Back to basics

As anticipated, last week I had the chance to go back to my first love, Linguistics (well kind of…as I’ll explain)! And, as promised, here is an update on my progress. I’ll start at the beginning of the story…

…a few months ago I was rather taken aback (but not altogether surprised!) when Helen (Dr Eaton – supervisor of the Linguistics department and expert on all things linguisticsy) and Gitti (supervisor of our department, the Literacy department) asked if I’d take on the checking (I’ll explain this too!) of the Nyakyusa language, one of the ten languages our project is working with. You see, I knew that sooner or later word would get out that I did a Linguistics and Biblical Studies degree and my interests are not purely Literacy based! I nervously accepted the challenge. Nervously because it has been 5 years since I had done anything remotely to do with Linguistics, I only did half a degree then so had little choice on my areas of specialism, and I have always been more interested in the ‘big picture’ stuff of Linguistics (like Sociolinguistics – how language is used by people) rather than the ‘nitty-gritty’ stuff of syntax, morphology and phonology. I thought it would be fun though – I always enjoy having a varied job specification as I get bored sitting still for too long! Plus, I have already got my fingers in more than one pie now I am helping with the seminars for Sunday School teachers. So, I thought, why not branch out even more. I now straddle the Literacy, Scripture Use AND Linguistics departments!

As the time approached for the check I tried to dust off my Linguistics knowledge and swatted up on the writing rules for KiNyakyusa. I met with one of the lovely linguists who has specialised in Nyakyusa so far but is popping home to Germany to have a baby (hence me stepping in). Last week our Literacy colleague, an Mchungaji (pastor) from the Nyakyusa area, came into the office in Mbeya. He made ‘final’ changes to the storybook that his team has been writing since before the Storybook Workshop we held last August, did a back-translation into Swahili to help with the check, and then sat with myself and Helen for the check itself.

A linguistics check needs to happen because although the Nyakyusa people have been speaking KiNyakyusa all their lives they haven’t been writing it down all their lives. Because of this they still make mistakes when they write it and together with them the project is trying to find the best way to write down their language so that it’s natural sounding when read aloud, relates well to the spoken language, is consistent and carries the most meaning. When people read it they need to know that this is THEIR language! A linguist is needed to remind the writer of the spelling rules, spot inconsistencies of spelling and grammar, advise on ways of writing that work in all situations and also just provide another set of eyes!

The much-awaited day arrived and Helen and I (thankfully she hadn’t abandoned me quite yet!) sat with the Mchungaji to check through the stories. He read each story through slowly, pausing as we spotted mistakes or possible issues and asked questions. We, in the mean time, were reading along with the Nyakyusa AND looking at the Swahili to try to understand some of the meaning and predict mistakes. It all went very smoothly – we were finished within a day, the pastor spotted a lot of mistakes himself and the stories were already proofread to a high standard. We were very encouraged!
Despite a gentle start, I certainly found this a challenge. It is stretching when you are trying to remember all the possible problems in a language you don’t understand and barely know the mechanics of with just Swahili as a backup. As many will know I am not a natural multi-tasker so keeping so many things in my brain at once wasn’t easy! I was lucky to spot one or two spelling mistakes but mostly I caught the punctuation problems – these are the same in any language. I have a lot to learn and I was just glad Helen was there to help me.

One thing that was amazing was to hear this language being read. It sounded so unique and interesting. I was very happy to be involved in the finer details of the process too – something I don’t normally get to do. This is what it’s all about! I want people to be able to read and access information in this language that sounds so foreign to us but is so natural to them. It really brought home to me the importance of the work we’re doing. As if to illustrate this, the next checking task I will be involved in will be the Gospel of Mark!