The world’s approximately 7000 languages exhibit a dazzling range of diversity in sound, vocabulary, and grammatical structure. However, we stand to lose a great deal of this diversity as well over half of all languages are threatened with extinction by the end of this century. Many linguists are now rushing to document endangered languages while it is still possible. But how can one figure out the rules of a language without a trained teacher or a textbook? This presentation will give you the basics of linguistic fieldwork, after which you will have the opportunity to ask for more details in the Q&A session.
Andrei Dumitrescu is doing his PhD at the Doctoral Programme in Language Studies of UH; his topic is the grammar of the Meglen Vlach (also called Megleno-Romanian) language of Northern Greece and North Macedonia.
