What
kinds of questions do interviewers ask?
Interviewers try to ask questions that will produce casual,
relaxed conversation. This usually involves questions about
topics ranging from childhood games to current activities. Since
our major focus is on what people are interested in as they
talk, we focus on getting people to talk about their favorite
topics.
Why do they need to tape record the interview?
The interviews need to be tape recorded, because the interviewers
are interested in many aspects of the community's language,
not just in hearing one or two unusual pronunciations, such
as hoi toide, or a new word like mommuck. We can't listen for
all the different features we're interested in all at once--and
pay attention to what's being said--without making a tape that
we can go back and listen to as many times as we need to. One
of our main goals is to paint as accurate a picture of the language
as possible; tape recordings help us ensure that the descriptions
we develop are based on real-life language use and not on vague
impressions.
What exactly do the interviewers do with the interview?
We go through each interview in order to describe exactly how
different structures pattern. We also may compare different
language items across different groups of speakers within a
community. For example, we may look at how a particular type
of sentence structure or even a single vowel is produced by
older people, middle-aged people, and younger people to see
how the language is changing over time. Some of the things that
can be done with a tape recording are pretty amazing. For example,
we can isolate a vowel in a particular word and enter it into
a computerized program that measures exactly the physics of
the sound waves that result in a particular production. The
idea behind all the analysis is to describe honestly and exactly
how a particular dialect works.
Who listens to the interview?
The only people who listen to the interviews are those doing
language studies under Walt Wolfram and Natalie Schilling-Estes'
direction. Special permission must be granted by the interviewee
if the interview is to be used by anyone else for any other
purpose. Taped interviews are given coded labels and stored
in a locked office to further protect the privacy of each interviewee.
What good does the interview do for the community?
We are very concerned with sharing the knowledge that we get
from communities with them. In fact, a critical part of our
project involves working with communities to celebrate their
language traditions. We do this in several ways. First of all,
we write a popular account of the community dialect that can
be used in historical preservation efforts. We share this with
local schools, preservation societies, and museums that are
concerned with preserving cultural heritage through language.
We also put together an archival tape collection of selected
descriptions, narratives, and oral histories for these institutions.
And we hope eventually to set up a central location within North
Carolina where these kinds materials can be preserved for future
generations. Finally, we develop programs for the local school
system that incorporate our description of local dialect into
a curriculum on local history as a part of the more general
program on the history of North Carolina. In 1994 and 1995,
we taught such a program for the Ocracoke
and Harkers Island schools, and we
anticipate doing similar projects for other research sites,
such as Robeson County in the future.
When we do a language survey of a community, we meet with local
leaders and school officials to work out a plan for sharing
dialect information with the community.
