Workshop on applied Language Documentation in sub-Saharan Africa
School of Oriental and African Studies, London
Saturday 14th May, 2011, 9.15am-5.20pm, room 4421
Keynote speakers
Workshop themes
The last twenty years have seen a dramatic worldwide increase in funding for community-based linguistic fieldwork. This has largely been motivated by a concern for language endangerment, leading to the emergence of a new sub-discipline known as "Documentary Linguistics" (Himmelmann 1998). Language Documentation is characterised by Woodbury (in press) as 'the creation, annotation, preservation, and dissemination of transparent records of a language'. While a considerable number of grants have funded the documentation of African languages (e.g. http://www.hrelp.org/languages/index.html) to date, research in applied language documentation is heavily skewed towards the linguistic situations found in Australia and the Americas. In these former settlement colonies, language revitalisation efforts benefit from levels of civil infrastructure and literacy that do not exist in large parts of Africa. As a consequence, this workshop aims to provide a scholarly environment for the exchange of ideas about the application of language documentation within the contextual setting of Africa in order to arrive at an understanding of how site-specific applications of language documentation can benefit language communities. As such, it aims to provide recommendations about technological choices and the structure and implementation of corpora, in order to increase the impact of documentation projects.
Abstracts were invited for 30 minute presentations discussing how the central themes of language documentation relate to improving site-specific applied language documentation. These include:
- how corpus design might help/hinder local dissemination of language documentation outcomes;
- how new technology and media can be employed in applied language documentation to overcome prevailing problems with dissemination in community settings;
- ways in which site-specific community participation in language documentation can lead to more effective application of language documentation goals;
- how multi-disciplinary approaches to language documentation might provide lasting impact in African language support and maintenance.
Each speaker will have 30 minutes for their presentation plus 10 minutes for discussion. All speakers have been asked to include practical recommendations for applied Language Documentation in sub-Saharan Africa as part of their talk. These recommendations will form the basis for a panel discussion at the end of the workshop.
The organisers are Stuart McGill (sm112@soas.ac.uk), Oliver Bond (ob1@soas.ac.uk) and Philip Jaggar (pj@soas.ac.uk).
Programme
| Time |
Session |
| 9.15-9.30 |
Registration |
| 9.30-9.40 |
Welcome and introduction |
| 9.40-10.40 |
Keynote speaker:
Jeff Good, University at Buffalo
"Community" collaboration in Africa: experiences from Northwest Cameroon
...abstract |
| 10.40-10.55 |
Tea/coffee |
| 10.55-11.50 |
Megan Biesele, Kalahari Peoples Group
The Village Schools Project and the Ju/'hoan Transcription Group:overcoming obstacles to community-based language documentation in Namibia
...abstract |
| 11.50-12.30 |
Michael Thomas, University of Colorado, Boulder
Building community participation into the documentation design: lessons learned in
Sakun (Sukur)
...abstract |
| 12.30-13.30 |
Lunch |
| 13.30-14.10 |
Amadou Kane Bèye, Alexander Cobbinah, Friederike Lüpke & Jean-Baptiste Sagna, School of Oriental and African Studies
Through the looking glass: emic and etic representations of material culture and related language use in a museum; first experiences from the Bainounk Gubaher language area
...abstract |
| 14.10-14.50 |
Stuart McGill, School of Oriental and African Studies
Documentation, ideology, and development in the Kainji languages of northern Nigeria
...abstract |
| 14.50-15.10 |
Tea/coffee |
| 15.10-16.10 |
Keynote speaker:
Guy De Pauw, University of Antwerp and African Language Technology (AfLAt)
Deploying the data: a state-of-affairs in African language technology
...abstract |
| 16.10-17.10 |
Panel discussion/round table |
| 17.10-17.20 |
Close |
| 17.20-18.20 |
Wine reception |
Student Bursaries
We are pleased to announce that we are able to offer 15 students bursaries which cover the registration fee for students who wish to attend the workshop. Student presenters attending the conference are also eligible to apply for a bursary to cover the conference fee.
To apply for a bursary, please fill in the bursary application form by the deadline of Monday 4th April 2011. Bursary applicants will be asked to provide a brief justification for why they should receive a bursary in case the number of applications exceeds the number of available places. Applicants will be informed if they have been awarded a bursary shortly after the bursary deadline has passed.
NB. Please do not register for the workshop through the SOAS Online Store if you are applying for a student bursary.
Registration
Registration for the workshop is now closed
Accommodation
There is plenty of accommodation within the Bloomsbury area of London where SOAS is situated. Follow the links below to find a sample list of hotel, bed and breakfast (B&B) and hostel accommodation available within 10-15 minutes walk of SOAS. We are unable to comment on the quality of hostel/hotel accommodation listed here. Please note that not all rooms have private facilities or include breakfast.
The organisers gratefully acknowledge the support of the British Academy in funding this workshop.
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