informant
n. countablen. a person who gives information to another person, often for research or a police investigation. In linguistics, this is the person who provides examples of their native language for a researcher to study.
n. a person who provides specific information to an investigator or researcher. In a linguistic context, refers to a native speaker who provides primary data about their language for analysis.
The researcher interviewed a local informant about the dialect.
The linguist spent months working with a native informant to document the grammar of the endangered language.
While the police rely on a confidential informant for leads, the anthropologist treats their informant as a primary source of cultural and linguistic knowledge during fieldwork.
From inform + -ant.
In modern linguistics, the term 'consultant' or 'language partner' is often preferred over 'informant' to imply a more collaborative relationship.