I think I will live.  I really need to make my NSF application better anyways.  I suck at administrative/application stuff.  However we now have…

TWO ELECTRIC GOD RACKETS.  I will kill all the insecty things.

I am probably happier about this than I should be.

 

11/2

Today started a bit rough.  At about 1:00 a.m. to be exact.  A mouse jumped on my bed and bit the back of my kneecap.  Nothing serious, no blood drawn.  But I tried for the rest of the night to trap it.  I not generally driven to the point of violence very easily but I wanted to kill it sooooooooo badly.  I almost got it once.  I probably looked like a cartoon character fumbling in the dark (at first) tripping over my chair to get this thing.  Apparently my room is like a house of horrors where only the mouse knows all the secret passages. 

I trapped it in a drawer and it disappeared.  Apparently this mouse hates me enough to bite me in strangest place and it is smarter than me.  Wish me luck.

Anyways I spent the full day on almost no sleep.  Didn’t really get much done, except some progress with my NSF grant materials.  On the plus side, I think they are looking much better.

I met Bakari’s family here in Bobo.  His mother does not speak French but his sister and nieces do.  They were all very cordial.  His nephew was afraid of me, and wouldn’t shake my hand.  It was kind of cute though.  He would peak at me from behind his older sisters from time to time.  As soon I locked eyes, he would disappear from sight. 

11/3

Today was considerably more productive.  I got my NSF grant application turned in and had a very interesting session with Bakari this morning.  I found a sound in Viemo/Vigue that is interesting to me (quick side note: I am no longer sure that Vigue is the appropriate term for the language, more to follow).  I happened across co-articulated labiovelar nasal /ŋ͡m/.  It makes sense that a language with /k͡p/ and /g͡b/ would also have the nasal version, but I have never heard it before.

ŋ͡mʷoŋbɔ  ‘nurse (v), suckle’

The tones are flat/low then flat/high.  Don’t mind the lack of traditional tonal transcription.  I am experimenting with other ideas to help me better capture what I am hearing.  At least until I get handle on things.

My old system was simply marking a three way distinction in terms of high (v́), mid (v̄), and low (v̀). However, I noticed that sometimes the tones were rising/falling in every example elicited and some were always flat.  So I needed a system to capture both a three-way height distinction and whether or not tones were falling, rising, flat.

Now I use combinations until I get a better idea what is going on.  Each vowel may have two markings.  Every vowel will be recorded the relative tone height: high tone with no marking (v), mid is the same (v̄), and low is underlined (v).  Flat tones receive no additional marking, but rising tones are marked (v́) and falling tones are marked (v̀).  So the possible combinations are: flat/high (v), rising/high (v́), rising/mid (v̄́), flat/mid (v̄), falling/mid (v̄̀), flat/low (v), falling/low (v̀).  This annoying seven part system captures the tone trajectory, which I need until I figure out the patterns or if I can safely go back to a three level system (or something else).  I am aware that I may be needlessly complicating things right now, but I feel that is better than being too simplistic and having to redo work later.  There is probably a better way to do this.

Today was also the first day that I let Bakari determine the tones I transcribed in our morning session.  In the afternoon we checked some together in Praat and he was roughly as accurate as me (which isn’t saying much sometimes).  Looks like we both have some learning to do before we settle on something.

11/4

We put two different types of mouse trap in my room today.  One was the classic steel bar type.  The other was the worst thing imaginable for me.  It was a trap with glue on it.  Next to some frequently used drawers.  In a small room with a klutz.  You can see where this is going.  It only took me a few hours to step in it.  Obviously I couldn’t let just one foot have all the fun.  I stepped in the glue with one foot and the trap fell behind me.  I got mad and stepped backward until the other foot was even.  Because I am an adult. 

So I walked to the bathroom getting the floor sticky with every step.  I forgot my body wash.  So I went back to my room and back to the bathroom again.  By this time, the floor looks like I mated with a gummy bear.  It took hours and a ruined washcloth and luffa to fix everything.  I am pretty sure I still have glue between my toes.  Definitely some in the shower.

I HATE this mouse.  Yup, it’s the mouse’s fault.  It did leave me alone last night though.  It is probably laughing at me from some hidden lookout as I type this.

Also it turns out that my reticence regarding the name of the language was well founded.  However, I was wrong (Vigue is not correct) AND SIL (Ethnologue) was wrong (It’s not Viemo).  But I was more wrong.  The name given to just the language is Viemoŋ (nasalized o).  My initial rejection of SILs name had to do with asking people in the village what they called the language that everyone speaks.  Everyone said Vigue, but I think I likely asked the question wrong and made it sound like “what do you call people who speak your language” or something.  I presume the mix up had to do with the word “speaker.”  So, I will be changing what I call the language for a third time. 

My consultant Bakari is a Vigue speaker who speaks Viemoŋ.  Totally not confusing right?

11/5

In linguisty news, Bakari and I are getting better at our tones.  I may start with simple sentences soon, but there are some other sounds I want to explore first. For example, I think Viemoŋ has a retroflex tap/flap [ɽ], but it is not its own phoneme.  I only have one example. 

dooɽ cīcɔ̠̀  ‘bush dweller’

However it is also my only example with a flap in a syllable coda.  Every other one (transcribed as <r> for ease) has been in a syllable onset.  Obviously one example does not confirm allophonic variation, but that is my first idea.

In other news I woke up with morning to a pretty horrendous smell.  I could not figure out it was or where it was coming from for hours.  I left my room because it was so rancid it gave me a headache.  Long story short: that mouse is dead.  It did me the favor of dying (not in the traps) but under my suitcase tucked away in a closet.  I guess it had to die like a jerk too.  I was so happy that I almost took a picture for you.  I am going to by myself a drink later to celebrate.

I guess we can end on that happy/morbid note.