Working with a ‘silent’ language:

Fieldwork experiences among the Karijona

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About myself
Linguist from UNAL
Documentation of Karijona
Description of morphosyntax

MA in Linguistics (UNAL)
Visiting Research Fellow (LCRC)
Language of space in Karijona
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 Outline
and
aims of this talk

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• The Karijona people and their language

• The persons I work with

• Travel around fieldwork experiences

• How do I work with a ‘silent’ language?

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Fieldwork experiences through:

• The people and individual persons

• The time and place
• My approach(es)
• The problems and issues
• My memories and anecdotes
• The outcomes Karijona crowns

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The Karijona people
and their language

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• The Amazonian region in Colombia
• Today ~120 Karijona people
• 8,000-20,000 (19th century)
• Epidemics – migrations – social
dynamics
• Armed conflict – narcotrafficking
(Crevaux, 1883)
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 Tariana
Karijona
and Miraflores (Arawak) settlements

Murui
(Witoto) Karijona who
migrated to
urban areas

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• Cariban language
• Highly endangered
• 15 speakers (40-80 y.o.)
• All bilingual with Spanish
• Community wishes to
preserve the language
and culture The municipality of Miraflores, Guaviare
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The persons
I work with

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Lucia Carijona

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Ana Benjumea 13
Ernesto Carijona
and
Jose Romero

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Lilia Gomez and Victor Narvaez 15
Celia, Celmira and Hilda Carijona
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 Teresa Marín

Martín Narváez

Nora Narváez

Ofelia Arbeláez

Campo Elias Miranda

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Camilo Robayo and Andrea Rodriguez

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 How did it begin?
• In 2014 as part of a uni course
• Main procedure: via trial and error
• A continuous learning process
• No previous instruction on how to
do fieldwork

How do I work with

a ‘silent’ language?
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 First experience
as a BA student
(June 2014, 3 weeks in total)
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 The city of Leticia,
Amazonas

http://elturismoencolombia.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/leticia_parque_santander_amazonas_colombia_travel.jpg Leticia
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 Procedure:
• Collection of songs, narratives
and procedural texts
• ‘Comparative’ elicitation
• Transcriptions of word lists

Problem:
• No preparation or plan before
fieldwork (3 students)
• No transcriptions of texts
• No cultural and linguistic
Working with Lucia Carijona, June 2014, Leticia contextualization
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Outcomes:
• The friendship
• Recordings of
narrations & testimonies
• Wordlists

Anecdote:
• Documenting ‘Karijona’
songs (> Yukuna)

My field notes from 2014, Leticia

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Writing up the BA thesis
(2015-2016,
5 field trips of 1-2 week each)
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 Villavicencio (Meta)
San Jose, Puerto Nare (Guaviare)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Jos%C3%A9_del_Guaviare San José

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 Procedure:
• Collection AND transcription
of conversations & interviews
• ‘Collective’ elicitation

Problems:
• Showing that I am not a spy?
• A very MODEST objective –
“to describe Karijona syntax!”
• ‘Reinventing the wheel’!
School canteen in Puerto Nare, Dec 2015
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Outcomes:
• Workshop on documentation
• Recordings and transcriptions
of conversations
• BA thesis (Honorific mention)

Anecdotes:
• Coca paste (to produce
cocaine): the local currency
A workshop in the school in Puerto Nare, Dec 2015

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First extended fieldwork
(Apr-May 2017, 2 months)

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The Karijona settlement
of Puerto Nare, Guaviare

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During fieldwork at Puerto Nare, May 2017
 > Problems:
• How to describe a ‘silent
language’ with no elicitation?

< Procedure:
• Ethnographic approach
• Bilingual interviews
• Reconstruction of historical
At the Vaupes River, April 2017 memory
• Starting to speak the language
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 Outcomes:
• Close friendships
• Documentation of oral
literature (Elder’s historical
memories)

Anecdotes:
• How to say ‘guerrilla fighter’?
[itu tawə-doko]NP
forest BOUND.INESSSIVE-NMZ
An indigenous leader, Mercedes Marin, April 2017
‘those who are in the forest’
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 Last fieldwork
(Dec 2017-Jan 2018, 1 month)

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The settlement of Puerto Nare

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Preparing meat for cooking, Puerto Nare, Dec 2017
 Problems:
• ethnographic vs. historical
approach
• naturalistic vs. ‘controlled’ data

Procedure:
• Something to talk about:
 photographs of local setting
 description of displacement
and travel routes
Ritual dance Dabukuri, Puerto Nare, Dec 2017 • Practicing speaking
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Topological relations pictures

Photographs of local setting

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Topological relations pictures

Photographs of local setting

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 Puerto Nare
Overview of
Puerto Nare

Lagos Dor.
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Source: ArcGIS
 Outcomes:
• Future documentation projects
• A deeper understanding of:
 the relation between the people and
their territory
 the expression of spatial setting
 the language in general

Anecdotes:
• When soldiers are bothering us –
Carlos holding a fish, Jan 2018
how to cuss in Karijona?
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MY OWN FIELDWORK
EXPERIENCE:
How do I work with a
‘silent’ language? 39
•The people matter more than the language:
 View the people as persons,
not just as speakers

•Collaborative work with the persons,

not just the community:
 Work according to individual wishes
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 • Building mutual trust:
 Based on close friendship and long term
commitment
•

• Work with what is available:

 Come up with interesting and relevant topics

• Do not forget environmental, cultural, social, and

historical factors:
 The language is not spoken in a vacuum 41
kure nai!

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