1 The magic of names: a fieldworker's perspective Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald Language and Culture Research Centre, James Cook University For Olga Kazakevich, a very dear friend who enticed me into linguistics That firsthand knowledge of diverse languages is the backbone of any respectable linguistic work — and a sine qua non for trying to understand how languages work — has always been obvious for me. And what better way to acquire this knowledge than to do linguistic fieldwork — venturing into a new community, facing an unknown world, embracing difficult living conditions and trying to come to terms with new and unexpected linguistic structures. Working with a minority language, spoken out of the way of what we know as 'civilization', may be physically taxing — no running water (except in a river or a waterfall), no electricity, plenty of insects and diseases, tiring travel and further challenges. But what you learn is well worth the effort. In many ways minority 'out-of-the way' languages can be more expressive, more efficient and perhaps overall 'better' than familiar European ones (see Dixon 2016). Ideally, linguistic fieldwork involves observing the language as it is used, on a day-to- day basis, becoming a member of the community and be treated like a family member. Such 'immersion fieldwork' allows the researcher to experience the language in its spontaneous use. 1 Participant-observation and what people say to you on a day-to-day basis may reveal 1 'Immersion' is not always possible: as many minority languages fade into slow extinction, there may simply not be a community where they are used. I was not able to undertake any immersion fieldwork with Baré — I was lucky enough to work with Candelário da Silva, the last fluent speaker of that language. As a result, my grammar of Baré contains just the 'bare bones' of linguistic structure and little on interaction.