Debriefing is not a substitute for ethnographic interviewing but a complement to it. It may be about content, context, or both. It is helpful in situations or descriptions of events in which recording is not possible or permitted. It is one of the best methods for supplying ethnographic context to interviews that the interviewer may have overlooked—it then becomes an interview about an interview. Debriefing may be self-debriefing, one-on-one, one information giver to a group of debriefers, or a group session. Particularly the latter is an excellent teaching tool for ethnographic methods.
This is the first of several Short Takes articles that will deal with the reduction of previously unwritten languages or dialects to writing. This series will culminate in one or more articles on how to learn a field language. Obviously, before starting to learn a field language, it becomes necessary to systematically write down and organize words, phrases, and texts in order to aid one's memory and facilitate ethnographic analysis. This article introduces the reader to vowel sounds and their transcription in human languages.
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