Austronesian languages...linguistics in general...these were the things I had chosen at some time of my life to become the focus of my activities, trying to pursue an academic career in the fields of Southeast Asian Studies and Linguistics. After having attended several conferences, published two articles, and experienced the support and encouragement of Prof. Dr. Bernd Nothofer of Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe-Universität to whom I will be eternally grateful, and after having great and inspiring encounters and discussions with eminent scholars of the field - yet, my life took a different turn and I had to postpone my studies and ended up in an admittedly tedious but still challenging job quite outside of my field, which left me with little time to pursue my initial dreams, and left the world with an embarassing reference (Zobel, Erik. A comparative study of Austronesian verb morphology and syntax, dissertation-in-very-slow-progress-if-any-at-all).
That was in 2002, and ever since I have had little contact with my fellow Austronesianists. But in my leisure time, I still have found the opportunity to glean over my notes and drafts, to work on my material collected in earlier fieldwork, and to work on published data from other scholars. With the help of the internet and social media, I have even been able to gather new material from several languages of Indonesia, some of them not or little documented. Nothing of the material has been fully brushed up to a full-blown paper, but is scattered on several files on my old and weary PC.
But now, to cite a Keane song, "I'm getting tired and I need somewhere to begin...". So therefore, hoping (modesty aside) that my thoughts might be of interest for specialists in the field or maybe even for a broader audience, I have eventually decided to share the humble results of my ongoing private research in a non-academic format, after a hiatus of so many years.
Next to work on Austronesian languages, this blog will also present my thoughts on some Native American languages on which I have done some philological research. Serious comments are welcome.
BTW...This is my first attempt at web publishing, so I am still fighting with trivial things such as formatting. As you say in Indonesian...dimaklumin yaaa :)
That was in 2002, and ever since I have had little contact with my fellow Austronesianists. But in my leisure time, I still have found the opportunity to glean over my notes and drafts, to work on my material collected in earlier fieldwork, and to work on published data from other scholars. With the help of the internet and social media, I have even been able to gather new material from several languages of Indonesia, some of them not or little documented. Nothing of the material has been fully brushed up to a full-blown paper, but is scattered on several files on my old and weary PC.
But now, to cite a Keane song, "I'm getting tired and I need somewhere to begin...". So therefore, hoping (modesty aside) that my thoughts might be of interest for specialists in the field or maybe even for a broader audience, I have eventually decided to share the humble results of my ongoing private research in a non-academic format, after a hiatus of so many years.
Next to work on Austronesian languages, this blog will also present my thoughts on some Native American languages on which I have done some philological research. Serious comments are welcome.
BTW...This is my first attempt at web publishing, so I am still fighting with trivial things such as formatting. As you say in Indonesian...dimaklumin yaaa :)
Hello erik....kalau orang jawa bilang, "wes biasa" :-P
ReplyDeleteHi Anne...matur nuwun wes mampir...atau kalau orang jerman bilang: danke fürs Vorbeischauen ;)
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