Kotoko resources is a website of resources for the Kotoko languages mainly geared toward speakers of the language, but also contains an up-to-date bibliography in the domain of linguistics and also archaeology/history/anthropology.
Category: Websites
BICCL 2017 – 2nd Announcement
The 9th Biennial International Colloquium on the Chadic Languages (BICCL) will take place in Villejuif (France), September 7-8, 2017. This Colloquium will be devoted to all aspects of Chadic languages and linguistics, in particular:
- Descriptive linguistics of individual Chadic languages
- Comparative linguistics of Chadic languages
- Typology of Chadic languages
- Hausa linguistics
- The position of Chadic within Afroasiatic
- Chadic languages in contact with non-Chadic languages
- Oral literature in Chadic languages.
Registrations should be addressed exclusively by e-mail to:
biccl_2017@orange.fr ; Subject : BICCL 2017
The following information is required for registration:
- Name and address (preferably e-mail AND snail mail)
- Professional affiliation
- Title of paper and abstract (1 page)
Deadline for submitting title and abstract: May 31, 2017.
The purpose of this second announcement is to allow you to search for funding, for LLACAN will not be able to provide any financial support for the participants.
A third one will be delivered in May, with accommodation and visa details.
There is also a web page at the following address: http://llacan.vjf.cnrs.fr/biccl/
You may consult this web page to see the tables of contents of our previous BICCL meetings proceedings.
This Ninth Colloquium continues the series of Leipzig (2001 / 2009), Prague (2003), Villejuif/Paris (2005 / 2011), Bayreuth (2007 / 2014), Hamburg (2013), taking up two discontinued traditions (the series of Leiden 1976, Hamburg 1981, Boulder 1987) and the Franco-German meetings in Paris (Groupe d’Etudes tchadiques, 1980 – 1997).
The “Permanent Committee of the International Colloquium on the Chadic Languages” is presently represented by:
- Dymitr Ibriszimow (Lehrstuhl Afrikanistik II, Bayreuth U.),
- Henry Tourneux (LLACAN – CNRS / INALCO – Villejuif and IRAD Maroua, Cameroon),
- Ekkehard Wolff (Professor & Chair emeritus African Linguistics, Leipzig U., Institut für Afrikanistik).
Local organizing committee:
- Henry Tourneux
- Yvonne Treis
- Jeanne Zerner
More Articles on Chadic languages online at JWAL
The editors of the Journal of West African Languages (JWAL) have continued putting PDF versions of past articles on their web site. All articles published before 2002 are now available for free download at http://journalofwestafricanlanguages.org. Check out what is online for Chadic including Hausa.
Online Bibliography of Chadic and Hausa Linguistics
The “Online Bibliography of Chadic and Hausa Linguistics”, compiled by Professor Paul Newman of Indiana University, is a comprehensive, open access bibliography containing more than 2500 entries. The initial edition (Version 01) is now available as a searchable pdf file on the website of DEVA, Institute of African Studies, University of Bayreuth. To access the bibliography, find the baobab tree thumbnail at the bottom of the page and click on the Chadic Hausa link.
This initial Version 01 is presented in PDF format only. The goal in the future is to make the bibliography available in database format as well. Scholars using the bibliography will have the opportunity to contribute to its completeness and accuracy by submitting additions and corrections to be incorporated in subsequent editions.
Mega-Chad: new website and blog
Mega-Chad is an international network concerned with multidisciplinary research on the history and evolution of societies in the Lake Chad basin. The network name “Mega-Chad” evokes the maximal extension of Lake Chad several millennia ago. The network has as its aims the encouragement and support of multidisciplinary research on the societies and environments past and present of the Lake Chad basin, and the dissemination of research results.
Recently, their website has moved from Bayreuth (Afrikanistik) to London (SOAS). In addition, a new Mega-Chad blog has been launched to facilitate communicating news and discussion among the members of the Mega-Chad network.
Glavda in Rural and Urban Contexts
Jonathan Owens has been working on documenting Glavda (Central Chadic) over the past 2 years, under an ELDP grant. He is now in the process of putting up the results at a website (link) :
- transcribed and morphologically segmented texts
- complete free translations of each
- about 20% of 10 texts with interlinear glosses
- accompanying audio files for each text
The texts are based on interviews conducted by consultants, mostly in the Ngoshe area, a few from Maiduguri. A certain degree of demographic and geographical diversity is represented in the sample, young (under 30) and old (over 50), men and women, three villages (Ngoshe, Agapalawa, Arboko).
Topics are broad: history, daily life, farming, cooking, current politics, the future of Glavda, teasing and bantering (often the interviewer knew the interviewee well), so that the texts have more than a linguistic interest, even if that is their primary focus.
Thus far 11 texts are available, the goal being 16 or 17. The entire corpus should be about 90,000 words.
Hausa data in the World Loanword Database (WOLD)
(via World Loanword Database) The World Loanword Database (WOLD), edited by Martin Haspelmath and Uri Tadmor, is a scientific publication by the Max Planck Digital Library, Munich (2009).
It provides vocabularies (mini-dictionaries of about 1000-2000 entries) of 41 languages from around the world, with comprehensive information about the loanword status of each word. It allows users to find loanwords, source words and donor languages in each of the 41 languages, but also makes it easy to compare loanwords across languages.
In this database, there is also a list of 1668 Hausa words (with tone and vowel length marked), together with their meanings and explanations about their status as possible loanwords from Arabic, English, Kanuri and a few other donor languages. This information was contributed by Ari Awagana & H. Ekkehard Wolff with Doris Löhr.
Check it out at http://wold.livingsources.org
Russell Schuh’s Papers and other writings available for download
Russell G. Schuh, one of the most prominent scholars of Chadic Linguistics, has made a large number of his papers and other writings available for download. You can find links to these materials on his website: http://www.linguistics.ucla.edu/people/schuh/downloadable_papers.html.
I have added these links to my ever-growing collection of Chadic bookmarks. Let me remind you again: We are always happy to get news about new publications, ongoing research and also about online activities of Chadic linguists. These will be publicised here on Chadic Newsletter Online, the same way they used to be when Chadic Newsletter started as a mimeographed leaflet 40 years ago, only much faster. Also, you are always welcome to add comments to the posts.
Chadic languages on Friendfeed
Friendfeed is another web 2.0 style online service which enables you to keep up-to-date on web pages, photos, videos and music that others are sharing. You can also enter or create public rooms where you can discover and discuss information among friends.
Today, using Friendfeed, I have created a public room called “Chadic Languages” where I collect information related to Chadic languages which I consider worth sharing. I know that some of you may find social software just a big hype. Anyway, have a look and if you like (or dislike) it or have questions about it, let me know. Tell your students about it, since they are much more into this type of things.
UNESCO Interactive Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger
The following information from the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage website is relevant for most of the Chadic languages we are dealing with:
Half of the 6,700 languages spoken today are in danger of disappearing before the century ends, a process that can be slowed only if urgent action is taken by governments and speaker communities.
The UNESCO Interactive Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger, freely available, aims to provide speaker communities, policy-makers and the general public with state-of-the-art knowledge, continually updated by a growing network of experts and community members.
The online edition of the Atlas includes all of the information in the print edition (soon to be released) and much more.
More information in English, French and Spanish can be found here:
Chadic Newsletter Online 