Field Report: Dogon Country, Mali
Jeff Heath spent Jan-Aug 2008 in Dogon country, Mali. He was joined by three other project colleagues: Russian M.A. Kirill Prokhorov (Jan 08-Jan 09), Scripps College graduate and UCLA grad-student-to-be Laura McPherson (Jun 08-May 09), and U Indiana grad student Abbie Hantgan (Jun-Aug 08). Jeff worked on Najamba-Bondu, Tabi-Sarinyere, Beni, and Nanga. Laura is working on Tommo-So and will be supported by a Fulbright grant from September on. Kirill is halfway through a field project on Mombo (aka Kolu); he has primary financial support from MPI-EVA (Leipzig). Abbie is working on Bangeri Me, an apparent language isolate (culturally Dogon, but no linguistic connection to Dogon or anything else). We will be greatly expanding our Dogon website with the new data (including many videos and images) in the next two months or so after our website guy (U Washington compling grad student Steve Moran) gets back from a holiday. Jeff’s Grammar of Jamsay (Dogon language) finally appeared earlier this year (Mouton Grammar Library). The four fieldworkers presented at the CALL meeting in Leiden in late August. Jeff, Kirill, and Abbie plans to be back in the field summer 09 and beyond.