Ecclesiastes tells us “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven” (3:1 ESV). We celebrated 23 years in Wycliffe Bible Translators this year, and we are feeling it’s time to make some changes. Much of what follows could easily be seen as the next logical Read more…
As we mentioned before we left, one of the main goals of our March trip to Cameroon was attending the second National Symposium on Cameroonian Languages (NASCAL2). It was good that we could schedule the trip to coincide with this conference, as this is part of a significant goal for Read more…
One of the purposes of going to Cameroon this march is to attend the second “National Symposium on Cameroonian Languages”, at the University of Dschang, in Dschang, Cameroon. I assume it may not be obvious to you why this is a good thing, so I’ll lay out some of my Read more…
We recently accepted an invitation to work in the Cameroon, on the Linguistics Service Team (LST). We’ve already begun sharing some of this informally, but I’ll describe the LST here, rather than leave anyone out. The basic facts are that my work won’t change, though the location and level of Read more…
As we have thought through our messaging lately, one thing we saw friends do was develop a personal ministry hashtag. This is not just to try to be trendy (though hashtags are integral to communication these days), but to communicate a particular repetitive theme in a terse manner. I think Read more…
the LORD opens the eyes of the blind. The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down; the LORD loves the righteous. (Ps 146:8 ESV) I took two days off altogether from writing, for Sunday worship and rest, then Christmas day, and yesterday I got back to putting edits into Read more…
Yes, I was somewhat blinded by the projector, but on October 20 I got to present some new directions my research has been taking at the Metroplex Linguistics Conference, hosted this year by UTA. In summary, the comparisons I was hoping to make to analyze what’s going on in languages Read more…
Joel and I had the pleasure of staying in a house with this doormat greeting us as we first walked in the doorĖ My immediate thought was that it was a relief to be staying with people who were so OK with their frailty that they would greet people with Read more…
Throughout most of my career as a linguist, I have enjoyed doing descriptive work. Practically, that means I describe what is found in languages, rather than prescribing what should be in a given language (as a teacher might). But descriptive work can also find itself set against more theoretical work. Read more…
For those of you that have followed my analysis of sound systems in (so far) unwritten languages, I’m sure you’ve already heard enough about tone and vowels. So today, I thought I’d write about consonants! Language sound systems generally store information in three places. We know consonants (with obstructed airflow) Read more…