It's Not Always That Difficult

As predicted, now that I'm home in a country where I generally understand what's happening, and there is not a flood of data nor chances to embarrass myself during sessions, blog-worthy events have tailed off.

I'm currently writing out my phonology of the language (ie - what sounds people use to speak). It's very slow going, but satisfying to be finally ironing out some of the quirks that have been troubling me from the outset.

One thing that has been troubling me is the word for meat, which sometimes sounds to me like 'sha' and other times like 'shya'. I was playing them through for the supervisor, explaining how my ear can't cope with making the distinction. It was suggested I just put both of them in the phonology and explain they are in free variation (ie. speakers can use which ever they want and others will still still understand them).

It reminded me that just because an answer is simple doesn't mean it's wrong. Unfortunately, not all my phonological problems are going to plan out so easily.