Preliminaries

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Hi All

This will be my blog site while in Africa.

The flight over

Click on the flight map to see my route to Cameroon

The Grant

Title: The Documentation and Preservation of Western Beboid Languages of Cameroon
(Mundabli, Fang , Koshin, Abar, and Mbu’)


This project will document the endangered Western Beboid languages (Bantoid:Benue-Congo:Niger-Congo) spoken Northwest Province of Cameroon. It will result in (i) the creation of primary documentary resources of these languages in the form of audio and video recordings, (ii) the creation of descriptive materials on the languages in the form of annotated recordings and information on their grammar, (iii) the construction of a comparative database based on the collected data, and (iv) recommendations for tool design for field linguistics, with a specific focus on tools allowing for structured annotation of grammatical data including links to the General Ontology for Linguistic Description. This project has both documentary and technical components. On the documentary side, it will result in the collection of audio and video recordings of the different Western Beboid languages accompanied by transcriptions of those recordings, word lists, phonemic analyses, and analyses of noun class systems. The Western Beboid languages to be documented by this project are Mundabli , Fang , Koshin , Abar , and Mbu’ . The number of speakers of each Western Beboid language is quite small, ranging from, perhaps, a high of 1600 for Fang to a low of 600 for Mbu’ . On the technical side,
it will result in research on the role of ontologies in the creation of descriptive linguistic materials and will include the development of a prototype tool for field-based ontological annotation. The focus of the present proposal is on the technical aspects of the collaboration. The accompanying proposal by Jeff Good focuses on the documentary and descriptive issues related to Western Beboid languages.

Intellectual merit: The research to be undertaken by this project is of relevance to historical and theoretical linguistics. From the perspective of historical linguistics, the Western Beboid languages offer crucial links between Bantu languages and the rest of the Benue-Congo language group, the sub-branch of Niger-Congo to which Bantu languages belong. From the perspective of theoretical and typological linguistics, these languages appear to be of an intermediate type between the agglutinating morphological type of Bantu and the isolating morphological type associated with languages like Yoruba and the Kwa languages to their west. Since they are genetically related to both sets of languages, they offer a fascinating laboratory to explore the interaction between morphology and other aspects of grammar, in particular, syntax. From a technology perspective, this project will contribute to research on linguistic ontologies and, thus, will be of importance to work on computer-assisted linguistics. The project represents the first attempt at developing a permanent Web presence for Western Beboid languages. The on-line database and archived materials will immediately provide search facilities over data that has heretofore been either unavailable or only available in a few print resources. Furthermore, the project sets very high standards by experimenting with cutting-edge knowledge and Web technologies. For instance, the project will demonstrate the feasibility of the GOLD Community of Practice. The creation of the sub-ontology for Western Beboid and its integration with field-wide knowledge pose significant challenges for knowledge engineering.

Broader impact: Within Cameroon, this project has the potential to have an important impact on theWestern Beboid languages, since the documentary and descriptive materials which will be developed will assist speakers of these languages in language-development efforts. Within linguistics, the aspects of this project related to tool design for field linguistics, will have an impact have the potential to improve the ability of all field linguists to produce high-quality, interoperable digital documentary resources. Finally, by producing a database on Western Beboid languages, this project will open them up for research by linguists, specialists from other areas, and the general public.

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