Field Linguistics

How Do Linguists Map a Dialect?

Dialectology is the geography of language, revealing the hidden maps drawn by our words. From old-school fieldwork with clipboards to…

2 weeks ago

How Do You Learn a Language With No Writing System?

Imagine learning a language with no alphabet, no dictionary, and no textbooks. This is the challenge for field linguists who…

3 weeks ago

The World’s Most Dangerous Job? High-Risk Linguistics

When we think of a linguist, we picture quiet libraries, not active conflict zones. But for a small group of…

3 weeks ago

Building a Dictionary from Silence

Imagine a language that has never been written down, a rich tapestry of human thought existing only in sound and…

3 weeks ago

Kusunda: The Ghost Language of Nepal

Once believed to be extinct, the Kusunda language of Nepal is a true linguistic ghost, with no known relatives in…

3 weeks ago

Learning from Zero: The “Monolingual Method” and the Art of Linguistic Fieldwork

Imagine trying to learn a language with no textbook, no translator, and no shared vocabulary. The monolingual fieldwork method is…

3 weeks ago

The First-Contact Linguist: The Ethical Tightrope of Studying a Previously Uncontacted People’s Language

What are the ethical responsibilities of a linguist who is the first outsider to document a language from a previously…

3 weeks ago

The Language Catchers: Racing Against Time to Document Endangered Tongues

Every two weeks, a language dies, taking with it a unique way of seeing the world. Meet the "Language Catchers,"…

3 weeks ago

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