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Kenya: Vernacular radio row

sociolingo — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 09:27:00 +0000

x-posted from Sociolingo's African Linguistics

Posted by sociolingo on June 28, 2008

There’s a significant row brewing in Kenya over vernacular radio. That is, radio stations broadcasting in languages other than the two officially recognised ones, English and Kiswahili. To be honest the row has been going on since 2000 when the first vernacular radio station Kameme FM, which uses mainly Kikuyu was opened, and reflects the broader row about local languages.

The argument initially was economic and the vernacular stations were considered to be drawing revenue away from the state-owned station Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC), which incidentally does have some broadcasts in Kenyan local languages. See Radio Station World for an overview of Kenya's radio stations.

Local language broadcasting stations and communicating in local languages have been a pivotal feature of UNESCO strategy for rural Africa in recent years. A good overview of the historic development of vernacular radio stations in Kenya can be found at Africa 2000 which looks at the issue in the context of freedom of the Press.

The latest row though has changed tack and the accusation now is that of inciting civic unrest. through broadcasting inflammatory content. The station in question, Kass FM broadcasts in the Kalenjin language and the broadcasts that were criticised were call-ins about poll violence . (Source: BBC NEWS) I guess this is not surprising given the civic unrest following recent elections. However, the stations are not without their supporters. Saturday Nation reports that In a surprise move eleven Kenyan MPs have risen against the government move to close Kass FM.

Eleven members of Parliament have dared the Government to close a vernacular radio station, saying they would mobilise their supporters to condemn the action.

The MPs, mainly from Rift Valley Province, said they would also defend Kass FM in Parliament and in courts.

On Wednesday, the Government threatened to close down Kass by Friday for allegedly broadcasting inciting and inflammatory material.

The leaders accused Communications and Information permanent secretary Bitange Ndemo of being influenced by “vendetta-driven politicians”. They also accused the PS of usurping the role of the Media Council of Kenya by acting as the complainant, investigator, judge and jury.

In a statement read by Gem MP Jakoyo Midiwo, the leaders said: “We object in the strongest terms possible the repeated attempts by the Government to muzzle and silence Kass FM radio station.”

The MPs said the move was not only unconstitutional, but also bordered on infringement on freedom of the Press.

The argument now is about freedom of the Press and in broader terms of the right of free speech.

However, an different view can be seen on IPS NEWs which reports on a workshop last April where journalists were invited to reflect on the role local media played in the post-election violence in Kenya. Some of the comments by journalists are quite telling and give a quite different view of the situation and focus not so much on the role of language but rather the politics of local radio.

David Ochami, a commissioner with the Media Council of Kenya, told IPS that long before the elections were held, vernacular radio stations had ignited ethnic consciousness among the listeners “making them support leaders from their own tribe and harbour bad feelings about people from other communities.”

“The ethnic hate our radio station was propagating about those from outside the community was unbelievable. I can’t repeat any of those expressions at this forum,” said a journalist with a vernacular radio station. “The unfortunate thing is we let these callers speak vile and laughed about it.”

“We took sides in the issue and we became subjective, forgetting our professional tenet of objectivity and neutrality. In fact, this polarization was so bad in the newsrooms that some broadcast journalists refused to cover or read news that wasn’t favourable to the candidate or party they supported,” said a journalist.

Media owners were also blamed for encouraging the violence:

“They [KBC] had vested interests in either camp of the political divide,” a reporter with Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) said, adding that he and his colleagues wanted to tell the real story but they couldn’t because the stories could portray the government in a bad light.

“We had beautiful clips and stories from the field, but we went back to the newsroom knowing that the story would never be used,” he said.

“The media organizations [privately owned] refrained from telling the world the truth about what was happening,” Ochami told IPS. “There has been a tendency of portraying the Kenyan crisis as a problem between two ethnic groups — where one [Kibaki’s Kikuyu] is victimized by another [opposition leader Raila Odinga’s Luo]. Any other story on the contrary is downplayed or ignored,” Ochami explained.

Namibia: Impact of Language On Education Policy - Ankama

sociolingo — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 10:17:18 +0000

Source: New Era, June 18th
Impact of Language on Education Policy
By Chief Ankama

“Experience teaches us not to assume that the obvious is clearly understood. So it is with the truism with which we begin: All educational practice implies a theoretical stance on the educator’s part.

This stance in turn implies – sometimes more, sometimes less explicitly – an interpretation of man and the world. It could not be otherwise.

“The process of man’s orientation in the world involves not just the association of sense images, as for animals. It involves, above all, thought language; that is, the possibility of the act of knowing through his praxis, by which man transforms reality” (Freire 1970, p. 248).

In my opinion, Freire in a broader sense implies ignorance and assumptions education planners sometimes have in determining what should be learned and how learning takes place. Although Freire argues from the view of adult literacy, this view carries the same weight for young learners in formal education.

In other words, learning should not be seen as a container of knowledge for the knowledge hungry, to get there and be tanked by the knowledge developers, but rather a process that helps develop funds of knowledge.

Learning should be home connected taking into account the learner’s
language, culture and praxis and thus making education more accessible and meaningful.

Au and Kawakami (1994) report that students of diverse background often do poorly because of a mismatch between the culture of the school and the culture of the home (pp. 5-6). This can be viewed in relation to the report in ‘The Namibian’ (November 29, 2002), regarding education output in Namibia.

The Ministry of Basic Education reported that the education system has failed to meet the demand for skilled human resources in Namibia. A National Plan of Action 2001-2015, released by the then Minister of Basic Education John Mutorwa, said the system had failed to empower Namibians of all ages to contribute to their own well-being.

A National Strategic Plan, a short-term strategy, has been developed to reverse the trend through the introduction of programmes that would advance the cultural and economic development of Namibians by 2005 (Mutorwa 2002).

As Au and Kawakami point out, students have less opportunity to learn when school lessons and other activities are conducted, or socially organised, in a manner inconsistent with the values and norms of their home culture (p. 6). In my opinion, the two authors should be credited for their research.

It is as if they knew what is currently haunting the Ministry of Education in Namibia in view of what the Minister had stated. While the country is multiracial and multicultural, not much has been paid to cultural congruence instruction advocated by Au and Kawakami (ibid).

Further, they say research on cultural congruence recognizes that the home and school are different settings with different functions in students’ lives, and that culturally congruent educational practices incorporate features of the students’ home culture but do not result in activities and environments identical to those of the home.

Au and Kawakami (1994) quote Slinger (1988) who noted research exploring cultural congruence having adopted an “inherently moderate” position accepting that goals of schooling for students of diverse backgrounds are essentially the same as the goals for students of mainstream backgrounds, which help them acquire the skills and knowledge needed for success in the larger society (p.6).

Henze (1992) tells of a cultural congruence existence between homes of all learners and the school environment (p.6). Henze (1992) however quotes Erickson (1986a) that incongruity may be there, and that it can result in cognitive dissonance, making it more difficult for students to do well in school because they must learn not only lesson content, but also a different way of interacting.

She however cautions against general belief that cultural incongruence is always the cause of trouble in schools (ibid).

What education planners usually miss is how to make blends of the different cultures to marry each other through education. McDermott (1995) highlights two important assumptions from the anthropological point of view; “the first, that we are arrogant to think we know better than people in other cultures, and the second, that we are foolish to not appreciate how much is known by others in their own terms” (p.1).

In essence, people in planning in general consciously or unconsciously underestimate the values of cultures and languages of others as co-pillars, which congruently uphold the system of education together.

The metaphor of “How to ring a doorbell”, Henze (1992) clearly illustrates the cultural-language connection between school and home environment as a contributive factor for or against education.

Namibia for example, having adopted English recently in 1993 as medium of instruction in education, should not be expected to do miracles in education comprising of multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-lingual diverse settings, which were previously administered according to ethnic-racial lines (Putz 1995, pp. 187-192).

Language is relative to culture and Neu (1995) tells a great deal she has learned about identity, language and conflict while at the Carter Center resolving international conflicts which are group identity related (p. 9). In other words, people generally see themselves as a group (community) through the common language they speak.

McDermott (1995) nevertheless, describes the coherence of culture as something many individuals, in multiple realities, manage to achieve together; that it is never simply the property of individual persons (p. 2).

My concern rests upon the implementation and effectiveness of the choice of the medium of instruction from grades 1-3 schools in Namibia as defined in the national education language policy.

The policy prescribes the use of indigenous languages as medium of instruction in grades 1-3 with special focus on the role of indigenous languages in education (Brown 1998, p. 6; Slaughter & Lai 1994, p.32; and Mann 1997, p.17).

Schools are expected to make arrangements for the choice of medium of instruction and implement national languages in accordance with how the learners are represented at a particular school.

Noteworthy is that Namibia’s language policy was received with mixed feelings. Among the culturally sensitive and among some of the university elite, there were some misgivings (Grant 1996, p. 5).

“Some feared that the local languages would begin to disappear under the promotion and establishment of English, and that the rich and varied linguistic heritage of Namibia might be eroded” (Ibid).

In the near-similar circumstance Neu (1995, pp. 1-2) gives a good example as she emphatically applauds Governor Miller for courageously vetoing an “Official English” bill which would be passed in Georgia state, USA. Neu is convinced that as a result of the veto, it helps the state of Georgia to create “an intercultural mosaic”.

In her opinion, Governor Miller’s veto “was an act of conflict prevention”. With this, Neu realized the harmonious togetherness among people of different languages and cultures in Georgia State, noting that a disturbing situation would arise when some people’s languages were sidelined and English language was legitimised.

Noting the absence of research on the situation referred to by Grant (1996, p. 5) regarding some fear that local languages would begin to disappear under the promotion and establishment of English, in my view, this is an appropriate time to find out exactly what happens with indigenous languages at grades 1-3 since the education language policy came into effect.

Neu’s paper in line with that of Phillipson and Skutnabb-Kangas (1995) points out the danger involved in suppression of minority languages such as; the cause of conflict, war, ethnic division and mass destruction of the economy of such people. That an economic benefit could be shared among the same people if there was peace.

Neu (1995, pp.16-19) gives an example of the Russians and Estonians ‘an eye for an eye’ situation between a former master and a subordinate. Equally Phillipson and Skutnabb-Kangas (1995: p. 486), refer to a near similar case of Russia and the Baltic states.

In this reference, Russia felt that minority Russian-speaking people in those states were being victimized as they were robbed of their language rights.

Prior to Namibia’s independence in 1990, Afrikaans, English and German were elevated to the position of official languages with the exception of indigenous languages.

Afrikaans enjoyed many privileges as it was also the medium of instruction in education. With these in mind, speakers of indigenous languages will get upset once they feel their cultures and languages are receiving less priority (see Putz 1995, pp. 158-162).

Phillipson and Skutnabb-Kangas squarely meet Neu at the point of defending linguistic and cultural pluralism co-existence. All blame the governments and systems with powers fuelling tension and at times igniting war by abusing or carelessly imposing language policies/language choices onto people.

Nekhwevha (1998) criticises both the South African and Namibian curriculum of the new educational programmes as lacking indigenous ingredient, namely the cultural capital of the African masses (p. 1).

“Nevertheless, without struggle there is no progress and therefore the African cultural renaissance in education will only become a reality when educationists and other organic intellectuals embrace the pedagogy of hope – in a word the struggle for educational transformation continues” (ibid).

In the same tone as Grant (1996), Neu (1995), Phillipson and Skutnabb-Kangas (1995), Nekhwevha (1998) underlines; culture, languages, customs and values as core spices in the education curriculum menu and should not be overlooked (ibid).

However, Neu (1995) cautions against focusing on individual interest, e.g. ethnic, religion or linguistic differences, rather than to focus “on what unites us, on our shared humanity, …” (P. 5).

Moll, et al (1992), adopted an approach in their study to connect home and classroom together (p. 133). They talk about the relevance of developing a ‘culture sensitive curriculum’ that acknowledges household functioning knowledge (p. 139).

Their emphasis rests upon the artful amalgamation of the socio-cultural experience of the learner’s world, into that of the school.

Lack of learners’ interaction in the classroom hampers greatly the success of the learner in education. Cummins (1995), discusses probable effectiveness or ineffectiveness of various interventions directed at reversing minority students’ school failure (p. 103).

Cummins’ argument is based on the three inclusive sets of interactions or power relations: (1) the classroom interactions between teachers and students, (2) relationships between school and minority communities and (3) the inter-group power relations within the society as a whole.

“Within this framework the educational failure of minority students is analysed as a function of the extent to which schools reflect or counteract the power relations that exist within the broader society.

“Specifically, language-minority students’ educational progress is strongly influenced by the extent to which individual educators become advocates for the promotion of students’ linguistic talents, actively encourage community participation in developing students’ academic and cultural resources, and implement pedagogical approaches that succeed in liberating students from instructional dependence” (Cummins 1995, p. 112).

Cummins’ theory acts as a critical review of Namibia’s education language policy implementation with specific reference to elementary education.

The analysis of the policy and its implementation in grades 1-3 is critically essential for it can provide evidence of the policy’s successes and failures, while creating an opportunity for future improved changes of the policy implementation in education, especially at the level of primary education.

Another interesting comparison to Namibia is the Fillmore (1991) case study, which discusses the phenomenon of “subtractive bilingualism” in relation to both native and immigrant children in the state of California, whose acquisition of English in school resulted not in bilingualism as such, but in the erosion or loss of their primary languages (p. 323).

Fillmore alludes to countless American immigrant and American native children who have lost their ethnic languages in the process of becoming linguistically assimilated into the English-speaking world of the school and society (p. 339). Namibia’s case may be different in that it is the majority whose languages have been neglected in the past by the previous administration.

Furthermore, indigenous language concerns reported by Grant (1996, p. 5) have not been critically followed up yet. On the other hand, in Namibia English is given an official status to co-exist with indigenous languages for use in cases such as when and where English is not understood.

Indigenous languages are also given special treatment to be used as medium of instruction in the early grades of education.

AFRICA: Mind your language - a short guide to HIV/AIDS slang

sociolingo — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 10:10:50 +0000

There's an interesting article on IRIN NEWS about a glossary of the language used in several African countries to refer to HIV/AIDS. (Click the link to access the article)

Many agencies are concerned about how the negative connotations in the language used on the street undermines the efforts to reduce the stigma of the disease. One researcher cited in the article says "Language can neither be separated from our thoughts and feelings, nor from the social context in which it is used," she said. "Words and images create different conceptual realities of the phenomenon."

PlusNews is interested to hear from you if you can improve this glossary. Please send your examples, with a brief description of meaning and where the slang is used, to: mail@plusnews.org

Here is the glossary to date:

Angola (Portuguese)

Pisar pisar na min - Contracting HIV is like having "stepped on a landmine"

Bichinho - "Little bug" (the virus)

Kenya (Kikuyu, spoken mainly in central Kenya)

kagunyo - "The worm" (euphemism for HIV)

Nigeria (Hausa, spoken mainly in the north)

Kabari Salama aalaiku - Literally translates as "Excuse me, grave" (reference to AIDS)

Tewo Zamani - Translates as the “sickness of this generation” (another reference to AIDS)

Nigeria (Igbo, spoken mainly in the east)

Ato nai ise - "Five and three" (5 + 3 = 8, and "eight" sounds like "AIDS")

Oria Obiri na aja ocha - "Sickness that ends in death" (euphemism for AIDS)

Nigeria (Yoruba, spoken mainly in the west)

Eedi - "Curse"

Arun ti ogbogun - "Sickness without cure"

Nigeria (Pidgin, the unofficial lingua franca)

He don carry - "He carries the virus"

Nigeria (English)

HIV - He Intends Victory (acronym of HIV and a phrase popular among born-again Christians)

South Africa (IsiXhosa and IsiZulu)

Udlala ilotto - "Playing the lotto" /ubambe ilotto - "won the lotto" (said of someone suspected of being HIV positive; Lotto is the national lottery)

Unyathele icable - Contracting HIV is like "stepping on a live wire"

South Africa (English)

House in Vereeniging - (Acronym of HIV; "bought a house in Vereeniging", a town about 50km south of Johannesburg, refers to someone suspected of being HIV positive)

Driving a "Z3"/ "having three kids"/ the "three letters" - All refer to the three letters in the HIV acronym

Tracker - If you are suspected of being HIV positive people say God is tracking you, like the popular southern African service that tracks and recovers stolen vehicles

Tanzania (KiSwahili)

amesimamia msumari - "Standing on a nail"; euphemism for being skinny, or being small enough to fit on a nail's head, referring to AIDS-related weight loss

kukanyaga miwaya - Contracting HIV is like "stepping on a live wire"

mdudu - "The bug" (refers to HIV)

Uganda (English)

Slim - Euphemism for HIV/AIDS as a result of the associated weight loss; less popular since the advent of ARVs

Uganda (Luganda, spoken mainly in the central region)

Okugwa mubatemu - You have been waylaid by thugs (contracted HIV)

Zambia (Nyanja, spoken mainly in the east and the capital, Lusaka)

Kanayaka - "It has lit up" (refers to a positive reaction from an HIV test)

Ka-onde-onde - "Thing that makes you thinner and thinner" (HIV)

Zambia (Bemba, spoken mainly in the north and Lusaka)

Bamalwele ya akashishi - "Those that suffer from the germ" (HIV-positive people)

Kaleza - "Razor blade" (Refers to a person being thin as a result of AIDS-related weight loss)

Zimbabwe (Shona)

Ari pachirongwa - "He/she is on a (treatment) programme"

Akarohwa nematsoti - "He/she has been beaten by thieves"

Mukondas - Abbreviation of "mukondombera" (epidemic)

Ari kumwa mangai - "He/she is drinking mangai" (mangai is boiled corn seedlings, which represent antiretroviral (ARV) drugs)

Akabatwa - "He/she was caught" (received a positive diagnosis)

Zvirwere zvemazuvano - "The current diseases" (the HIV epidemic)

Akatsika banana - "He/she has stepped on a banana and slipped" (someone who has tested positive and therefore will "fall" or die as a result)

Shuramatongo - "A bad omen for relatives"

Zimbabwe (English)

Red card - Like a football player being sent off, life is over

Go slow - Taken to mean that he/she is now progressing slowly towards death

TB2 - Refers to high rates of HIV and TB co-infection (used to denote AIDS)

RVR - Slang for ARVs, adapted from Mitsubishi's RVR sports utility vehicle

John the Baptist - When someone has TB, he/she is said to have been baptised by "John the Baptist", who has come to announce the coming of HIV

FTT - "Failure to thrive" (adapted from the medical phrase, now used to describe HIV-positive children)

Boarding pass - Implies that HIV is a boarding pass to death

Departure lounge - An HIV-infected person is in the departure lounge awaiting death

Free resource: Bantu Online Bibliography

sociolingo — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 15:51:53 +0000

I've been looking through Jouni Maho's collection of linguistic papers and I came across the Bantu Online Bibliography. It's a pdf file so you'll need adobe reader.

I was amazed at the comprehensiveness of it - almost 19,000 entries covering grammars, dictionaries and other linguistic references as well as some unsorted references.

The Bantu Online Bibliography, or BOB for short, is a bibliography with the
sole aim of listing any and all works dealing with the sub-Saharan Bantu
languages. It aims to be exhaustive with regard to linguistic works, as well as
reliable and accurate with regard to bibliographical details. BOB is updated
with regular intervals.
Note that BOB is a bibliographical survey of research, not an inventory of
any existing library or collection.

French gov’t donates 200mn Euro to facilitate French teaching in Kenya

sociolingo — Tue, 27 May 2008 20:49:33 +0000

Source: APA

French gov’t donates 200mn Euro to facilitate French teaching in Kenya (2008-05-26 19:58:22)

APA-Nairobi (Kenya) The French ambassador to Kenya Mrs. Elisabeth Barbier on Monday donated 200 million Euros (1.9 billion shillings) to the Kenyan government to facilitate the teaching of the French language in the country.

Read the full story

Mali linguistics: Perceptions of languages in the Mandingo Region of Mali

sociolingo — Tue, 06 May 2008 10:49:57 +0000

Posted by sociolingo on May 6, 2008

Canut C, (2002). Perceptions of languages in the Mandingo Region of Mali: Where Does One Language Begin and the Other End? in Long, Daniel and Dennis Preston, ed. (2002) Handbook of Perceptual Dialectology, Volume 2, John Benjamins Publishing Company. ISBN:9027221855

Read the chapter on Google Scholar

Available from Amazon UK

Review of book:

LINGUIST List 14.1383: Dialectology: Long and Preston (2002)

(2002) Handbook of Perceptual Dialectology, Volume 2, John Benjamins … The first volume of the Handbook of Perceptual Dialectology (Preston 1999) …

linguistlist.org

Mali: "Bambara" vs "Bamana" in English nomenclature

sociolingo — Sun, 04 May 2008 11:16:53 +0000

Please respond directly to Don (dzo(at)bisharat(dot)net

Cross-posted from H-West-Africa list

From: "Don Osborn"
Date: Sat, 3 May 2008 11:10:39 -0400

------------------

A recent proposal on the Wikipedia article for "Bambara language" propts me to turn to this list for some feedback. It relates to the issue of where we are in the fashion of using "endonyms" for peoples and languages that was discussed on H-Africa & H-West-Africa in Dec. 2007 ("Names for African peoples & language"). The author of the request below makes a reasonable suggestion to consider changing the article name to "Bamana," but makes the use of "Bambara" sound like an unqualified insult. My response follows. Any comments on the background, claims, or appropriate course of action would be appreciated.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Bambara_language#language_name :

The name of this article needs to be changed, please. The term 'Bambara' floating around in other articles as an alternative name can still link to the new correctly titled article. The name of the ethnic group is the BAMANA and the language is BAMANA (English, German) or BAMANANKAN (lit. 'Bamana sound') in the native language. The term BAMBARA is pejorative on several levels. It's a mispronunciation by the Colonial French (and therefore smacks of colonialism) and has stuck in much of French literature as well as art circles. However, this article is English wiki, and Americans and British anthropologists, sociologists and LINGUISTS call the language BAMANA. The term BAMBARA meant 'riverworking / hardworking *slave*' during the slave trade in Senegal, used by the whites and the Wolof to refer to the Bamana, Boso, Kagoro, etc. And, BAMBARA literally means in Fula (and has connotations in other West African languages) 'pagan, infidel' as the Fula converted many other ethnic groups to Islam. Many Fula still consider the Bamana as 'bad muslims.' The term BAMBARA is tinted with racsim, colonialism, ethnic hatred/distrust and religious tension. Professionals call the language and its speakers the same term that those speakers do. The article's name needs to be changes. Using BAMBARA in Wiki is like titling a page Beaner or Yank or Lapp or Polack or Limey. Change it. 71.210.91.4 (talk) 02:34, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

I'll post this issue to the MANSA-L list (of the Mande Studies Association), because I think the issue may not be as clear cut as you imply. I think the case for endonyms - as you put it "Professionals call the language and its speakers the same term that those speakers do" - is sometimes overstretched and many now recognize that it is not always appropriate and sometimes even awkward. Where a pejorative association is clear, I think we'd all agree that the change should have no question - we say "Soninke" and have long before Wikipedia dropped "Saracolle" for this reason. I'm not arguing against the change so much as asking for more clarity before it be considered. My understanding is that "Bambara" came into the European languages via Fula <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fula_language> pronunciation (Bammbaraajo/Bambaraa?e), but that it does not "literally mean in Fula (and has connotations in other West African languages) 'pagan, infidel'" (although it sounds a bit like a derivative of the root for carrying on the back - wammb-). The history of the term is no doubt complex and I'd suggest more discussion before any attempt to move the articles.--A12n (talk) 14:56, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

South Africa: Proper use of mother tongue the way forward

sociolingo — Sun, 04 May 2008 09:58:36 +0000

Cross-posted from Sociolingo's African Linguistics

Posted by sociolingo on April 29, 2008

Proper use of mother tongue the way forward

(This article was originally published on page 9 of The Cape Times on
April 21, 2008 )
http://www.eltworld.net/news/tag/use-of-english-in-south-africa/
In this article in our series, Neville Alexander, director of the
project for the Study of Alternative Education in South Africa at the
University of Cape Town, argues that to ignore the language issue is
to entrench the domination of powerful elites. South Africa has
arguably the most progressive language policy on paper. This fact is
acknowledged by most people who are familiar with the sociology and
the politics of language.
n spite of this, however, if one reads only the Afrikaans press, one
would have to conclude that this language policy is a total failure
and that we are moving rapidly to a situation where the de facto sole
official language is the “hated” Queen’s English.

The reader would be surprised, therefore, to hear that some of us hold
the unpalatable view that, because of what we call our “languish
policy”, this country is in fact simply carrying out in practice a
neo-apartheid language policy. For, in spite of the fact that
Afrikaans is being driven out of many domains of social life and being
replaced by English, it is still the most favoured official language
next to English. Why is language policy important? And why is it a bad
idea that we should all be forced to operate in English only when we
transact business or are involved in any public domain?

The simple way to answer this is by means of a five-dimensional
argument. Incidentally, although there is a very important polemic
taking place among linguists about the exact meaning and even the
validity of a word such as “a language”, this is not the place to
enter into that debate. Suffice to say it is an important debate that
may eventually lead to significant changes in the ways we speak or
write about the language question. The fact is that I am writing this
article in Standard South African English, and expect to be read and
understood by hundreds of South Africans and other users of a notional
international standard written English.

Many of these readers, I expect, will tell others, who either have not
read or cannot read the article, about its contents in whatever
linguistic means they have in common. And, somehow, for my current
communicative purposes, this seems to be in order. The
five-dimensional argument refers to the relationship between language
use and language policy with the social processes of diversity,
development, democracy, dignity and didactics.

It is generally accepted that cultural diversity, which includes
linguistic diversity, is as necessary an aspect of human survival as
is biological diversity. This point is the subject of much
controversy, but it is bound to prove useful for our understanding of
the continuum between “nature” and “culture”. This debate, which is as
yet confined to a small group of linguists concerned about the rapid
disappearance of “languages” on Earth may yet turn out to be one of
those revolutionary moments in humanity’s self-understanding such as
the, initially quite esoteric, discussions that led to the Copernican
Revolution, as a result of which we now know that the Earth revolves
around the sun and not the other way around. In this regard, because
of our constitutional commitment to the promotion and maintenance of
multilingualism, South Africa is, in principle, on the side of the
angels.

It is also accepted that language policy at the workplace and in
business transactions generally is a vital aspect of economic success.
Languages have market value - hence the desirability of English as the
most important of the global languages today - and it is one of the
tasks of any national or regional government to frame language policy
and use it in such a way that the populace at large is empowered by
the fact that the linguistic resources which they possess become
“cultural capital” that they can use to earn their livelihood and to
improve their life chances.

Much detailed research is essential in this regard since politicians
tend to “find” the will to act once they are convinced that there is
real economic benefit in a given policy approach. Our score in this
area is quite bad since, with some notable exceptions in both the
public and the private sector, there is a very strong tendency towards
an English-only policy, although it self-evidently restricts the
productivity, efficiency, creativity and job satisfaction of those
engaged in the economic processes of production, exchange and
distribution. It is probably useful to remind ourselves here that it
is a myth that only “unilingual” countries have become economically
successful in the modern world. If you study the question seriously,
you will find that it is the levels of literacy that determine
economic success in the modern world.

Democratic polities require the full participation of the citizens in
the important decision-making processes. It is axiomatic that such
participation is only possible when these processes are conducted in
languages that the citizens understand and are able to use. This is
the very foundation of freedom of speech. Again, our balance sheet is
patchy, even though I believe there is a genuine commitment on the
part of government to move in the right direction. Parliament and the
SABC are examples where, recently, major steps have been taken towards
treating the official languages as well as sign language equitably.

However, because of a simplistic, short-sighted knee-jerk reaction to
Afrikaans (as the “language of the oppressor”), many obvious steps
that ought to, and can, be taken are skipped. It is incomprehensible,
for example, that we still do not use African languages on our
airlines or on our beaches (except when we need to warn people about
dangerous circumstances or behaviour); why can we not also have road
signs and official instructions in numerous contexts in the relevant
African languages? That difficult decisions would have to be made is
clear, but we have to make these all the time, whether it is in the
domains of transport, health, crime fighting or education. Much more
urgency is required.

Human dignity, the right to use the language of one’s choice and not
to be discriminated against on the basis of language, is inscribed in
the Bill of Rights and there are institutions such as the Pan South
African Language Board, the Human Rights Commission, the Cultural,
Religious and Linguistic Commission and, in the final analysis, the
judiciary, that have been given the powers to enforce these
provisions. Despite this, however, and in spite of numerous
complaints about the violation of language rights, mainly from
organised Afrikaans-speaking and other smaller African
language-speaking communities, these provisions remain a dead letter.
The example of the European Union and the Council of Europe, in spite
of a yawning disparity of resources, is there to show the way and we
have in fact learnt much from post-war Europe in this regard. There
are close connections at all levels between Europeans, Asians,
Americans and South Africans who are committed to the implementation
of a consistently democratic language policy.

A mother tongue-based bi- or multilingual educational system, the
didactical dimension of the language question, is the sine qua non for
all development in South Africa. Space does not allow any further
explanation of this proposition, but it is essential that it be seen
as the challenge it is intended to be. Besides the obvious pedagogical
issue of teaching children in languages they understand rather than in
those they do not understand, this question involves the critical and
urgent question of early literacy learning which, if you think about
it carefully, is the basis of economic success or failure in the 21st
century. The Western Cape Education Department has begun to take this
challenge seriously and is involved in numerous initiatives to find
out what the problems and the most effective approaches to solutions
would be. The national Department of Education supports these moves in
principle.

However, language policy in education is a sensitive matter, and most
parents do not have the necessary information at their disposal in
order to make the most appropriate decisions in this regard. A major
advocacy campaign is imperative. In conclusion, beyond the issue of
political will and the prioritisation of the language question, we
should be looking more carefully at how language policy and use are
being managed currently. The Asmal Commission that considered the
efficacy of the Chapter 9 institutions has not been very kind to the
Pan South African Language Board, which was intended to be the
keystone in the linguistic architecture of the new South Africa.
Whether one agrees with all its recommendations or not, I believe that
a case can be made out for a radical redrafting of this entire
complex.

Without language communication, hardly any complex operations are
possible for human beings. To ignore the language question or to take
it for granted is merely to entrench the domination of the powerful
elites in our society. Above all, let us agree: it is not a question
of the highest levels of competence in either English or the mother
tongues. It is a question of all individuals having the power to
communicate, learn, work and be creative in both the mother tongue and
English. Many, of course, will want - and be able - to function in
more than two languages.

This article was originally published on page 9 of Cape Times on April 21, 2008

South Africa: Proper use of mother tongue the way forward

sociolingo — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 11:33:00 +0000

Proper use of mother tongue the way forward

(This article was originally published on page 9 of The Cape Times on
April 21, 2008.)
http://www.eltworld.net/news/tag/use-of-english-in-south-africa/
In this article in our series, Neville Alexander, director of the
project for the Study of Alternative Education in South Africa at the
University of Cape Town, argues that to ignore the language issue is
to entrench the domination of powerful elites. South Africa has
arguably the most progressive language policy on paper. This fact is
acknowledged by most people who are familiar with the sociology and
the politics of language.
n spite of this, however, if one reads only the Afrikaans press, one
would have to conclude that this language policy is a total failure
and that we are moving rapidly to a situation where the de facto sole
official language is the "hated" Queen's English.

The reader would be surprised, therefore, to hear that some of us hold
the unpalatable view that, because of what we call our "languish
policy", this country is in fact simply carrying out in practice a
neo-apartheid language policy. For, in spite of the fact that
Afrikaans is being driven out of many domains of social life and being
replaced by English, it is still the most favoured official language
next to English. Why is language policy important? And why is it a bad
idea that we should all be forced to operate in English only when we
transact business or are involved in any public domain?

The simple way to answer this is by means of a five-dimensional
argument. Incidentally, although there is a very important polemic
taking place among linguists about the exact meaning and even the
validity of a word such as "a language", this is not the place to
enter into that debate. Suffice to say it is an important debate that
may eventually lead to significant changes in the ways we speak or
write about the language question. The fact is that I am writing this
article in Standard South African English, and expect to be read and
understood by hundreds of South Africans and other users of a notional
international standard written English.

Many of these readers, I expect, will tell others, who either have not
read or cannot read the article, about its contents in whatever
linguistic means they have in common. And, somehow, for my current
communicative purposes, this seems to be in order. The
five-dimensional argument refers to the relationship between language
use and language policy with the social processes of diversity,
development, democracy, dignity and didactics.

It is generally accepted that cultural diversity, which includes
linguistic diversity, is as necessary an aspect of human survival as
is biological diversity. This point is the subject of much
controversy, but it is bound to prove useful for our understanding of
the continuum between "nature" and "culture". This debate, which is as
yet confined to a small group of linguists concerned about the rapid
disappearance of "languages" on Earth may yet turn out to be one of
those revolutionary moments in humanity's self-understanding such as
the, initially quite esoteric, discussions that led to the Copernican
Revolution, as a result of which we now know that the Earth revolves
around the sun and not the other way around. In this regard, because
of our constitutional commitment to the promotion and maintenance of
multilingualism, South Africa is, in principle, on the side of the
angels.

It is also accepted that language policy at the workplace and in
business transactions generally is a vital aspect of economic success.
Languages have market value - hence the desirability of English as the
most important of the global languages today - and it is one of the
tasks of any national or regional government to frame language policy
and use it in such a way that the populace at large is empowered by
the fact that the linguistic resources which they possess become
"cultural capital" that they can use to earn their livelihood and to
improve their life chances.

Much detailed research is essential in this regard since politicians
tend to "find" the will to act once they are convinced that there is
real economic benefit in a given policy approach. Our score in this
area is quite bad since, with some notable exceptions in both the
public and the private sector, there is a very strong tendency towards
an English-only policy, although it self-evidently restricts the
productivity, efficiency, creativity and job satisfaction of those
engaged in the economic processes of production, exchange and
distribution. It is probably useful to remind ourselves here that it
is a myth that only "unilingual" countries have become economically
successful in the modern world. If you study the question seriously,
you will find that it is the levels of literacy that determine
economic success in the modern world.

Democratic polities require the full participation of the citizens in
the important decision-making processes. It is axiomatic that such
participation is only possible when these processes are conducted in
languages that the citizens understand and are able to use. This is
the very foundation of freedom of speech. Again, our balance sheet is
patchy, even though I believe there is a genuine commitment on the
part of government to move in the right direction. Parliament and the
SABC are examples where, recently, major steps have been taken towards
treating the official languages as well as sign language equitably.

However, because of a simplistic, short-sighted knee-jerk reaction to
Afrikaans (as the "language of the oppressor"), many obvious steps
that ought to, and can, be taken are skipped. It is incomprehensible,
for example, that we still do not use African languages on our
airlines or on our beaches (except when we need to warn people about
dangerous circumstances or behaviour); why can we not also have road
signs and official instructions in numerous contexts in the relevant
African languages? That difficult decisions would have to be made is
clear, but we have to make these all the time, whether it is in the
domains of transport, health, crime fighting or education. Much more
urgency is required.

Human dignity, the right to use the language of one's choice and not
to be discriminated against on the basis of language, is inscribed in
the Bill of Rights and there are institutions such as the Pan South
African Language Board, the Human Rights Commission, the Cultural,
Religious and Linguistic Commission and, in the final analysis, the
judiciary, that have been given the powers to enforce these
provisions. Despite this, however, and in spite of numerous
complaints about the violation of language rights, mainly from
organised Afrikaans-speaking and other smaller African
language-speaking communities, these provisions remain a dead letter.
The example of the European Union and the Council of Europe, in spite
of a yawning disparity of resources, is there to show the way and we
have in fact learnt much from post-war Europe in this regard. There
are close connections at all levels between Europeans, Asians,
Americans and South Africans who are committed to the implementation
of a consistently democratic language policy.

A mother tongue-based bi- or multilingual educational system, the
didactical dimension of the language question, is the sine qua non for
all development in South Africa. Space does not allow any further
explanation of this proposition, but it is essential that it be seen
as the challenge it is intended to be. Besides the obvious pedagogical
issue of teaching children in languages they understand rather than in
those they do not understand, this question involves the critical and
urgent question of early literacy learning which, if you think about
it carefully, is the basis of economic success or failure in the 21st
century. The Western Cape Education Department has begun to take this
challenge seriously and is involved in numerous initiatives to find
out what the problems and the most effective approaches to solutions
would be. The national Department of Education supports these moves in
principle.

However, language policy in education is a sensitive matter, and most
parents do not have the necessary information at their disposal in
order to make the most appropriate decisions in this regard. A major
advocacy campaign is imperative. In conclusion, beyond the issue of
political will and the prioritisation of the language question, we
should be looking more carefully at how language policy and use are
being managed currently. The Asmal Commission that considered the
efficacy of the Chapter 9 institutions has not been very kind to the
Pan South African Language Board, which was intended to be the
keystone in the linguistic architecture of the new South Africa.
Whether one agrees with all its recommendations or not, I believe that
a case can be made out for a radical redrafting of this entire
complex.

Without language communication, hardly any complex operations are
possible for human beings. To ignore the language question or to take
it for granted is merely to entrench the domination of the powerful
elites in our society. Above all, let us agree: it is not a question
of the highest levels of competence in either English or the mother
tongues. It is a question of all individuals having the power to
communicate, learn, work and be creative in both the mother tongue and
English. Many, of course, will want - and be able - to function in
more than two languages.

Numeral systems of the Languages of the world

sociolingo — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 11:17:32 +0000

Numeral systems of the Languages of the world

(the link to the webpage is temporarily disabled because of work on the site. Please check back later to see if the link is live). Please send any enquiries to:

Eugene Chan, Hong Kong
eugenechans(at)hkbn(dot)net

See also http://www.eva.mpg.de/lingua/resources.php for more resources

World Atlas of Language Structures

sociolingo — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 11:03:50 +0000

Source: World Atlas of Language Structures

The Most Important Web Site on the World's Linguistic Diversity

Already when it was published as a book in 2005, The World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS) represented a giant step forward in scientists' access to information on the diversity of human languages.
On 142 maps displaying on average 400 languages from all over the world, it shows the geographical distribution of the most important patterns of sounds, word structure and sentence structure.

Through a joint effort of the Max Planck Digital Library and the Department of Linguistics of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, all the data and analytical texts from The World Atlas of Language Structures are now freely available online ("WALS Online"), at http://wals.info. The materials are published under a Creative Commons License, guaranteeing open access for users and inviting scientists to use them for their work. WALS Online is by far the most important web site on the world's linguistic diversity.

The site shows data on over 2500 languages, for which more than 6500 references have been used. Searching and browsing is possible by structural feature, by language name or language family, by reference and by author. The analytical texts contain links to all the references and all the languages. The maps can be shown at any zoom level, and the map symbols can be displayed in various shapes and colours. A wide range of export options is available.

As in the book version, all languages are equal in WALS Online: each language, regardless of number of speakers, is represented on the map by the same circular symbol. For linguists, small and endangered languages threatened with imminent extinction are fully as interesting as large national languages.

WALS Online provides information on a vast range of structural
variables: number of consonants (from 6 to 122), presence of rare sounds like ö and ü, tone systems, gender categories, plural formation, number of cases, verbal future and past forms, imperatives, word order, passives, numerals, colour terms, writing systems, and more.

Check it out: http://wals.info

Senegal Obit : Sonja Fagerberg-Diallo

sociolingo — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 12:10:11 +0000

Source: H-Africa

Obit: Sonja Fagerberg-Diallo

By: Charles Becker

I was deeply saddened when I learned of the death of Sonja Fagerberg
Diallo last 5 March in the United States. She had always been fully
committed to the policies of literacy in West Africa. Living in
Senegal for over 30 years, she founded and ran for many years the NGO
ARED (Associates in Research and Education for Development), a
leading organization in the promotion of African languages.

Sonja was one of the first members of the H-West-Africa list.

Yo Alla yurmo mo yaafoo mo ! Yal na la suuf sedde ! Que la terre lui
soit légère !

------

Through university training and thirty years of field research and
work in West Africa, Sonja developed the following skills and
interests:

NON-FORMAL EDUCATION and TRAINING focusing on:
1. adult literacy and non-formal education
* design, implementation, and evaluation of literacy projects
* development of materials (basic literacy and post-literacy materials)
2. post-literacy materials (on legal training, health, management,
conflict resolution, participatory rural appraisal, land tenure,
natural resource management, environmental protection, etc.)
3. language teaching
4. development of language teaching manuals

PUBLISHING IN NATIONAL LANGUAGES having:
1. developed and published over 150 books in Senegalese languages
2. worked on developing distribution networks for books in Senegalese languages
3. developed post-literacy modules based on the published books

APPLIED ANTHROPOLOGY encompassing:
1. field research skills (i.e. data collection in a rural setting)
2. research on traditional systems for storing and transmitting information
3. evaluation of educational projects in rural areas.

As well as English Sonja spoke French and Pulaar. She was based in
Dakar, Senegal since 1976, and traveled extensively throughout West
Africa. Promoting national languages also took Sonja to Europe and
North America to meetings and work sessions, where she had occasion
to bring members of the Pulaar speaking and learning community.

From 1969 to 73, Sonja completed a B.A. at the University of
Minnesota, with a major in African Studies.From 1973-75, she
completed a M.A. at the University of Wisconsin in African
Literature. Subsequently awarded a National Defense Foreign Language
scholarship for all three years of graduate study she was also
awarded a scholarship to study Arabic at the Bourguiba Institute in
Tunis, Tunisia for one summer. She also completed from 1976 to 82,
her Ph.D. in African linguistics at the University of Wisconsin, and
was then awarded a one year Fulbright-Hayes research grant for
doctoral dissertation research in the Gambia.

Sonja's professional years included:

From 1990: Founder and executive director of Associates in Research
and Education for Development (ARED). The primary focus of this
non-profit organization is to work on the development of educational
materials in African languages. To this end, ARED has contracts with:
USAID, Lutheran World Relief, the International Institute for the
Environment and Development, German development organizations (both
GTZ and InWent), OXFAM-America, OXFAM-Great Britain, Banyan, FAO,
Canadian Research and Development Institute, and others, as well as
numerous local NGOs. To date ARED has published 150 titles, sold over
800,000 books, and trained more than 9000 community teachers and
activists.

From 1998: A founding member of a Senegalese association, Centre des
Etudes, de Recherche et de Formation en Langues Africaines, an
association dedicated to community-based educational projects.

1988 to 1998: A founding member of a local Senegalese association
called the Groupe d'Initiative pour la Promotion du Livre en Langues
nationales which published literature in the Pulaar language.

1989-90: Worked for Culture for African Development under a UNICEF
contract to write and implement a basic 18 month literacy program in
the Pulaar language. They wrote and published literacy materials, 2)
worked on a basic curriculum, 3) trained trainers, 4) trained
village-level teachers, and 5) implemented this program in 20
villages in the Region of Kolda (Casamance) with over 600 students in
the program.

1987-89 : Worked as a research associate at IFAN (a research
institute of the University of Dakar) to work with a university team
on fundamental research in two areas: 1) development of
post-literacy materials in Pulaar, and 2) computerizing a trilingual
dictionary project in Pulaar-English-French coordinated by Dr.
Christian Seydou in Paris and in collaboration with Dr. Fary Kâ at
IFAN.

1988: Worked for World Education as Project Coordinator of a
literacy project involving the Association for the Renaissance of
Pulaar in Senegal. The project included the following components: 1)
management training, 2) development of basic literacy materials, 3)
development and publishing of post-literacy materials, 4) training
village-level trainers.

1988: Worked with an OXFAM-UK team specializing in herders
associations, developing and implementing community projects for
herder's groups in northern Senegal, such as training auxiliary
veterinarians, setting up cereal banks, etc. At the same time, they
carried out extensive socio-economic research in the zone and
published two books in Pulaar based on our research. (These books
have won an award from the European Economic Community, and have been
published as post-literacy materials in literacy classes.)

1986: Developed a set of language and cross-cultural training
materials in Pulaar for use in Guinea. This contract was with a
consortium of religious organizations (Joint Christian Ministries in
West Africa) and Peace Corps-Guinea.

1985: Contracted by AFRICARE-Senegal to research and write rural
development project proposals.

1982-85: Worked extensively with a grassroots Senegalese NGO, the
Association for the Renaissance of Pulaar, on the development of
literacy materials and teacher training in that language.

1984: Wrote a set of language training materials in Pulaar for use
in Mali by a consortium of religious organizations (Joint Christian
Ministries in West Africa) and Peace Corps-Mali.

1979: Contract with United Bible Societies to carry out a
socio-linguistic dialect survey of Pulaar throughout the Sahel.
Research entailed extensive travel within Senegal, the Gambia,
Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, and Cameroun.

1978-81: Held five consecutive short-term contracts to develop
language training materials in Pulaar dialects for Peace Corps.
Research included working in villages in Senegal, the Gambia, Niger,
and Burkina Faso.

1977 : Contract with the Cultural Archives of the Gambian to
evaluate literacy programs in the Pulaar and Mandinka languages.
Included travel to Senegal, Gambia, Mali, and Guinea.

RESEARCH AND PUBLICATIONS:

"A Brief Survey of Pulaar/Fulfulde Dialects", paper prepared for
presentation at the 1979 Zaria (Nigeria) conference on "Savannah
Nomads", 170 pages,

Ph.D. dissertation, Syntactic Expansions in Text: Beyond SVO in
Pulaar Oral Narrative Performance, University of Wisconsin, 1982.

"Discourse Strategies in Pulaar: The Use of Focus" in Studies in
African Linguistics, vol.14, #2, 1983.

Collaborated on The Islamic Regime of Fuuta Tooro with David Robinson
and Moustapha Kane, Michigan State University African Studies Center,
1984.

"Milk and Honey: Developing Written Literature in Pulaar" in The
Yearbook of Comparative and General Literature, Indiana University
Press, N° 43, 1995, pp. 67-83.

"Constructive Interdependence: The Response of a Senegalese Community
to the Question of Why Become Literate", in The Making of Literate
Societies, Ed. David Olson and Nancy Torrance, Blackwell, 2000, pp.
153-78.

Du Manuscrit au texte définitif: Guide du secretaire de rédaction,
co-authored with Sylvia Dorance and Anja Frings, DSE/ARED
Publication, 2001.

"Learning to Read Woke me Up", in Adult Education and Development
IIZ/DVV, N°58. Germany, 2002, pp. 45-60.

"Publishing for New Literates", in Courage and Consequence: Women
Publishing in Africa, Africa Books Collective, 2002, pp. 1-9.

"Searching for Signs of Success: Enlarging the Concept of Education
to Include Senegalese Languages", in Afrikanisch-europäisch-islamisch
? Entwicklungsdynamik des Erziehungswesens in Senegal, Ulrike
Wiegelmann, ed., IKO Verlag für Interkulturelle Kommunikation, 2002,
pp. 165-191.

"Opportunity or Innovation: The story of ARED", unpublished
manuscript prepared for the InWent/UNESCO conference in Hamburg,
2002, 40 pages.

Langues africaines : de l'oral à la publication (Guide du
développement de la langue écrite) with Fary Ka, InWent/Edilis
publication, 2005.

"Learner Centered Processes and Approaches: The Connection between
Non-formal Education and Creating a Literate Environment", published
on-line by UNESCO, 2006, 38 pages.

"Pedagogical Innovations in Literacy Programs: Lifelong Learning as
both a Method and a Goal", to be published by UNESCO in 2008, 47
pages.

Guide de redaction des manuels en langues africaines, with Sylvia
Dorance, InWent/ARED Publication, in process.

* various manuals for language teaching, including:
- An Introduction to Pulaar: Northern Senegal
- Advanced Readings in Pulaar
- A Practical Guide and Reference Grammar to the Fulfulde of Maasina
- Introductory Fulfulde Manual for Peace Corps - Burkina Faso
- An Introduction to Pulaar for Gambia and the Casamance

* editor of an extensive variety (150 titles to date) of
post-literacy materials in Pulaar:
- collections of oral traditions (Silaamaaka e Pullooru, Taali
Taalanaadi Cukalel Pulel, Pulareeji, Sammba Gelaajo Jeegi etc.)
- novels (Ndikkiri Jom Moolo, Nguurndam Neddanke, B e Njahii Be
Ngartaani, Wulaango Naawoore, etc.)
- socio-economic studies (Nguurndam Ferlankoobe, Nabbuuji Na'i, etc.)
- historical studies (Bookar Biro, Hammadi Manna, etc.)
- socio-cultural studies (Nguurndam Julliibe, Pijirlooji Sukaabe, etc.)
- translations from French (Intat Anniinnde, Bokar Biro, etc.)
- ecological studies (Kelmeendi Pudooji, Ngaynaaka nder Sahel, etc.)
- basic literacy curriculum (reading and math skills) in Pulaar
- legal rights curriculum in Pulaar

See also a personal reflection by Don Osborn:

Remembering Sonja Fagerberg-Diallo

I was surprised and saddened to learn of the passing of Dr. Sonja Fagerberg-Diallo last month. (Un article en français ici.) Her quietly remarkable career was cut short last month at age 58 by a sudden critical illness. She is particularly known as a linguist specialized in Pulaar (a dialect of the Fula language) and for her long-time work on literacy and publication in Pulaar and other Senegalese languages through ARED (Associates in Research and Education for Development), a small non-governmental organization she headed in Dakar.

Read the full article

Nigeria: Hausa online grammar

sociolingo — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 10:49:55 +0000

Source: http://sociolingolinguistics.wordpress.com/2008/04/16/nigeria-hausa-online-grammar/

Source: Hausa online grammar (UCLA)

This online grammar provides basic information about the structure of the Hausa language explained in a relatively non-technical way.

http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/humnet/aflang/Hausa/Hausa_online_grammar/grammar_frame.html

Nigeria: Hausa online grammar

sociolingo — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 10:41:48 +0000

Source: Hausa online grammar (UCLA)

This online grammar provides basic information about the structure of the Hausa language explained in a relatively non-technical way.

http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/humnet/aflang/Hausa/Hausa_online_grammar/grammar_frame.html

Academic paper: DEAF PEOPLE LIVING AND COMMUNICATING IN AFRICAN HISTORIES, c. 960s - 1960s

sociolingo — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 11:29:10 +0000

Through The Interpreter's friend I came across this interesting article by M. Myles

Miles, M. (2005). Deaf people living and communication in African histories, c. 960s - 1960s.

There is strong documentary evidence that deaf or hearing impaired men and women, girls and boys, did occupy social space and took roles across the full spectrum of life throughout Africa in earlier centuries, living lives like everyone else and also having some different experiences. Traces and signs of deaf people appear in many sorts of historical document, such as travellers' accounts, legal and genealogical records, government, institutional and missionary archives, linguistic studies, literature, folklore, religious narrative, mime, dance and drama. Many of their experiences have involved severe economic poverty and adversity, stigmatising attitudes and exclusionary practices; yet this has not been the norm everywhere in Africa, and many deaf people have shown great resilience, perseverance, humour and ingenuity in their dealings and communications with the non-deaf world.

Read the full article

Book: Language and National Identity in Africa

sociolingo — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 20:05:42 +0000

Source:http://linguistlist.org/issues/19/19-1142.html

Language and National Identity in Africa
Published: 2008
Publisher: Oxford University Press
http://www.oup.com/us

Editor: Andrew Simpson
Hardback: ISBN: 9780199286744 Pages: 448 Price: U.S. $ 150.00
Paperback: ISBN: 9780199286751 Pages: 448 Price: U.S. $ 55.00
Abstract:

This book focuses on language, culture, and national identity in Africa.
Leading specialists examine countries in every part of the continent --
Egypt, Morocco, Sudan, Senegal, Mali, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Ivory Coast,
Nigeria, Cameroon, Congo, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, South Africa and nations
of the Horn, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, and Somalia. Each chapter
describes and examines the country's linguistic and political history and
the relation of its languages to national, ethnic, and cultural identities,
and assesses the relative status of majority and minority languages and the
role of language in ethnic, and cultural identities. The chapters also
assess the relative status of majority and minority languages and the role
of language in ethnic conflict. Of the books authors, fifteen are from
Africa, and seven from Europe and the USA.

Jargon-free, fully referenced, and illustrated with seventeen maps, this
book will be of value to a wide range of readers in linguistics, politics,
history, sociology, and anthropology. It will interest everyone wishing to
understand the dynamic interactions between language and politics in
Africa, in the past and now.

http://linguistlist.org/issues/19/19-1142.html

Academic paper: The Economics of Multilingualism: Overview of the Literature and Analytical Framework - Grin and Vaillancourt

sociolingo — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 19:43:30 +0000

Source:Don Osborn

This introduction of the economics of multilingualism for non-economists may be of interest:

"The Economics of Multilingualism: Overview of the Literature and
Analytical Framework"
François Grin and François Vaillancourt
http://www1.worldbank.org/wbiep/decentralization/library12/grin.htm

"The purpose of this paper is to introduce noneconomists to the
economics of multilingualism. This area of research is relatively
little known among economists, and until recent years, few of its
methods and results had been published in the journals usually read by
language specialists, although sociolinguists and applied linguists
had for many years been pointing out the importance of economic
dimensions in their field of research. ..."

African conference: On the Brink? Endangered Archives and Endangered Languages in Africa

sociolingo — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 19:41:04 +0000

Posted by sociolingo on April 4, 2008

SCOLMA (the UK Libraries and Archives Group on Africa) invites registrations for the 2008 annual conference,On the Brink? Endangered Archives and Endangered Languages in AfricaDate: Tuesday 10 June 2008, 10.00 - 17.00Venue: British Library Conference Centre, British Library, 96 Euston Road, London NW1 2DBSpeakers will include Paul Lihoma, Director, National Archives of Malawi, and representatives and grant-holders from the Endangered Archives Programme (British Library) and the Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London).Fee (including lunch and refreshments): £35 (concessions £15)Further information at:http://www.lse.ac.uk/library/scolma/conference.htm <http://www.lse.ac.uk/library/scolma/conference.htm>To register, please contact Ros Buck, SCOLMA Secretary, email: rbuck@oxfam.org.uk, or by post: Ros Buck, Librarian, Library, International Division, Oxfam GB, Oxfam House, John Smith Drive, Cowley, Oxford, OX4 2JY.Registration closes on Friday 6th June.Please make cheques payable to SCOLMA. (For BACS payments please contact Ian Cooke, SCOLMA Treasurer, email: ian.cooke@bl.uk <mailto:ian.cooke@bl.uk> )

Uganda: Promote Kiswahili as a national language

sociolingo — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 18:54:20 +0000

Source:http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/459/619780

Promote Kiswahili as a national language
Tuesday, 1st April, 2008
BY JOHN NSOOKWA

For over 100 years, there has been a lot of rhetoric about the
importance of Kiswahili and the urgent need to teach and use it in
Uganda. The colonial rulers and post-colonial rulers held the same
views during their term in office, but nothing was done thereafter.
The commissions they constituted on education came up with good
recommendations concerning Kiswahili, but all remained on paper.
Attempts by all the subsequent governments to implement the
recommendations concerning Kiswahili since 1903 have proved futile.
Policies and policy guidelines for the implementation of Kiswahili
have been designed over the years, but due to conflicting priorities
and prejudice, all have either remained in writing, or have been
contradicted thereafter.

Specific cases in point are such as follows:

1 Sir William Gowers, the then governor of Uganda in 1903 ordered the
teaching of Kiswahili in schools and its use in public offices. A
Kiswahili teachers college was established at Makerere in 1927, but
nothing was done thereafter and the college closed in 1938.

2 The Phelps Stokes Commission 1924/25 recommended the teaching of
local languages including Kiswahili, but the recommendations were not
implemented.

3 Similar recommendations were made by the De-Bunsen commission, the
Dela — war and the castle commissions, but all remained on paper.

4 The Kajubi Report 1989 recommended the teaching and use of
Kiswahili, as a language that would promote greater unity, cut across
tribal barriers and enhance regional cooperation. But the
recommendations on Kiswahili have since been shattered.

5 The White Paper and the Education Task Force all echoed these
recommendations on the teaching of Kiswahili. Policies and policy
guidelines were formulated as a way of implementing the teaching and
use of Kiswahili in Uganda, but to date, the teaching of Kiswahili in
primary schools has not started.

6 Preliminary arrangements which were made as a way of implementing
the formulated policies also halted without bearing fruits. For
example, the Primary Teachers' College (PTC) Kiswahili syllabus which
was designed in 1996 was partially utilised and abandoned.
Over 10,000 teachers who were trained using the same syllabus by
Teacher Development and Management Systems (TDMS), a project which is
under PIU in the Ministry of Education and Sports were abandoned. The
teachers were trained in 10 core PTCs of phase 1-TV, but were examined
in other subjects except Kiswahili.

7 Communications from the permanent secretary concerning the speedy
implementation of Kiswahili in primary schools, beginning 2007, did
not bear fruit.

8 The primary school Kiswahili syllabus which was launched in 2002 by
the then Minister of Education and Sports, Hon. Kiddu Makubuya, was
also abandoned.

9 Kiswahili was promulgated the second official language of Uganda,
but the parliamentary promulgation was not followed by any form of
implementation.

10 Six representatives from Uganda participated in the drafting of the
East African Kiswahili constitution bill. This exercise was intended
to equip participants from East Africa's partner states with the
experience and skills of mobilising nationals towards the East Africa
goals which include a common language, but nothing has been heard
about this after the Nairobi meeting.

11 A diploma programme for training tutors in Kiswahili Diploma in
Teacher Education (DTE) was designed at Kyambogo University in 1999
because of the urgent need of Kiswahili tutors, but was not
implemented until the DTE structure was phased out.

12 The last hammer in the coffin of Kiswahili was hit recently when it
was finally and officially excluded from the primary school
curriculum. Kiswahili was declared optional to whoever had the means
and interest. This is evident on page 52 of the C-TEP manual. A manual
which was used to orient teachers on the primary school programmes
come 2008. The C-TEP manual is a copyright of the Ministry of
Education and Sports, but was funded by USAID
13 Given this background, one can clearly conclude that the intention
to teach Kiswahili in Uganda is, but mere rhetoric.

Excuses
The kind of excuses being used against Kiswahili are neither logical
nor relevant.
(i) Some people argue that there are no Kiswahili books. This is
untrue because there are very many Ugandan writers who have written
books that are relevant to Uganda's environment; they include:
(a) J. C. Nsookwa — Kiswahili Mzizi P4-P7, published by Fountain Publishers.
(b) Namirembe Jennifer — Macmillan Primary Kiswahili P4-P6
(c) MK Primary Kiswahili.
(ii) Others maintain that there are no teachers for Kiswahili. This is
also untrue. There are over 10,000 primary school teachers trained by
TDMS, ADRA and I @mark.com.

Secondary school teachers trained in Uganda are now over 1,500. These
were trained at Kakoba National Teachers' College, Makerere
University, Mbale University and Kyambogo University.

(iii) While others maintain that Kiswahili is a language of thieves, a
language does not steal. It is the people who steal.

There is no evidence to show that in all countries where people steal,
it is Kiswahili language they use. Any language can be used for good
or bad because it is just a mere means of communication
(iv) Yet others say it is an Arab language, but all languages borrow
just as Kiswahili did from many other languages.

Questions
The only fundamental questions to be asked are:
- What is the way forward for Kiswahili?
- Why use so much money in workshops on Kiswahili only to come out
with nothing?
- Why tell Ugandans that Kiswahili is a second official language while
you have never taught it to them?
- Can anybody spread a language in a country without teaching it in
primary schools?

The writer is a Kiswahili
lecturer at the School of
Education, Makerere University

http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/459/619780

What about the “Declaration of Linguistic Rights”?

sociolingo — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 12:46:35 +0000

A new article by Don Osborn at Multidisciplinary Perspectives

What about the “Declaration of Linguistic Rights”?

Posted on March 31st, 2008 by Don

There are probably not many people who have heard of the Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights (UDLR). The whole concept of linguistic rights is not widely known or discussed outside of some “MINEL” (minority, indigenous, national, endangered, local) language communities and language experts and activists. During this International Year of Languages, and with an upcoming Symposium on Linguistic Rights in the World (Geneva, 24 April), it would seem to be an ideal moment to ask where we are going with the UDLR and the whole concept.

Read the full article

African linguistics: What about the “Declaration of Linguistic Rights”?

sociolingo — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 12:44:46 +0000

A new article by Don Osborn at Multidisciplinary Perspectives

What about the “Declaration of Linguistic Rights”?

Posted on March 31st, 2008 by Don

Read the full article