Summer 2026 Fieldwork (Kpelegbe) by the Numbers

From June 1 to August 1, I was in Togo to do fieldwork on Kpelegbe, a dialect of Ewe spoken in Togo. This was my second year of fielwork on Kpelegbe. The following numbers give an overview of what I have accomplished. 

Peanut Butter Town

We left the village at around 11:00am Sunday, and raced back to Lome, our driver honking his way around motorcycles and other cars. We sped along making great time. But then, about halfway to Lome, our car broke down (picture posted).

Internet in the Village

Since the 90s, there are been many changes to village life.

In the 90s, people got their water from the stream, mostly through the hard labor of young girls who carried all the water in buckets on their heads. As you can imagine, this process involved quite a bit of back and forth for all the water needs of a household, including cooking and taking showers. Add to this the fact that most people in the village like to take two showers a day (because of the heat and humidity), and there is quite a volume of water needed. Clothes washing was done in the same stream (also by young girls), a bit downstream.

But since then, the village has gotten running water. The government created a reservoir for a stream running down the hill in the back of the village, and that reservoir provides free water to the entire village. The only expense a homeowner needs to make is to pay for the pipes to bring the water in. Because of this, the stream is now only used for water when the reservoir has some kind of problem (which it occasionally does). 

Most people just have a pipe run into their courtyard, where they can turn on the water to fill a bucket. But some people have running water inside the house. For example, I have a shower inside my house. I think that indoor showers are still a bit of a luxury, but now in the realm of possibility.

Another big change: in the 90s, light after dark was accomplished by the use of kerosene lamps. Now, there is electricity, which you buy and use. Many people in the village have electricity in their homes, which they mainly use for lighting at night, and to charge their cell phones and radios. It is very rare to see a kerosene lamp nowadays, but I am told people still have them around.

Yet a third big change is the presence of the internet. In this blog post, I will outline the options for internet usage in the village, and why it is important to my work.

My main uses of the internet are: (a) Whatsapp to stay in contact with my family, (b) e-mail to stay in contact with my colleagues, and (c) Gemini as a tool in fieldwork. I also occasionally watch a Youtube video at night before I go to bed. The most surprising has been the use of Gemini as a tool in fieldwork. As I have sketched in other posts, I often use Gemini to help in translation from English to French, and French to English. Since I am creating a tri-lingual dictionary, this tool is really essential, and much better than a regular French-English dictionary. I have also used Gemini to identify the French and English words for certain objects that my consultants do not know the French and English words for. 

But how do I access the internet?

First, there is a local internet provider, named “A Cesar” (a local bar that I can see from my porch). This provider will sell me a ticket for 200CFA (less than half a dollar) for the day. On my MacBook, I find the provider on the list of Wifi providers, and then type in a code. On the positive side, it is cheap and local. If I have a problem, I can just go over to the provider’s house and talk to them about it. When working, the service is pretty good. On the negative side, the service is patchy and often does not work. So it is impossible to rely on it if I am doing fieldwork. But considered as a back-up, last-resort option, it is OK.

Second, I have an Android phone (purchased in Togo) and a local Togo sim card. I can buy an internet package, which I access through my phone. The package I have been getting is called NET5000 from YAS Togo (costing 5,000 CFA). It includes 6GB of data, and lasts for 30 days. There are other packages that are more expensive. Using this service, I can also make my phone a hotspot, and hook it up to my computer, so I can use the internet on my computer.

On the positive side, this service is always available. It is much more reliable than the local internet provider. On the negative side, you need to be very careful with data, since it is easy to burn through 6GB, especially if you watch a video. You need to turn on “low data mode” on your smart phone and on your computer. And if you watch Youtube, you need to select the lowest video quality. 

Third, I have an IPhone 16, with T-Mobile service in the US. I learned that for extra money (75 dollars a month), I can buy an “International Pass” from T-Mobile. This pass allows me to use my IPhone in Togo, as I would in the US. I can even call local Togolese numbers. Even though it expensive, it is a wonderful service (IMHO).

On the upside, it is reliably available, and pretty fast. When I use the internet for fieldwork, it is mostly using my IPhone and the International Pass.

On the downside, just like my NET5000 package, the data that they give you on the International Pass tends to burn out quickly, especially if you watch videos or use social media. So it is best to stick to calls, Whatsapp and Gemini. Another very negative feature is that as of now you can only get the International Pass for at most two months. After that, the package is not available. It is really meant for short-term tourists who want to use their smart phone while travelling. It is not meant for long term use. So that means that if I come to Togo and stay for a year, I can only use the Internal Pass for the first two months.

Lastly, I have found out I can get a 4G or 5G router (with its own sim card). Then I can purchase an internet package for the router at various costs levels (similar to the NET5000 package described above), and use it with my computer. I have not yet got a router, but ultimately, I think that is what I will do when I return to Togo for the year. This will give me an experience resembling my internet usage in the US. I prefer this last option over using my smartphone as a hotspot. Apparently, using your phone as a hotspot causes it to work hard, and get hot.  This way, I can separate the use of my computer and my phone.

The Weakest Link (Kpelegbe Fieldwork)

On Tuesday, disaster struck. 

The day started auspiciously enough. I had the brilliant idea to use my iPhone 16 to record some videos in the field. I had already recorded the audio of some songs from one of my groups, so my plan was to rerecord these same songs as video using my iPhone. Since I have no stand for the phone, I just propped the phone up on some books on my desk, yielding a kind of upper body shot of the two ladies in the group. I tried to get the phone as close as possible to the mouth of the singer in order to increase the sound quality. Once we shot the video on the iPhone, I sent it to my Mac using Airdrop, and played it back. It was beautiful. A really nice video. I got excited about the prospect of high-quality videos made with my iPhone. My mind starting racing.

But the place I am working is noisy. There is a lot of background noise, including motorcycles on their way to the market, and people talking in the street. The regular west African village scene. As a result, the sound quality of the video was not a great as I wanted it to be. It was not bad, but not great. Just a tiny bit murky with lots of background noise. So I started thinking that maybe I could use the Zoom H4n as an audio-interface to the iPhone. The Zoom has excellent sound quality and I could place it closer to the singers. But to do that, I needed to have AA batteries for the Zoom H4n, which I did not have.

Another brilliant idea: use the rechargeable green batteries from my radio. They are charged. They are AA size. So it makes sense that I can just insert them into the Zoom H4n, and they would work as usual. I inserted them, and tried setting up the audio-interface. But at that exact moment, I started smelling plastic burning. I quickly removed the rechargeable batteries. When I tested the Zoom H4n to see if it was affected, I found it had been totally fried. It did not work anymore. Apparently the rechargeable batteries were not meant to be used in other appliances, only in the radio for which they were designed. My stupidity overwhelmed me. 

My whole research project for the summer depends on that Zoom H4n. I am writing a dictionary of Kpelegbe, and one of the central activities is to record the new words with different speakers. Those recordings are essential, both as a record of the work, and as tool in transcription. So without a recorded, the work comes to a halt.

The consultants were sitting in front of me waiting for instructions. My relatives were nearby worried about what had just happened. I was a shocked. But I did not panic or lose my temper. Since being on Wegovy, my whole personality has been sanded down a bit. I just sat there looking at the inoperable Zoom H4n, feeling a bit nauseated.

Luckily, I had brought along an extra recorder, the Zoom H4Essential. I had tried to get a second Zoom H4n before leaving the US, but they are no longer being produced. They have been replaced by the Zoom H5n (on the higher side) and the Zoom H4Essential (on the lower side). The problem was that I had not bothered to set it up and make sure it was working before leaving the US, so I needed to tinker with it for about an hour to set it up and get it to work the way I wanted. For example, when I recorded onto Praat using the Zoom H4Essential, I could barely hear the output. So I consulted with Gemini to finally figure out that I needed to set the output in the computer settings to use the computer speakers, not the mic speakers. This issue has never come up with the Zoom H4n. I am not really that comfortable with the Zoom H4Essential. 

Finally, I got the system working and we were able to do some recording of words before the end of the session. In spite of the disaster, we had a fairly good session, recording the three beautiful videos and recording some words, with only a hour of wasted time. 

My next step is to see if I can get a Zoom H4n or Zoom H5n replacement in Lome. I kind of doubt it, but you never know. More and more people are doing recording at home and producing social media content, so they might be sold. The place to go is called Dekon, which is close to asigame (big market) in downtown Lome. I have already gotten the Whatsapp numbers of the major electronics shops (via Gemini), and I will now contact them to see if the Zoom series is available.

The reason I call this post “the weakest link” is that fieldwork is like a chain. And if the chain breaks somewhere, the game is over. Your whole project is only a strong as the weakest link the chain. Concretely this means that in doing fieldwork you need to have back-up equipment for all the essential components, because any one of them could go out in the field leaving you totally stranded. Even though I don’t really like it, the back-up Zoom H4Essential basically saved my whole project. 

Now, if the backup also fails, I am really in trouble. I guess my last resort would be to try to use my iPhone 16 as a audio recorder. I am suspicious about that, but I will cross that bridge when I come to it. 

Here are some of the lessons I learned from this experience:

1. Think through chain of work from A to Z, and identify the weakest links.

2. Be careful. Don’t do anything stupid with valuable electronic equipment.

3. Bring along backup equipment for all essential components of the research (e.g, recorders, computer chargers, etc.).

4. Set up all the equipment (e.g., recorders) and software (e.g., FLEx, ELAN) before leaving the US.

5. Test all equipment twice (including cables, chargers, etc.) before leaving US.

6. Bring along backup batteries for all relevant equipment.

7. Identify possible sources for equipment replacements in-country.

Capturing a Lexical Item (Kpelegbe)

In this blog post, I walk through the steps that I have been following in capturing lexical items for the Kpelegbe dictionary.

Kpelegbe: First Full Week (June 2026)

Here is a summary (by the numbers) of my first two weeks of being in the field doing work on the Kpelegbe dictionary.

Togo Diary (June July 2026)

This diary is the record of my stay in Togo during June and July of 2026.

Fieldwork Starter Kit

This blog post is for people who are heading off on their first big fieldwork expedition, and just want a few pointers to get started. The advice is oriented toward syntactic fieldwork, but in most cases is more general.

The First Field Trip: 10 Pieces of Advice.

Worksheet for Syntactic Fieldwork

Audio Recording a Fieldwork Session

Recording onto Your Computer

Capturing Oral Texts

Basic Consultant Skills for Linguistic Fieldwork

Backup Workflow for Linguistic Fieldwork

Blog Posts on ELAN

Syntactic Fieldwork for a Field Methods Course

In this blog post, I will lay out some general guidelines on how to elicit syntactic information in a Field Methods course. 

Worksheet for Syntactic Fieldwork

The purpose of this blog post is to present a general template for a syntactic fieldwork session. I will not talk specifically about syntactic elicitation, or methodology or particular constructions that you could investigate. 

Blog Posts on ELAN

I post here a series of introductory blog posts on the use of ELAN in fieldwork. 

ELAN for Field Methods

The purpose of this blog post is to give the simplest possible instructions for setting up an ELAN project. They are based on a Field Methods course taught at NYU on Setswana, a language of southern Africa. Replace “Setswana” with the name of the language you are studying.

Audio Interview: Fieldwork in My Career (April 3, 2026)

Abstract: This is an interview that I gave on fieldwork in my career. The interviewer is Essivi Collins, my daugther. The venue was a stroll on the busy streets of New York City. We were walking from Washington Square Village to the Hudson, and then we turned right and walked up the Hudson.

Interview

The First Field Trip: 10 Pieces of Advice

You are a scholar at the beginning of your career, planning to do linguistic fieldwork in a distant location on a little-known language. By some miracle, you have obtained adequate funding, and you are now getting ready to go. Fieldwork is all about meeting your research objectives in less-than-ideal circumstances. This blog post outlines some essential advice for you on the eve of your first major expedition.

First Steps: Writing the Kpelegbe (Ewe) Dictionary

Kpelegbe is a dialect of Ewe spoken in Togo on the road from Kpalime to Atakpame. I started learning Ewe in Togo the Peace Corps (1985-1987). Then, I wrote my thesis on the syntax of Kpelegbe (MIT, 1993):

Summer 2025 Fieldwork (Kpelegbe) by the Numbers

From June 1 to August 1, I was in Togo to teach at the University of Lome and to do fieldwork. I spent roughly the first month in Lome, and the second month in Agbanon, a small village north of Kpalime. The focus of the fieldwork was on Kpelegbe, a dialect of Ewe spoken in Togo. 

The trip was exploratory, working on language contacts and other logistical issues for future fieldwork. Most of the fieldwork done involved recording lexical items, and some oral texts. The following numbers give a bird’s eye view of what was accomplished.

1. Six native speaker consultants for Kpelegbe (3 male, 3 female)

2. One native speaker consultant for Kumagbe (1 female)

3. 19 days of fieldwork (spread over 5 weeks)

4. 722 lexical items recorded, transcribed and translated into English and French

(not entered into Flex)

5. 4,242 sound files (.wav) of words and phrases Kpelegbe

6. 55 sound files (.wav) of words and phrases for Kuma dialect

7. 19 video recordings of oral texts (102 minutes 21 seconds).

(neither transcribed nor translated)

8. 21 audio recordings of oral texts (28 minutes 37 seconds)

(neither transcribed nor translated)

9. 1,115 photos

10. 44 Whatsapp contacts

11. 1 submitted paper: ‘Ghanaian versus Togolese Ewe’

Evedada -- A Traditional Ewe Game

 July 22, 2025 Tuesday

It rained all morning, so we could not really do any serious lexical recordings.  It was a tropical raining, beating down heavily. The background noise on the recordings was just too great. Instead, we decided to play the game evedada (eve-throw-throw), which is a traditional game amongst Ewe boys and men. We got a video of the game. The players had a great time.

Here are my notes. This is the first time I have studied the game, so there are probably a few misunderstandings.

Languages I have Studied

This is a list of the languages I have studied in my life. Of the 42 languages below, 29 are African languages, showing the clear focus of my career on African languages. I feel very blessed to have been given a life where I was able to investigate the mysteries of these languages and of the human capacity for language more generally. For a fieldwork oriented linguist, I think this list is pretty typical. 

They can be classified as: 

(a) languages I have studied in the field (Fieldwork), 

(b) languages I have studied in a Field Methods course (Field Methods), 

(c) languages I have studied in a course somewhere (Course), 

(d) languages I learned in the Peace Corps (Peace Corps), 

(e) languages I written a paper about (Paper). 

I also list the location where I studied the language. Of course, the list would be much larger if I added all the languages that I had read about in books or papers.

1. Brazilian Portuguese (NYC, Course)

2. Cua (Botswana, Fieldwork)

3. Chuukese (NYC, Field Methods)

4. English (Minnesota) (Native Language)

5. English (AAE) (NYC, Paper)

6. Ewe (Kpelegbe) (Togo, Fieldwork)

7. Ewe (Standard) (Togo, Course, Peace Corps)

8. Ewe (Danyigbe) (Togo, Peace Corps)

9. Ewe (Gengbe) (Togo, Peace Corps, Field Methods)

10. Ewe (Pekigbe) (NYC, Field Methods)

11. Ewe (Wudu) (Togo, Fieldwork)

12. Ewe (Tongugbe) (NYC, Paper)

13. French (Togo, Peace Corps)

14. German (NYC, Paper)

15. Greek (NYC, Paper, Field Methods)

16. Kabiye (NYC, Field Methods, Paper)

17. Khoekhoe (NYC, Field Methods)

18. Kua (Botswana, Fieldwork)

19. Icelandic (Cambridge, Paper)

20. Ife (Togo, Fieldwork)

21. Igbo (Ithaca, Field Methods)

22. Ju|’hoansi (Namibia, Fieldwork)

23. Lubukusu (Ithaca, Field Methods)

24. Masalit (NYC, Field Methods)

25. Medumba (NYC, Field Methods)

26. N|uu (South Africa, Fieldwork)

27. Okri/Cherepong (Ghana, Fieldwork, Field Methods)

28. Sasi (Botswana, Fieldwork)

29. Setswana (Botswana, course, Fieldwork)

30. Sherpa (NYC, Field Methods)

31. Shughni (NYC, Field Methods)

32. Shupamem (NYC, Field Methods)

33. Sinhala (NYC, Field Methods)

34. Songhay (NYC, Field Methods)

35. Spanish (NYC, Course, Paper)

36. Swahili (Ithaca, Course, Paper)

37. Thai (NYC, Field Methods)

38. Twi (Ghana, Course)

39. Tshila (Botswana, Fieldwork)

40. Wolof (Ithaca, Field Methods)

41. Yoruba (Ithaca, Course)

42. =Hoan (Botswana, Fieldwork)

 

Using Whatsapp for Linguistic Fieldwork

Whatsapp is a smartphone app that allows people in different countries to communicate over the phone for a very reasonable price. 

In addition, Whatsapp also allows the creation of Voicemail messages that can be used in linguistic fieldwork. Here are the basic steps for using Whatsapp for fieldwork. I thank Claire Bowern for some helpful suggestions. 

1.

Buy a smart phone and install Whatsapp.

2.

Have your consultant buy a smart phone and install Whatsapp.

3.

You should be able to call each other and write messages back and forth. 

4.

Install Google Drive as an app on your smart phone (using the Google Play Store app).

5.

You may also have to change the permissions on Google Drive. I went to the Google Drive app (installed on the smart phone), and disabled ‘Transfer uniquement en Wifi’. You may have to play with it a bit.

6.

In a Whatsapp message, write the word or the phrase that you want your consultant to speak. For example, “Say the word for ‘dog’ three times.” Send the message.

7.

Your consultant will create a voicemail message with the response to your question. To do so, they click on the mic to the right of the message window, and start to record. For example, your consultant will speak the word for ‘dog’ three times. Once the voicemail message is complete, they will send it to you. 

8.

When you get the message, press down on and select the voicemail. Then in the top right corner of your Whatsapp app, click on the menu and chose ‘share’.

9. 

Since you have installed Google Drive as an App, one of the options that appears should be Google Drive. Select it.

10.

Go to the folder (e.g., ‘Whatsapp Sound Files’) you have created in Google Drive, and download the voicemail (I clicked ‘Importer’ in my Google Drive app).

11.

You can also send the voicemail to your e-mail account. As in step (8), chose ‘share’. Then select Gmail from the options given. This process is a little more awkward, since you will need to open a new e-mail message for each sound file you produce (instead of just having them in a Google Drive folder right away).

12.

The file type will be .oga, which is not readable by Praat. So you need to convert it to .wav.

13.

Download Audacity to your computer (it is free).

14. 

Open the .oga file in Audacity, then save it as a .wav file.

15. 

The file name should be: XX_dog.wav, where XX are the initials of your consultant (e.g., CC for ‘Chris Collins’). Since you are using the file in Praat, there should be no special characters other than underscore.

16. 

You should now be able to open your file and analyze it in Praat (e.g., transcription)

17. 

Using these sound files, you can start to create a dictionary or a database of recordings for future use. 

18.

I do not yet know the size limitation on sound files, but you should be able to record three repetitions of a word, and any sentence. I am not sure whether you can record a five-minute long oral text yet. I need to experiment with that.

19.

I am not entirely sure whether the sound files are up to the standards of phonetics research, but they sound and look pretty good in Praat. Some verification of the quality of the sound files is needed. That is, a direct comparison is needed of sound files created by a ZoomH4n and by Whatsapp voicemail.

20.

I have yet to carry out a real project using this process, so it may have to be fine-tuned in the future.

Togo Diary (June July 2025)

August 2 Saturday

I got into Newark just before 8pm last night. The flight was a transitional zone from me, from one life to another. A kind of dead buffer zone linking my two lives. It is a part of travel that I am least interested in. In fact, I dread it.