Annual Public Lecture

Jeff Good
What are we trying to preserve?
Diversity, change, and ideology at the edge of Cameroonian Grassfields

When: 6 pm, Thursday 12 May, 2011
Where: Khalili Lecture Theatre, SOAS, Russell Square, London ... location information

The Annual Public Lecture is organised by the Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project at SOAS and is part of Endangered Languages Week 2011.

Abstract

Discussions of endangered languages typically frame language death as being associated with the loss of knowledge as embedded in particular languages - a view clearly captured, for example, in HRELP's motto, "Because every last word means another lost world..." At the same time, it is also clear that the losses associated with language endangerment need not be restricted to individual language systems but can also involve the loss of distinctive language ecologies - and, indeed, some of these ecologies may be at more immediate risk of being lost than the languages embedded within them. This talk explores the language dynamics of the Lower Fungom region of Northwest Cameroon, which offers an extreme case of linguistic diversity within the already exceptionally diverse Cameroonian Grassfields, focusing on what we can learn by looking at the languages from an areal perspective. In particular, the social functions of language in the region will be explored in some detail, and it will be argued that its languages are primarily markers of relatively ephemeral political identities rather than deeply embedded personal identities, which are more closely aligned with lineages than language groups. This conclusion has significance both regarding how research projects in the area should be structured as well as for what it might mean to "preserve" the languages of a region which historically appears to have been characterized by frequent language loss and emergence conditioned by "natural" changes in political structures.

Booking information