{"id":1341,"date":"2019-12-05T23:47:22","date_gmt":"2019-12-05T23:47:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/lgsa\/?p=1341"},"modified":"2021-08-31T17:14:12","modified_gmt":"2021-08-31T17:14:12","slug":"snarl-fieldwork-1-mccollum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/lgsa\/snarl-fieldwork-1-mccollum\/","title":{"rendered":"Linguistic Fieldwork at Rutgers – Adam McCollum (Vol. I)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Your name: <\/strong><\/span>Adam McCollum<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Info about the language(s) you did fieldwork on:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Most of my fieldwork has been on Kazakh, with less on Kyrgyz, Uzbek, and Uyghur. I\u2019ve also done fieldwork on Yazgulyami, an endangered Iranian language of Tajikistan.<\/p>\n

What led to you doing fieldwork?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I used to live in Central Asia, in Kazakhstan specifically. While I lived there I travelled around the region some, and in particular the linguistic diversity of southeastern Tajikistan was really fascinating. Every different river valley is a different ethnic group with a different language, and many of these languages aren\u2019t mutually intelligible. I remember driving through the middle of the night to make it to the Pamir mountains in Tajikistan and sitting at a little teahouse on the side of the road by the Afghan border. I asked the proprietor what language he spoke and he said Yazgulyami, and we got into a conversation about the languages spoken in the area. As I heard about languages spoken by a few hundred, remnants of languages remembered only for a few domains, and of the peoples living on what they call bomi dunya<\/em> \u2018the roof of the world\u2019 I was hooked.<\/p>\n

Did you set out with a specific goal in mind, and if so\u2014did you accomplish it?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

When I first got into fieldwork I had two goals. One of them was really big, the documentation of Yazgulyami, and the other was so small, trying to get right the description of the rounding harmony in Kazakh. I have certainly failed at the first, and as for the second, I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve gotten it \u201cright\u201d, but have moved the needle forward some, which is probably about all I can hope for.<\/p>\n

Are there any problems\/challenges unique to your language(s) or region(s)?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The biggest challenge I face is governmental interference. Where I work it\u2019s hard to get permission to work without an overly eager local official getting very interested in things. For some reason, people love to think that I\u2019m a spy. Visas can also be tough, and I\u2019ve been forced to leave several different countries due to intractable visa issues. Other than government, there is religious extremism creeping into certain corners of the region. I\u2019ve sat around a fire with community leaders discussing what they like about groups like ISIS, while at the same time being followed by local police or KGB.<\/p>\n

Was there any collaboration with other linguists (or anyone else) during your fieldwork?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t really worked with anyone else during my fieldwork, although I\u2019d really enjoy working in a team setting.<\/p>\n

What do you wish you had known going in?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Actually, I went in with a pretty good idea what I was getting myself into. Because I had worked in the region for a few years I had met with the KGB before, had been kicked out of a country before, and had informants follow me around. I had had people laugh at me for making ridiculous language mistakes, and had performed some truly remarkable gastro-intestinal feats.<\/p>\n

Any major setbacks or disasters?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

When I went to do some documentation work in 2016, I had my visa withdrawn at the airport, and ended up with a tourist visa, which didn\u2019t allow me to actually do any work. I spent my month in country fighting opaque bureaucracy, some fierce giardia, and struggling to make sense of what I was supposed to do now that my dissertation project had been derailed. I met some ISIS sympathizers, had interviews with the local police, all while fasting for Ramadan. The folks in the village thought I was the kindest non-Muslim guest they\u2019d had because I fasted with them. I didn\u2019t tell them that fasting was much better than eating because I was so sick the whole time.<\/p>\n

Any lucky breaks?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Every time I find someone who wants to help out it feels like a lucky break.<\/p>\n

What’re some of the best methods of data collection and organization (including equipment) that you’ve used?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBest\u201d really depends on what your goals are. Controlled studies are helpful when the goal is very specific. For more naturalistic data, though, I\u2019ve enjoyed the Edinburgh map task, where one speaker has to explain directions to another but doesn\u2019t know that the maps are different. It makes for good dialogue. The only thing to watch out for is shame. I\u2019ve had some speakers express a sense of shame that they didn\u2019t get things \u201cright\u201d, rather than seeing it as a fun game of sorts. The challenge is to prep them for fun without letting them in on the secret.<\/p>\n

What about the worst?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Honestly, the most challenging issues I\u2019ve had have been with working with speakers much older than me. They have enough cultural cache to do whatever they want during our sessions, and often don\u2019t do anything that I ask them to. I\u2019ve had a surprising number of little old ladies vehemently reject any prompting and instead sing old Soviet anthems for me. Anyone interested in researching Soviet music, I got some very willing participants for you.<\/p>\n

Was there anything you wished you had brought with you?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Always more pictures of my family, and of life in America. It\u2019s just hard for people in Central Asia to understand much about my life here, and so whenever I can contextualize my life and work for them, it helps make connections. I don\u2019t really care too much about the comforts of life, but I have wanted a toilet seat a number of times. Some friends actually attached a toilet seat to a wooden stool from the bazaar and gave it to me as a present. That might\u2019ve been the best gift I\u2019ve ever gotten.<\/p>\n

What advice do you have for anyone just starting out with fieldwork?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Know that your identity isn\u2019t on the line. I say this to people all the time, but it\u2019s the truth, especially in fieldwork. You\u2019ll make mistakes. You\u2019ll fail to understand what\u2019s going on. You\u2019ll probably make a fool of yourself. But if you can know that you are not your work, and can laugh at yourself, it\u2019ll make the whole experience much richer for everyone involved.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the \u201ccoolest\u201d thing you\u2019ve learned through your experiences?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure. Probably just that humans are all, at our core, the same. We want the same things, whether nomad or urbanite, rich or poor. That makes it possible to move into a community knowing what to expect, and that is really empowering. The decorations may be different and the weather may be rough, but every community is a ragtag bunch of people trying to love and be loved, to find significance, and a sense of togetherness.<\/p>\n

Any fun stories?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve got lots of these. I\u2019ll give you a few snippets.<\/p>\n