South Africa: Dr. Neville Alexander of South Africa is the recipient of the 2008 Linguapax Prize

Posted on March 1, 2008.

Source: Don Osborn

Dr. Neville Alexander of South Africa is the recipient of the 2008 Linguapax Prize:

  22.02.2008

The South African linguist Neville Alexander will receive the Linguapax Award today in Barcelona, on the occasion of the Mother Language Day. The ceremony is framed in the Intercultural Week organised by the Ramon Llull University. Alexander, who coordinates the Project for the Study of Alternative Education in South Africa has devoted more than twenty years of his professional life to defend and preserve multilingualism in the post-apartheid South Africa and has become one of the major advocates of linguistic diversity.

http://www.unescocat.org/en/serveis/premsa.php

  For more information on the Prize, see:

http://www.linguapax.org/en/premisLPXang.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguapax_Prize

Foundation for Endangered Languages: CALL FOR PROPOSALS

Posted by sociolingo on February 6, 2008

Foundation for Endangered Languages: CALL FOR PROPOSALS

The Foundation for Endangered Languages is now accepting proposals for projects of work that will support, enable or assist the protection or promotion of one or more endangered languages. These endangered languages may be anywhere in the world.

Deadline: February 29, 2008

The Foundation for Endangered Languages is committed to raise awareness of endangered languages and support revitalisation and preservation of endangered languages through all channels and media. The Foundation awards grants to project that further its aims as an when the funds permit. The Foundation’s funds remain limited this year and only an exceptional award will be greater than US $1,000. Smaller proposals stand a better chance of funding

The research projects focusing on the revitalisation of the endangered languages and support the use of endangered languages in various spheres of community life (home, education, cultural and social life) will be given priority. Projects restricted to language documentation would not be eligible for funding this year.

Please go to http://www.ogmios.org/home.htm for full details of how to apply.

Book: Encyclopedia of Language and Education

Encyclopedia of Language and Education

Published: 2007,  Springer  http://www.springer.com

 <http://www.springer.com/> 
Editor: Nancy H. Hornberger


Abstract:


*The Encyclopedia is a necessary reference set for every university

 and college library in the world that serves a faculty or school of

 education.


*The Encyclopedia has more than 250 contributors drawn from numerous

countries. Its reviews present information and authoritative insights

 that are relevant to every country and to every language.


*Each volume contains about 20-30 reviews. For some topics, teams of

contributors have worked to produce a single review.


*Each state-of-the-art review has about 4000 words of text and

 follows a similar structure.


*Most contributors give coverage of early developments in their

 topic, major contributions, work in progress, problems and difficulties, and

future directions


*The aim of the reviews is to give readers access to the

 international literature and research on each topic.


*The text of each review is followed by a reference list containing

 about 30 key references mentioned in the text.


This Encyclopedia is a necessary reference set for every university

 and college library in the world that serves a faculty or school of

 education.



The Encyclopedia aims to speak to a prospective readership that is

multinational, and to do so as unambiguously as possible. Because

 each book-size volume deals with a discrete and important subject in

 language and education, these state-of-the-art volumes also offer highly

authoritative course textbooks in the areas suggested by their titles.


The more than 250 scholars contributing to the Encyclopedia hail from

 all continents of our globe and from 41 countries; they represent a great

diversity of linguistic, cultural, and disciplinary traditions. For all

that, what is most impressive about the contributions gathered here is the

unity of purpose and outlook they express with regard to the central

 role of language as both vehicle and mediator of educational processes and

 to the need for continued and deepening research into the limits and

possibilities that implies.


http://linguistlist.org/issues/19/19-168.html

The Language Question in Cameroon

Source:Linguistik online 18, 1/04

The Language Question in Cameroon

George Echu (Yaounde/Bloomington)

Abstract

In multilingual Cameroon, 247 indigenous languages live side by side with English and French (the two official languages) and Cameroon Pidgin English (the main lingua franca). While the two official languages of colonial heritage dominate public life in the areas of education, administration, politics, mass media, publicity and literature, both the indigenous languages and Cameroon Pidgin English are relegated to the background.

This paper is a critique of language policy in Cameroon revealing that mother tongue education in the early years of primary education remains a distant cry, as the possible introduction of an indigenous language in the school system is not only considered unwanted by educational authorities but equally combated against by parents who believe that the future of their children lies in the mastery of the official languages. This persistent disregard of indigenous languages does not only alienate the Cameroonian child culturally, but further alienates the vast majority of Cameroonians who are illiterate (in English and French) since important State business is carried out in the official languages. As regards the implementation of the policy of official language bilingualism, there is clear imbalance in the use of the two official languages as French continues to be the dominant official language while English is relegated to a second place within the State. The frustration that ensues within the Anglophone community has led in recent years to the birth of Anglophone nationalism, a situation that seems to be widening the rift between the two main components of the society (Anglophones and Francophones), thereby compromising national unity.

The paper is divided into five major parts. After a brief presentation of the country, the author dwells on multilingualism and language policy since the colonial period. The third, fourth and last parts of the paper focus on the critique of language policy in Cameroon with emphasis first on the policy of official language bilingualism and bilingual education, then on the place of indigenous languages, and finally on the national language debate.

---

full text

Cameroon: Orthography and Identity

Posted by sociolingo on January 2, 2008

Source: Cogprints

Orthography and Identity in Cameroon

Bird, Steven (2001) Orthography and Identity in Cameroon. [Journal (Paginated)] (In Press)

Full text available as:

Preview	PDF - Requires a PDF viewer such as GSview, Xpdf or Adobe Acrobat Reader 168Kb
Preview	Postscript - Requires a viewer, such as GSview 1145Kb

Abstract

The tone languages of sub-Saharan Africa raise challenging questions for the design of new writing systems. Marking too much or too little tone can have grave consequences for the usability of an orthography. Orthography development, past and present, rests on a raft of sociolinguistic issues having little to do with the technical phonological concerns that usually preoccupy orthographers. Some of these issues are familiar from the spelling reforms which have taken place in European languages. However, many of the issues faced in sub-Saharan Africa are different, being concerned with the creation of new writing systems in a multi-ethnic context: residual colonial influences, the construction of new nation-states, detribalization versus culture preservation and language reclamation, and so on. Language development projects which crucially rely on creating or revising orthographies may founder if they do not attend to the various layers of identity that are indexed by orthography: whether colonial, national, ethnic, local or individual identity. In this study, I review the history and politics of orthography in Cameroon, with a focus on tone marking. The paper concludes by calling present-day orthographers to a deeper and broader understanding of orthographic issues.

Academic paper: Standardization of national languages

 The following UNESCO paper (pdf doc) has several African papers which may be of interest. You will need Adobe Reader to access it. (Download it here.)

STANDARDIZATION OF NATIONAL
LANGUAGES
SYMPOSIUM
ON LANGUAGE STANDARDIZATION
2-3 February 1991
edited by
Utta von Gleich and Ekkehard Wolff

More 

Summary tables of tone mark data from 21 (African) countries

Source: http://www.bisharat.net/A12N/tones.htm

Summary tables of tone mark data from 21 countries /
Résumé en tableaux des données sur marques de ton de 21 pays
by / par Lee Pearce

African Tone Symbols for Keyboards

✷       Realizing that tones are not always marked for [some] African languages, we propose including them on keyboards only so that they are available for those who may want or need them.

✷       We put this material together for the sole purpose of determining the minimum set of symbols required for keyboards targeted at the country level.

✷       The data follows the format of the 21 country tables presented on the Bisharat website [A12n gateway page] and is drawn [mainly] from the Hartell study [Rhonda L. Hartell, ed. 1993. The Alphabets of Africa. Dakar: UNESCO & SIL].

✷       Since tone data was not available for all of the languages, some comments are added to clarify the source material.

(1)     No tone data available in Hartell study [or not a tonal language – DZO]

(2)     No orthographic material available under this language in the Rosetta Project.

 See the table

African thesis: The status and use of African languages in Sudan

Source: AFRIKANSKA SPRÅK
The status and use of African languages in Sudan
Participant Helene Fatima Idris

The purpose of this doctoral dissertation is to describe the status and use of African languages (minority languages in numerical and functional terms) versus Arabic (the only official language). The study is based on data collected in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur State, and in Greater Khartoum, the national capital of Sudan.

Majority and Minority Languages in South Africa.

Majority and Minority Languages in South Africa.
Alexander, Neville

This paper discusses three categories of languages in post-apartheid South Africa: high-status, low-status, and endangered. The first section presents demolinguistic profiles and their representation in the media, offering data on the relative numerical importance of the main languages used in South Africa and the average and proportional allocation at three South African Broadcasting Corporation stations in 1996. The second section examines the sociolinguistic status of South Africa’s languages, noting the processes that shaped language policy and attitudes during the past 50 years. The third section discusses language in education, explaining that most educators in South Africa continue to think of the indigenous African languages as impediments to be overcome on the way to mastering the English language. The fourth section describes prospects for African languages in South Africa and its education system. The paper concludes that a series of language planning steps is necessary to ensure that the theoretically unchallengeable policy positions of the new South Africa are realized. Recommendations include large scale generalized critical language awareness campaigns, multilingual or bilingual signposts and nameboards for all government buildings and roads, and large-scale training for interpreters, translators, journalists, media practitioners, and teachers. (SM)

Call for papers for the 7th Conference on Mande Studies

I’ve received the following conference notification, closing date end of December. If you are interested in sending in a paper and/or attending the conference, please read to the end of the article and respond to the conference organisers NOT to Sociolingo.

 

Call for papers for the 7^th Conference on Mande Studies,

Lisbon, Portugal, June 24-28, 2008

 

Panel: Literacy practices in the Mande area/ Pratiques de l’écrit dans l’aire mandé

 

Convenors / Organisatrices:

Anne Doquet, IRD & Centre d’études africaines (EHESS)

Aïssatou Mbodj-Pouye, Centre d’études africaines (EHESS)

 

Abstract

This panel calls for propositions dealing with literacy practices: accounts of practices observed in the field as well as reflections on the researcher’s writing practices.

Literacy practices on grass-root level are often overlooked, but they are a growing part of people’s lives: notebooks or sheets of papers are held in a variety of settings, for a wide range of purposes.

Literate skills often remain a scarce resource, which gives them a specific role in the present context of political changes at local level. Studies of schooling choices show that people still believe in the importance of literacy even outside formal schooling. This raises issues of languages and scripts (sometimes contesting the dominant status of official languages as written languages).

Writing and reading practices invest the domestic sphere as well as the community level: keeping records, writing down knowledge, preserving secrets, etc. How do this processes interfere with oral modes of keeping and passing down knowledge?

Along with these private practices, studies of bureaucratic literacies (and their private counterpart), local historical writing, as well as other uses of print and press would usefully complement this approach. The panel will also include papers dealing with the way the writing activities of the researcher are locally perceived.

Literacy studies are a field of inquiry which is currently renewed by works from other African settings (see for instance the book edited by Karin Barber Africa’s hidden histories. Everyday literacy and Making the Self, Bloomington, Indiana Univ. Press 2006). We believe that Mande studies could benefit from this developments and provide new insights on this theme.

 

Résumé

L’objet de ce panel est de réunir des contributions portant sur des pratiques de l’écrit, que ce soit des pratiques observées sur le terrain ou un retour sur la pratique du chercheur comme ethnographe.

Les pratiques d’écriture des acteurs locaux, souvent inaperçues, sont pourtant largement présentes : cahiers, feuilles volantes font désormais partie du quotidien des zones rurales ou urbaines. La rareté des compétences en fait une ressource recherchée, rendant particulièrement vifs les enjeux de pouvoir autour de l’écrit accompagnant les reformulations politiques contemporaines. Les stratégies éducatives montrent un intérêt persistant pour l’écriture mais pas toujours dans la langue du système éducatif formel. Aussi les questions de langues et de graphies (contestant parfois le statut privilégié des langues officielles à l’écrit) sont-elles centrales pour comprendre la manière dont les individus se rapportent à l’écrit.

Ces pratiques ont pour échelle la sphère domestique ou la communauté et prennent diverses formes : tenir ses comptes, conserver des savoirs, préserver des secrets, etc. Une question se pose alors : comment cela s’articule-t-il avec les modes oraux de conservation et de transmission des savoirs ?

Outre ces pratiques privées, des analyses des écrits bureaucratiques (de leurs usages ou des résistances qu’ils suscitent), de la mise par écrit de l’histoire locale, des usages de l’imprimé et de la presse pourraient compléter cette approche. En parallèle, d’autres contributions prendront pour point de départ l’activité d’écriture du chercheur et les réactions qu’elle suscite.

Réfléchir à ces différentes formes de la culture écrite nous semble important au moment où l’histoire de ces pratiques se constitue en champ de recherche pour d’autres régions du continent (en témoigne l’ouvrage collectif dirigé par Karin Barber Africa’s hidden histories. Everyday literacy and Making the Self, Bloomington, Indiana Univ. Press 2006).

 

 

Contributors to this date (preliminary titles)/ Intervenants à ce jour (titres provisoires) :

 

Anne Doquet, IRD & Centre d’études africaines (EHESS)

The anthropologist’s writings: issues around form and content / Les écrits de l’anthropologue : enjeux autour de la forme et du contenu

 

Aïssatou Mbodj-Pouye, Centre d’études africaines (EHESS) & GRS (Univ. Lyon 2)

Writing and the self: an ethnographic approach of personal notebooks held by villagers around Fana (Mali) / Qu’est-ce qu’écrire pour soi ? Approche ethnographique de cahiers personnels recueillis près de Fana (Mali)

 

Francesco Zappa, Università di Roma “La Sapienza”

Islamic printing: a new frontier of written Bambara ? / L’imprimé islamique : nouvelle frontière du bambara écrit ?

 

 

If you are interested, please send an abstract and a working title to Anne Doquet (a.mbodjpouye@free.fr) by February 1, 2008.

Please note that West African colleagues residing in West Africa who wish to compete for funding to attend the conference must submit their papers to Kassim Koné (kone@cortland.edu) by December 31, 2007.

 

Si vous êtes intéressés, veuillez adresser un résumé et une proposition de titre à Anne Doquet (a.mbodjpouye@free.fr) avant le 1/02/2008.

Les chercheurs basés en Afrique de l’Ouest désireux de solliciter le financement de leur venue doivent soumettre leur texte à Kassim Koné (kone@cortland.edu) avant le 31/12/2007.