CHAT: Georgian fieldwork [was: Re: vprtskvni]

On Fri, 2 Jul 1999, Josh Roth wrote:

> In a message dated 7/2/1999 12:41:03 AM, dnsulani@INTERNET-ZAHAV.NET writes:
>
> >As to the form,  my neighbor didn't understand any word such as
> >"vprtskvni".  According to your grammars what exactly is the person,
> >tense, etc. of this
> >form?
> >Perhaps the /v/ in /kvni/ is an infix signifying "it". If so, could this
> >form be
> >literary Georgian, as opposed to the "street Georgian"  that my neighbor
> >speaks?
>
> [snip]
>
> Perhaps your neighbor is speaking a non-standard dialect? This could be why
> he doesn't recognize that second "v."
>
> And, the first person conjugation is signified by an initial "v," which this
> word has. I don't know why your neighbor said the root includes the "v."
You should be extremely cautious of asking your linguistic consultants
about theoretical entites such as "roots". Roots are for linguists to
figure out; speakers just talk. Of course, if your consultant is a
linguist, then it would be fine topic of discussion, but then *you*
become superfluous. :-(

Aah, fieldwork!

Dirk

--
Dirk Elzinga
dirk.elzinga@m.cc.utah.edu                   "All grammars leak."
http://www.u.arizona.edu/~elzinga/                 -Edward Sapir