DIALECTOLOGY PROJECT GUIDELINES

ANTIQUE TEAM

Informants

 4 informants per town; ideally 2 males, 2 females but optional

 Must be 18-65 years old; ideally representatives per town should have similar/close ages
 Should have lived in their barangay of origin for at least 10 consecutive years
 L1 must be vernacular of their barangay of origin; regularly speaks with family, neighbors,
community in that vernacular
 Ideally barangay of origin must not be next to each other but optional if there’s shortage of
candidate informants
 Antique: 17 municipalities x 4 informants = 68 informants (excludes Caluya)

Instrument and Data Gathering

 490+ item wordlist (to be forwarded) used for voice-recorded interviews

 Phone recorder can be used as long as interview is in a conducive environment
 Q&A style interview; okay to be conversational
 Before interview, informant must sign a consent form (to be forwarded)
 Ideally must conduct interview in local or provincial vernacular; can use English, Hiligaynon
and/or Tagalog for clarification if question is unclear in the vernacular
 Prompts to elicit responses:
o What is ________ in your town/area/dialect?
o How do you say ________ in your town/area/dialect?
o Do you have a word for ________?
o If X means Y in English, what is it in your dialect?
o If X means Y, what is ________? (e.g. antonyms, synonyms)
o Is there a difference between X and Y? (e.g. how vs why, this vs that, wide vs loose,
thorn vs fishbone)
o Follow-up questions (if necessary):
 Try to ask for differences because people forget even their local words and this
will help them remember: Is ________ different from the word they use/how they
say it in San Jose? How about in Pandan?
 Ask if elders and young people use different words for same concept
 Ask different meanings or uses of the word for further clarification if they are also
unsure of their answer; sometimes people forget differences and realize later on
o Leave blank if informant cannot give a word
 Write down words during interview even if voice recorded; better to note per item if informant was
unsure or doubting or relied on RA’s suggestion
 Transcribe written words in broad IPA transcription into an Excel file (to be instructed); use
recording as reference to confirm peculiar/variation in sounds

Timeframe and Payment

 Deliverables-based: 2 months minimum

o 1st month deliverables: Recording and transcription of 11-12 informants per RA
o 2nd month deliverables: Recording and transcription of 11-12 informants per RA
 ₱7,000 per research assistant x 3 RAs (to be sent via bank transfer or GCash)
 No fixed working hours