13. Last Word

Trust me: I’m a linguist

I can’t help quoting this, from Michael Walsh’s hand-out for a talk at the Australian Linguistic Society in Macquarie University, Sydney on 14 July this year. He was addressing the theme: What does Linguistics have to do with Language Revitalization? Although he’s a pretty passable linguist himself, he seems here to be taking the perspective of a member of a language community.

Linguists are like lawyers

· there is a problem to be solved
· the problem requires specialist, usually non-local expertise
· acquire non-local expertise as needed
· disengage with non-local expertise if no good / no longer needed
· re-engage if there’s a problem, so you may need a trouble-shooting guide
· you don’t want them living in your pocket, but it’s possible to become friends with them.

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