Writing a grammar

Being a linguist, expected to publish books and articles, can be quite lonely and cumbersome: writing, fund applications, thinking, analyzing, editing, redoing the whole thing etc. Doing linguistic fieldwork, however, to me is quite the opposite of this.

For fourteen years now, I have walked down the path of the Omo Valley in Ethiopia. There are 'my' friends, the Hamar, and their cattle, of course. As a descriptive linguist you enter into a long term relationship with its speakers. Where they live feels like a second home, a place where the many Hamar became my friends, and my family.

When I go on a fieldtrip, I am always well prepared. I bring my equipment to record, film, and photograph. I bring my pencils, paper, and presents of course. But I also arrive with a research plan. But there is only so much you can prepare. I learnt to be open to having the people guide you to the things that they care about.

Pastoralist people care for their cattle. And while I knew that I could expect an abundance in cattle-talk, nothing could have prepared me for the richness and preciseness of their vocabulary for the appearances of their cattle's coats, and the role it plays in the fabric of the Hamar worldview.

Instead of taking a picture with the wrong zoom, I was building my knowledge of this language under a blue, blue sky; or, in my native tongue Italian, Azzurro.