One of my projects when I retired was to work on the Shilluk (Cøllø) – English Dictionary. In 2015, a large group of men and women fluent in Shilluk collected 15,000 words to go in the dictionary. Over the next couple of years, these words have been entered into a database program. With so many people working on it, the spellings were not consistent, and so one of my tasks is to put together words that are really the same, but have different spellings. Then my colleagues who are native speakers of Shilluk are supposed to figure out which is the correct spelling.
 
Admittedly over the past two years I have not worked on this regularly. However, I did do a long spurt of work, and finally finished the “A’s”. Shilluk has far too many “A’s” in their language. Just put a different tone on it or an extra length and you can have all kinds of different meanings for a. It can mean ‘my’, but ‘my’ with a plural noun is different. Or it could be a focus marker, either before or after a verb. They are different, of course. They can be a question marker (there are at least 2 of those). Or it could mean “this verb happened in the past and I saw it happen” or just and it continued to be in the past. Just one example I saw today:
 
áa                                      gwoong   áà       a        ákac       yin?
Left edge of a question that dog which Focus  Pst-bite you
Which dog bit you?
 
You see what I’m dealing with here.
 
Many nouns begin with “a”, so when you come to a word like ‘abany’ one has to make the decision is this the noun “hammer” or is this the verb ‘to hammer’ in which case I need to take off the “a” prefix. It seemed to be very difficult to get our language experts to write the verbs down without that “a” in front. It has caused me no end of grief.
 
Well, I had finished going through what had been collected at the workshop, but then I had an inspiration. (Note to self: ignore further inspirations) There was a dictionary published in 1927, and it seemed to have a good number of words that did not occur in my dataset. So, I decided to include them, referencing the source. Once again, I started with the “A’s”. Well that took a few weeks. I put this task aside for a while, but have recently returned to it. I moved on to the “b’s”. However, I have a colleague who has been collecting a lot of words with the best speller in the language. So, I asked him if I could enter his data into the database, giving him credit, of course. I started on that task today, and here I am again, in the middle of the “A’s”. In fact, I’m only on the “ab’s”.
 
Ben just hopes I get to the Y’s before his children start college! I can see this is going to take the rest of my life, but it is a service I can render. If I ever finish or get tired of adding words or fixing spelling, I can always turn to the grammar part of the dictionary and try to explain that. In other words, my retirement activities are not likely to run out before I do.

These days, when people ask what I’ve been doing, my answer is usually, “Verbing”. “Verbing?” Yes, but I am a linguist, after all. Back in about 2005, a colleague and I started working on the Intransitive Verbs of Shilluk (Cøllø). This language does amazing things with their verbs, and they have LOTS of them.
 
You may be asking, “What is an intransitive verb?” It is a verb that has no object, such as to die, to sleep or to go. Shilluk has a single word for concepts that require a phrase in English, such as run with quick steps, to sprout after being cut down, to shout once loud and long then be quiet, and the sound a fish makes coming to surface to gulp air. Collecting these verbs was a challenge, but analyzing them has been painful.
 
My colleague and I started working on this 13 years ago. We thought we had the right answer and were about to publish the article when we discovered that we didn’t have the right answer. Another colleague wanted us to publish what we had, and then he could criticize it. That didn’t sit well with us, so since then, I’ve been trying to find the time to work on these verbs. In fact, I had to retire from my job to have adequate time to work on this project. Unfortunately, I got involved in a number of activities as soon as I retired, and am only now catching up with myself and meeting my obligations.
 
So, what am I doing to these verbs? First, I had to get them recorded by a mother-tongue speaker. I did that in one computer program, and then had to transfer those files to another program that would allow me to see the sound waves and the pitch of the voice.
 
“And WHY are you going to all this trouble?” you may ask. Well, we believe that there are classes of intransitive verbs, and those classes are defined by the tone patterns in different forms of the verb – like past or future tense. We are looking at Past Tense, Perfect Aspect, Imperfect Aspect (like is going) and Future Tense. You may still be asking why I’m doing this, but let’s face it, that’s what descriptive linguists do.
 
Having carefully looked at what the vowel in each word is doing, I now find that I need to look at the tone on the whole syllable. That may change my findings somewhat, but we’ll see. As It looked like I was nearing the end of my quest, I now find, I’m back at the beginning. Well, at least I can take comfort in the fact that at this rate, I will never be without something to do.

​We had no idea how many people would actually turn up on Monday. The committee had invited about 60, so we expected about 40, which is the number we needed. Well, come Monday morning, Shilluks started coming as early as 8:00 and they kept coming. We averaged about 60 every day, and for the most part, it was the same 60. Of course, some of the people we had trained for various jobs were NOT the ones who turned up. The first day was vaguely controlled chaos. We spent much of the day of running from group to group to try to help them understand their task (what the Team Leaders SHOULD have known) and to get scribes who could actually write the language. One group had a “scribe” who wrote with a shaky hand, so he was telling someone else how to spell the words. We quickly assessed that method was NOT going to work. Fortunately, my brother Peter is an excellent speller, and so he could take on that role quite quickly. He also helped them understand what they were doing, and in fact, they collected more words than any other group!
 
The glossers, record-keeper and typists didn’t have much to do until the afternoon of that first day. When folders were finished and brought in, it wasn’t too much effort for the glossers to get the words put into English and handed on to the typists. However, once the groups got going, the glossers were struggling to keep up. On Day One, they groups identified 910 words. On Day Two, they had 1660 and by Day Three, they had over 2000 words in one day. The expected number is more like 1000 per day. Needless to say, the glossers were overwhelmed pretty quickly. They even offered to come in on Saturday to try to catch up! Six of them put in a good half day on Saturday and did make a dent in the stacks of folders. The typists never caught up.
 
One of the Team Leaders had missed the training, and as he led the team on the first day, he was headed off in a totally wrong direction. We tried to help him understand what he should do, but he was adamant. The group understood, but the leader didn’t, and in this society, what the leader wants is all that matters. So, on Day Two, we asked if he would do glossing and put someone else in as Team Leader. That was a very successful switch, and he has done a great job as a glosser.
 
One of the ladies was supposed to be my logistics coordinator to take care of the money, numbers coming for meals, transportation, etc. On Day Two, her daughter was ill and she had to stay home. We found a young man to do the logistics and when she returned, she took over as team leader for one of the groups.
 
Each morning, we met altogether to give feedback on what had been done the previous day. We praised them for what had gone well and gave them suggestions for how to do better. To document how many words had been collected, we had three fields drawn on paper. For every 100 words, we put up one cow. In fact, the person who drew the “cow” for me drew a bull. As the cows began to fill the field, the women were quick to point out that bulls do not reproduce! In spite of that, the “bulls” continued to increase each day.
 
In the afternoons at 5:00, the power went off and there was a mass exodus of people. So, about 4:30, we started doing send/receive with the keyboarders so that everyone had everyone else’s data for the next day. The last person would do a send/receive to the Language Depot website so that everything was stored in the “cloud”. The record keeper had to give us his final data before he left. Only one day did he go off with his computer without leaving us the data.
 
We would write down the words the record keeper had recorded during the day. Then we would add to that the number of words written down by groups who had not yet finished their folders. We kept track of those words as well as the domains they had covered. When we added all that together, we knew how many words had been collected that day.
 
However, they lost words each day as well. When the glossers or keyboarders found words that didn’t belong to the domain or which were repeated, they got crossed out. If the words were just in the wrong domain, they were supposed to add them to a “miscellaneous” list. Christine and I often went through these lists and found the correct domain and once they were added, the numbers started going back up again. In short, the numbers changed every day, so when people arrived in the morning, we tried to have the new numbers up on the board along with the fields of “cows” for them to see. By Tuesday of the second week, they had crossed the 10,000-word goal. Then they seriously started trying for 15,000.
 
Kevin left us on the Monday of the second week. The Cøllø had become quite fond of him by that time and showered him with praise and gifts. They gave him a white lawø with a green cloth belt and a walking stick. They also brought gifts for his wife and family. For men, the lawø is a traditional cloth tied on the left shoulder. The one for women is usually more colorful and is tied on the right shoulder.
 
Christine and I were the trainees, so once Kevin had gone, it was up to us to make sure the process continued to run smoothly. That, of course, was the day the record keeper didn’t leave the statistics. However, we managed to finish the second week successfully, though Christine left for Nairobi on Friday morning. That left me as the sole facilitator, but by then, everyone knew what they were doing.
 
During the last week particularly, we seemed to have a lot of visitors. Two members of Parliament came to visit, and one brought a television crew. They videoed people working and the coordinator and I both made explanations about what we were doing and why. Dr. Lam Akol, a big political leader, also turned up to see what was happening. I had met him many years before in Nairobi. He had challenged me then to pay people for their work. I responded, “You want ME, a woman, to pay for YOU, a man!??” His response to that was, “You people pick your times.”
 
Well, as he was getting in his car to leave, I said, “I’ve done my part, now it is your turn.” I’m sure the message was not lost on him.
 
Our last afternoon was taken up with the closing ceremonies. Once again, we had dignitaries, traditional music, speeches and even some dancing. I told people I didn’t want a gift, I wanted one story from each of them. I have 3 so far, 2 from the same person. I hope the others will come soon.

Even after you have done it, it is hard to imagine how a two-hour flight can take you to such a different universe. On Saturday before leaving for Juba, I had my hair cut – or at least that was the intention. I had been hacking around on it for a few months, so wanted to get it evened up. The hairdresser nearly scalped me, so I won’t be needing a trim for some time to come. It was cold and rainy in Nairobi. Apparently no one told the weather that rainy season ended in June! It was so cold, that even I was reduced to wearing socks and a sweater and jeans in the house. It felt wonderful to snuggle under my duvet.
 
Well, 7:15 a.m. Monday morning, I headed off to the airport. My suitcases were filled primarily with food, but I had managed to squeeze in a few clothes. Once the driver located where FLY540 leaves from, I was able to check in without any problem. I ate a bit of breakfast at the airport – NO coffee! The plane was on time, and the flight uneventful. Having taken off a little after 9:00, we landed in Juba at 11:00.
 
From the plane, we were directed to a tent where there were a large number of Mongolian UN peacekeepers. We were all waiting to have our temperatures taken. If you didn’t have a fever before you entered the tent, staying in there very long would have given you one. Thankfully, I was pushed to the front of the queue and was cleared. I then trundled into the terminal to see what was next.
 
Next turned out to be immigration. I was once again directed to a short queue, since I already had my visa. The officer saw on my entry card that I was a linguist, and he indicated an interest in studying linguistics. We had a nice chat, and I even ended up talking about my mother, which he enjoyed. (The story about her not having fingerprints anymore and wanting to become a cat burglar.) Having gotten the necessary stamp, I was directed around a table to identify my luggage. A helpful man put it on the customs desk and I dutifully unzipped it. The customs agent didn’t even look at it, he just said, “We like you. Welcome to South Sudan!”
 
I was out of the airport so quickly that I had to wait about 10-15 minutes before Richard turned up to meet me. The taxi drivers were eager for my business, but I knew someone would come, so kept putting them off. Indeed, Richard took care of me and in about 15 minutes, we were at the centre. (Yes, that is how they spell it here.)
 
The center has changed dramatically since I was here in 2013. Where the tukul used to be, there is now a 2-story language program office building with 5 meeting rooms. Perpendicular to that building is a large meeting room with big windows and cross-ventilation and lots of fans. The tukul has been moved down near the old houses, and serves as a great meeting place.
 
Friends began to emerge from various places: students who had just completed the i-DELTA course, friends I have known for 30 years. Even Tartisio, the guard from when I was looking for Haley’s Comet, remembered me.  It was great to see all these friendly faces again and to begin to catch up with them.
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I finally met Kevin, the specialist on the Rapid Words workshop. He had arrived on Thursday and found his way around. He had also collected all the papers, books, folders, etc. that I had sent up with others. Some of the things were not done quite right, so he had fixed them. As it was late in the day by the time I had greeted the world and his wife, (a British English expression) and got settled into my “home” for the next 3 weeks, it was about time to find supper.
 
Kevin, Eileen and I headed out the gate to do a bit of shopping and then go to the local eatery called the Junubu Restaurant. Just as we were walking out the gate, a car came in bringing my friend Clement Mur’ba who had just flown in from Wau to see me. He came along for dinner before settling into his lodgings.
 
From the main dirt road outside our gate, one can walk down about a block and turn left in order to arrive at the next dirt road. Turning right toward the main tarmac road, in short order you come to a bakery. Their bread is not that great, but as long as you put it in the freezer immediately, it is edible. If you leave it out overnight, it becomes a weapon. A bag of bread is 5 South Sudanese Pounds (SSP). We then found a lady selling bananas, 5 for 10 SSP. We turned back right along the tarmac road to get to “our” dirt road and there is the restaurant. There is also a fairly well-stocked shop on the corner where I found yogurt and some white cheese (the salty kind of feta).
 
The restaurant is one of the cleaner ones, and I have to say I have not gotten sick, even after eating there on several occasions. Kevin and Clement had the chicken (half a grilled chicken with lentils and bread) while Eileen and I shared an okra dish and a green leafy dish (with kisra). All was very tasty and the portions quite generous. There were no napkins (serviettes), but they had sinks along the side on the outside wall where you could wash your hands before and after you ate. It worked well.
 
By that time, I was pretty tired and glad to get to my bed. I was put in an apartment built by the Wycliffe Associates that is powered by batteries. Therefore, I have power all night so that I can use my CPAP machine without difficulty. The cold shower felt really good, after the first 90 seconds. It takes that long for your body to cool down enough not to be shocked!
 
All in all, it was an easy arrival and a good start to this adventure.