Field methods: Zulu (Bantu, South Africa)

Winter 2005

 

John Goldsmith, Gretta Buthelezi

Monday Wednesday Friday 10:30 - 11:20, plus individual meetings with Mrs. Buthelezi

A field methods course in linguistics is one in which the primary focus of the cours is to learn how to learn about the structure of a language through asking questions of a native speaker and trying to figure out the phonology, morphology, and syntax of the language. The purpose of the course is to see something of the complexity of a real language directly with one's own eyes and ears, rather than filtered through the theoretical spin of other authors or the weight of the descriptive tradition. In this course, we will study Zulu, one of the major Bantu languages, spoken in South Africa. We will work with Gretta Buthelezi, a native speaker of Zulu who lives in Hyde Park.

There was a time when a field methods course lasted a year and nobody in the course ever consulted published materials about the language, relying instead strictly on materials collected over the course of the meetings. Unfortunate, we don't have that much time, and I think it is unrealistic therefore to request that no one do any reading of the published literature on Zulu. But I would like to request that students do not turn to the published literature on Zulu during the first four weeks of the course.We'll take one cue from the tradition of work on Zulu, and that is that we'll adopt the standard orthography for the description of the phonemes when that it convenient and linguistically appropriate. For example, there are clicks in Zulu, and it would not make sense to use IPA or any other system to transcribe them when a standard system is in use.

Zulu, like almost all Bantu languages, is a tone language, and one of the challenges (especially at the beginning) is hearing and transcribing tone correctly on each syllable. There are also interactions between consonants and tone, adding a new level of challenge to the linguist's ability to perceive correctly. There is a complex morphology in the verb, and a reasonably complex morphology in the nominal system as well, with a rich noun class system.

I do not expect that we can keep to a clearly defined schedule of what we will learn, but I have drafted a possible scenario. We will certainly djust this over the course of the quarter as we see where the data and our interests take us.

Sifunda isiZulu!

Genesis pages: click page number below:

 

Projected topics by week:

Week Goals
1 Vowels, consonants, tones. Start Swadesh list.
2 Construct basics of the noun class system for nouns (singular, plural), demonstratives, possessives. Marking tones.
3 Past, present, future forms of verb with personal subjects. Object markers.
4 Derivational suffixes on verbs: applicative, causative, reflexive, passive.
5

Senteces with and without focus marker (?) in verb: status of post-verbal consituents.
Sentences with overt subjects: principles of subject agreement.

6 ...continued...
7 Tone shifting in verbs (and elsewhere)
8 Pursuing other topics...
9 ...that arise...
10 ...over the course of the quarter.

Readings
Week 4: Doke on Zulu phonetics.

Others:

Philipp Strazny Depression in Zulu: tonal effects of segmental features. 1998.

Goldsmith, Peterson, Drogo: Tone and Accent in Xhosa.

Recordings
http://lla-ibrahim-bey.spc.uchicago.edu/fieldmethods.html

Some useful resources:

  • E-meld: Electronic metastructures for endangered language. Lots of great computational stuff for linguists.
  • Open Language Archives Community:

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    Requirements

     

    Swadesh 200 word list

    001 ALL
    002 AND
    003 ANIMAL
    004 ASHES
    005 AT
    006 BACK
    007 BAD
    008 BARK (OF A TREE)
    009 BECAUSE
    010 BELLY
    011 BIG
    012 BIRD
    013 TO BITE
    014 BLACK
    015 BLOOD
    016 TO BLOW (WIND)
    017 BONE
    018 TO BREATHE
    019 TO BURN (INTRANSITIVE)
    020 CHILD (YOUNG)
    021 CLOUD
    022 COLD (WEATHER)
    023 TO COME
    024 TO COUNT
    025 TO CUT
    026 DAY (NOT NIGHT)
    027 TO DIE
    028 TO DIG
    029 DIRTY
    030 DOG
    031 TO DRINK
    032 DRY (SUBSTANCE)
    033 DULL (KNIFE)
    034 DUST
    035 EAR
    036 EARTH (SOIL)
    037 TO EAT
    038 EGG
    039 EYE
    040 TO FALL (DROP)
    041 FAR
    042 FAT (SUBSTANCE)
    043 FATHER
    044 TO FEAR
    045 FEATHER (LARGE)
    046 FEW
    047 TO FIGHT
    048 FIRE
    049 FISH
    050 FIVE
    051 TO FLOAT
    052 TO FLOW
    053 FLOWER
    054 TO FLY
    055 FOG
    056 FOOT
    057 FOUR
    058 TO FREEZE
    059 FRUIT
    060 TO GIVE
    061 GOOD
    062 GRASS
    063 GREEN
    064 GUTS
    065 HAIR
    066 HAND
    067 HE
    068 HEAD
    069 TO HEAR
    070 HEART
    071 HEAVY
    072 HERE
    073 TO HIT
    074 HOLD (IN HAND)
    075 HOW
    076 TO HUNT (GAME)
    077 HUSBAND
    078 I
    079 ICE
    080 IF
    081 IN
    082 TO KILL
    083 KNOW (FACTS)
    084 LAKE
    085 TO LAUGH
    086 LEAF
    087 LEFT (HAND)
    088 LEG
    089 TO LIE (ON SIDE)
    090 TO LIVE
    091 LIVER
    092 LONG
    093 LOUSE
    094 MAN (MALE)
    095 MANY
    096 MEAT (FLESH)
    096b MOON
    097 MOTHER
    098 MOUNTAIN
    099 MOUTH
    100 NAME
    101 NARROW
    102 NEAR
    103 NECK
    104 NEW
    105 NIGHT
    106 NOSE
    107 NOT
    108 OLD
    109 ONE
    110 OTHER
    111 PERSON
    112 TO PLAY
    113 TO PULL
    114 TO PUSH
    115 TO RAIN
    116 RED
    117 RIGHT (CORRECT)
    118 RIGHT (HAND)
    119 RIVER
    120 ROAD
    121 ROOT
    122 ROPE
    123 ROTTEN (LOG)
    124 RUB
    125 SALT
    126 SAND
    127 TO SAY
    128 SCRATCH (ITCH)
    129 SEA (OCEAN)
    130 TO SEE
    131 SEED
    132 TO SEW
    133 SHARP (KNIFE)
    134 SHORT
    135 TO SING
    136 TO SIT
    137 SKIN (OF PERSON)
    138 SKY
    139 TO SLEEP
    140 SMALL
    141 TO SMELL (PERCEIVE ODOR)
    142 SMOKE
    143 SMOOTH
    144 SNAKE
    145 SNOW
    146 SOME
    147 TO SPIT
    148 TO SPLIT
    149 TO SQUEEZE
    150 TO STAB (OR STICK)
    151 TO STAND
    152 STAR
    153 STICK (OF WOOD)
    154 STONE
    155 STRAIGHT
    156 TO SUCK
    157 SUN
    158 TO SWELL
    159 TO SWIM
    160 TAIL
    161 THAT
    162 THERE
    163 THEY
    164 THICK
    165 THIN
    166 TO THINK
    167 THIS
    168 THOU/YOU
    169 THREE
    170 TO THROW
    171 TO TIE
    172 TONGUE
    173 TOOTH (FRONT)
    174 TREE
    175 TO TURN (VEER)
    176 TWO
    177 TO VOMIT
    178 TO WALK
    179 WARM (WEATHER)
    180 TO WASH
    181 WATER
    182 WE
    183 WET
    184 WHAT
    185 WHEN
    186 WHERE
    187 WHITE
    188 WHO
    189 WIDE
    190 WIFE
    191 WIND (BREEZE)
    192 WING
    193 WIPE
    194 WITH (ACCOMPANYING)
    195 WOMAN
    196 WOODS
    197 WORM
    198 YE
    199 YEAR
    200 YELLOW