Field Report: Blerpish
Field Report
Blerpish
Zaneta Block
30 November 2012
Introduction: I was fishing out at sea one day near Seattle when I saw a figure too small to be a dolphin, but too large to be a fish. It definitely had a tail, but it looked a little like a scuba diver as well. As I was making jokes about seeing a mermaid, I see a mermaid just from the water making a sound that sounded like, “blerp”. Then I see several jump into the air and greet me. I come to find out a society of mermaids exist in the Pacific Ocean. There are about a hundred that live in this community and speak a language called “Blerpish”. My consultant is the owner of the boat I was using while fishing. His name is Daniel Humphrey. He is a 25-year-old male who resides in Seattle. He graduated from the Ohio State University with a degree in marine biology. He took two foreign languages in college, French and Japanese, as well as a couple classes in linguistics. With his background of languages he is able to understand enough of their language to help me translate it into English. On our first day we heard the word, “blerb” and “blerp” a lot. We learned that “blerb” is a formal way of saying hello, while “blerp” is more casual. “Blerb” can be considered a way of saying, “hi, how are you?” “Blerp” is a way of saying “hey, whats up?” or “what’s going on?” We inferred this because when they said, “blerb” they allowed us to “shake hands” with their tails. Others would wave their tail in a friendly manner, such as waving hello to someone, while saying, “blerp”. So this language has both a formal and informal version of “hello”. Non-verbal behavior included their movement of their tails. When speaking to us and mermaids of the same generation, they moved their tail a lot. They seemed to splash Dan as well, which is a flirty gesture to them. Some key words we were able to identify right away were warm, cold, wet, tail, hair, small, sharp, sun, sea, and sand. Throughout our discoveries we also
Blerpish
Zaneta Block
30 November 2012
Introduction: I was fishing out at sea one day near Seattle when I saw a figure too small to be a dolphin, but too large to be a fish. It definitely had a tail, but it looked a little like a scuba diver as well. As I was making jokes about seeing a mermaid, I see a mermaid just from the water making a sound that sounded like, “blerp”. Then I see several jump into the air and greet me. I come to find out a society of mermaids exist in the Pacific Ocean. There are about a hundred that live in this community and speak a language called “Blerpish”. My consultant is the owner of the boat I was using while fishing. His name is Daniel Humphrey. He is a 25-year-old male who resides in Seattle. He graduated from the Ohio State University with a degree in marine biology. He took two foreign languages in college, French and Japanese, as well as a couple classes in linguistics. With his background of languages he is able to understand enough of their language to help me translate it into English. On our first day we heard the word, “blerb” and “blerp” a lot. We learned that “blerb” is a formal way of saying hello, while “blerp” is more casual. “Blerb” can be considered a way of saying, “hi, how are you?” “Blerp” is a way of saying “hey, whats up?” or “what’s going on?” We inferred this because when they said, “blerb” they allowed us to “shake hands” with their tails. Others would wave their tail in a friendly manner, such as waving hello to someone, while saying, “blerp”. So this language has both a formal and informal version of “hello”. Non-verbal behavior included their movement of their tails. When speaking to us and mermaids of the same generation, they moved their tail a lot. They seemed to splash Dan as well, which is a flirty gesture to them. Some key words we were able to identify right away were warm, cold, wet, tail, hair, small, sharp, sun, sea, and sand. Throughout our discoveries we also