Documenting Inuit SL Joke Schuit Overview Sign linguistic fieldwork: Sign language documentation Issues in documenting Inuit Sign Language Inuit Sign Language Background & introduction Aim of this project Joke Schuit Research issues in fieldwork Universiteit van Amsterdam Conclusion Postgraduate Conference on Current issues in Sign Language, Deafness and Cognition (CISLDC) London, September 16th, 2011 1 2 Sign language documentation Location of fieldwork: Nunavut • Inuit: native people • ‘Documentary sign linguistics’ (Schembri living across the 2009) new branch in SL research. Arctic: Greenland in east-Alaska in west. • BUT mainly corpus projects in western • Possible Inuit SL among all Inuit, in countries (Corpus NGT; BSL Corpus Project; DGS). different varieties. • Focus of my • Situation of non-urban SLs is very different. documentation project is on • “Creating accessible corpora of these Nunavut. • Nunavut: ‘our land’ in languages seems imperative at this stage.” Inuktitut. – Languages fragile, often endangered; – Basis for comparative studies (Nyst, in press). 3 Fieldwork locations Deaf Inuit • Nunavut is • Traditionally Inuit are hunter-gatherers; Canada’s Arctic nomadic. Today: settled, paid jobs. territory. Size: about 2 million • MacDougall (2000): estimated 5.7/1000 km². Only 25 Inuit are deaf, ca. 155 ppl. settlements, about 31,000 • 2/3 had some formal education. people. – They use American SL / Manual Coded • Fieldwork in English. Baker and Rankin • 1/3 use Inuit Sign Language (±47 Inuit) and Taloyoak – Hardly any deaf-deaf contacts. 6 CISLDC 2011 Documenting Inuit SL Joke Schuit IUR: Inuit Sign Language Clip: Big Nose Mountain Inuit Uukturausingit THINK NEXT-MONTH PRO1 WHITE-MAN Inuit Uuktu- rausi- ngit SKIDOO TWO PRO1 INUK ONE THREE Inuit measure- established_practice- PL.POSS CC:TWO-VEHICLES-MOVE GOlocA BIG- NOSE INDEXlocA ‘the established practice for measuring of the Inuit’ ‘I think, next month, me, two white men with or skidoos, and me an Inuk makes three, go ‘Inuit Sign Language’ by skidoo to Big Nose Mountain.’ 7 8 Documentation and description of IUR Research issues in fieldwork Typologically interesting because: • Encountered methodological issues as the • High incidence of deafness (0.6%); base of research methods is in urban • Many hearing Inuit also know IUR; settings. • Not urban SL, not village community SL; • Large area, small language; • Following slides: • Extremely cold climate; Preferred methodological approach. • Language contact with highly polysynthetic – IUR situation (not unique to IUR!). Inuktitut; • Language is endangered (by ASL). 9 10 Research issue 1: informants IUR situation (informants) Deaf informants. • Limited choice of informants. Prelingual deaf signers; • No Deaf community. ‘Native speakers’ Who are members of the Deaf community. hardly ever meet. Hearing interpreters for translating the • Probably more hearing than deaf signers: data. include them? • Interpreters: – 1 deaf interpreter: influence of MCE on IUR. – Not familiar with translating single signs. 11 12 CISLDC 2011 Documenting Inuit SL Joke Schuit Research issue 2: IUR situation (elicitation) elicitation materials Elicitation material available: • Informants not schooled: setting is highly picture tasks (‘match yours to mine’); unfamiliar. video clips (Tweety-Sylvester); • Picture tasks became a game. Material tested and used before. • Video clips: not memorizing, but signing while watching. Pictures with familiar images from a tourist – Clips too long (for them)? guide. Task: please describe picture. – Data useful anyway. • Describing picture became a story. 13 14 Example: Beluga Picture Beluga-clip •WATERASL BIG / SEE MOTOR-BOAT AROUND PALMS-UP / nmf:surprise INDEX SUN [points at white] SUN CC:WHALE-SURFACES / INDEX++ INDEXpicture CC:WHALE-SWIMS • ‘Out on the sea. I’m in a motor boat, but I don’t see anything around. Then suddenly the sun reflects on something white. I tell the person behind me to look/go over there. A whale like this one in the picture.’ (Nunavut Travel Planner 2008. www.nunavuttourism.com) 15 16 Research issue 3: recording IUR situation (recording) Hearing researcher not present during • Researcher leaving would have been filming (nor any other hearing people). weird and inappropriate. Plain colours: clothing, background. • Use what is there: Chairs without arms to avoid resting of – Background, clothing. the arms (influence on phonology). – Table: resting of arms happened. Good light, steady image. • Light is good, but fieldwork was in good Language documentation: language in season. natural setting. • Natural setting: filming outside not possible. 17 18 CISLDC 2011 Documenting Inuit SL Joke Schuit Conclusion References • Not all research methods are suitable in • MacDougall, J. (2000) ‘Access to justice for deaf persons in Nunavut: focus on signed languages.’ non-western situations, let alone for SLs Report prepared for the Research and Statistics without Deaf community. Not even the Division, Department of Justice, Canada ‘basic methodology’. • Nyst, V. (in press) Shared sign languages. In: R. • Fieldworkers need to exchange Pfau, M. Steinbach and B. Woll (eds.) Sign experiences. Languages, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. • Possibility exists that some established • Schembri, A. (2009) Documenting sign ideas/theories will have to be re-examined. languages. In: P. Austin (ed.) Language Documentation and Description, Vol. 7, London: 19 HRELP,105-143 20 Contact info Joke Schuit Universiteit van Amsterdam, ACLC [email protected] http://home.medewerker.uva.nl/j.m.schuit 21 CISLDC 2011.