Category: Uncategorized

We need your collaboration

We would like to remind our readers that we need your collaboration: Send us details about your own research, conference papers, publications, word lists, recordings, reviews, websites or anything else on Chadic you find interesting and want to share.

You may also contribute to our Chadic links collection. At http://del.icio.us/chadicnewsletter you can find hundreds of links to information on Chadic languages, articles, books, audio files etc. If you want to add your own links, all you have to do is open up an account at del.icio.us, post your links there and include a “Chadic” tag. Or else, send us your links and we will add it to our own collection.

On our contact page you can find details about how to reach us.

BTW: If you haven’t heard about “social bookmarking”, “tags” and “del.icio.us”, you can get further information on their help page.

Chadic links collection keeps growing

Our Chadic links collection at del.icio.us keeps growing.

Our Chadic links collection at del.icio.us keeps growing: In the last few days, I have added more links, to languages of all Chadic branches. At http://del.icio.us/chadicnewsletter you can now find hundreds of links to information on Chadic languages, articles, books, audio files etc. These links are organised by language names and branches. If you want to add your own links, all you have to do is open up an account at del.icio.us, post your links there and include a “Chadic” tag. Or else, send us your links and we will add it to our own collection.

If you want to stay informed of newly added links, you can get updates sent to you by email. You can subscribe to this service by clicking on Get New Bookmarks (it is placed at the right side, Under “Suscribe by email”). If you do, a window will open where you can enter your email address. You will be send a confirmation email with an activation link. Once the activation is done, a message will be delivered to your email account whenever we have added new links.

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Subscribe to Chadic Newsletter Online by Email

Some weeks ago, I wrote about how to get updates about new posts. I then recommended the (free) Google Alert Service for those of you who don’t have a feed reader on their computer. We have found an even easier way. All you have to do is click on the link: Subscribe by Email (it is placed at the right side, above “Search”). If you do, a window will open where you can enter your email address. You will be send a confirmation email with an activation link. Once the activation is done, a message will be delivered to your email account whenever we have produced new content. No new content, no email for you.

Extinct and endangered Chadic languages

Many Chadic languages are known to be endangered and some are already extinct. The following is a comparison of the information given on the status of endangerment of Chadic languages in three different online publications.

1. In the online version of the 15th edition of the Ethnologue, seven Chadic languages are listed as “nearly extinct“. According to the Ethnologue,

They are classified in this way when “only a few elderly speakers are still living.” The entries below give just the known population information. Click on “More information” to see the full entry for the language.

2. In Roger Blench’s 2003 reference list “The Chadic Languages“, the number is even higher. He makes a distinction between severely endangered Chadic languages and Chadic languages of questionable status.

Chadic languages severely endangered:

  • Baldamu
  • Bure
  • Holma
  • Jilbe
  • Mabire
  • Miltu
  • Musunye
  • Torom

Chadic languages of questionable status:

  • Buso
  • Kujarge
  • Laal
  • Luri

Blench also lists four Chadic languages known to be extinct:

  • Auyokanci
  • Muskum
  • Shira
  • Teshena

3. In the Atlas on endangered languages produced by UNESCO, the following languages are listed as endangered:

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Getting updates about new posts

In our first presentation of the new start of Chadic Newsletter Online, we mentioned that,

Another feature of most weblogs are news feeds, also known as RSS feeds. News feeds allow you to see when websites have added new content. In order to use news feeds, you need something called a news reader. This is a piece of software that checks the feeds and lets you read any new posts that have been added. Once you have a news reader, you can subscribe to our weblog’s news feed: https://chadicnewsletter.wordpress.com/feed/. You can read more about news feeds at the BBC website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/help/rss/3223484.stm.

Now, not all the readers of our weblog may be able (or willing) to install a news reader on their computer. The other day, Mary Pearce wrote,

I access the Internet on a University computer – so I can’t download any programs to get the newsfeeds, but I can look at the main site – so it would be helpful for me if from time to time you send me an email with the Chadic newsletter address – just to remind me to have another look at it! I’m sure there are others who would appreciate the same.

Some of you may be in a similar situation. It would be very time-consuming and difficult to remember sending email to you whenever something new has appeared.

Also, sending email to everyone would mean more messages in people’s email boxes. After all, RSS feeds have been developed to avoid just that.

Fortunately, there are ways everyone can get just what they need, even without us :-). You can get updates about new information on this website (and any other website) by using the (free) Google Alert Service. It is very easy to use. Here is the explanation given by Google:

Simply visit the Google Alerts home page, enter your search, the type of alert you’d like (News, Web, etc.), how often you’d like us to check for results, and your email address. When you’re done, click the ’Create Alert’ button. We’ll send you a confirmation email; clicking the link in this email will activate your Alert.

Try it out and don’t hesitate to let us know if this doesn’t work for you. We may come up with a still better solution.

A new year and a new start

Chadic Newsletter is a publication that has a long tradition (Read our About page). After appearing in printed form for more than 30 years, in the past few years it was continued electronically, in form of a website which was updated from time to time.

In the meantime, new technologies have been developed. In the past few years, weblogs have become a very popular way of online publishing. Writing a weblog entry is very simple — nearly as simple as writing an email message — and it is an excellent way of sharing information quickly.

Therefore, starting today, Chadic Newsletter will be published in the form of a weblog, which will carry the name Chadic Newsletter Online.

We hope that our readers will accept this new means of publication. We are very eager to read your comments. A very nice and useful feature of weblogs is that you can add your comments right at the bottom of each post.

Best wishes for a happy and successful year 2007 to all of you!

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