Hello Rebecca, Thanks, welcome, and good to hear from you on the list. I should clarify, though, that I am not the moderator - just a persistant contributor. This list was founded by Kenyan author Mwangi wa Mutahi.
You're right about endangered languages in Africa. I think the author was guilty of journalistic excess in seeking a catchy lead, but it is certainly inaccurate and misleading to write "Concerns that African languages could become extinct are almost over." I guess one could argue that the future of major African languages is more secure to the extent that they are used in web content, blogs, etc. and this is a good thing. Indeed, there has been some notable change in the degree to which some languages are used on the internet. But all African languages are not the same in terms of their numbers of speakers, their vigor of use, the status of their speakers etc., so it is another example of the mistake of generalizing too much about "African languages" (or "European languages," "Asian languages," etc.). The point you make about how minority African languages lose out to more widely spoken African languages is absolutely true - many have observed this process in different parts of the continent. Africa's endangered languages are generally not directly pushed to the edge of extinction by the official languages (English, French, Portuguese). They lose out first to indigenous languages of wider communication (LWCs). At the same time, policies and atitudes that favor the official languages to the exclusion or minimization of African languages do have an effect on the linguistic ecology as a whole. For example, Hausa as you mention is not in danger of extinction (some tens of millions speak it), but there is a process of weakening even such widely spoken languages. There are educated people in Niger of Hausa origin who speak poor Hausa. In my blog I mentioned a case of a Nigerienne research assistant at an agricultural research station whose Hausa was not as good as an American Peace Corps staff who at that time had only 3 total years in Niger using the language. I've heard that rural people in Hausaphone parts of the country laugh at the Hausa used by some government people from Niamey. Arguably, even such a widely spoken language suffers a degree of impoverishment when the intelligensia don't master it and the language is barely used in schools at any level. This point was driven home by an item I reposted to this list (message #280) in which some were calling Igbo (another "decamillionare" in terms of speakers) an "endangered language." Perhaps "endangered" is not the right word, but when parents and school systems do not actively teach their mother tongue to the next generation (or in some cases, seek *not* to teach it in favor of a monolingual focus on English or French), the prospects for even the most widely spoken languages on the continent are not bright. What I've just described is a dynamic mainly of the cities and larger towns. Without having researched the matter, I think that one reason that a minority and endangered language like Badiaranke is losing out to Fula and Manding and not to French is that its home area is far from the urban centers where elites are concentrated and various popular urban language use trends can be observed. In rural areas the main languages are the African LWCs. And most endangered African languages are in rural areas (the continent's population is mostly rural, of course, even though cities are growing rapidly). It would be interesting from the point of view of understanding the situation of endangered languages in Africa, to know if minority languages whose home area happens to be in and around a major city (the only example I can think of at the moment is Ga in Accra) are losing to the official languages more than to other African languages. Let me conclude this rambling reply with reflections from the information technology angle. As I've become active in matters relating to African language computing and localization, I've generally discussed it as a "win-win" technology. That is, that putting African languages on the web or even translating software need not be competitive, since each advance for one language does not have to come at the expense of another. For that matter, one might make the case that localization in Hausa, Swahili, Wolof, Zulu, etc. helps open the way for localizaiton in other, less widely spoken languages (MINELs? = minority and endangered languages). Indeed, the technology facilitates additive linguistic solutions. That may not be the case in many other aspects of life, but it is something worth trying to extend to other spheres of activity and public life - perhaps facilitated by information technology. Another contribution technology can make is through development of advanced applications for speech<->text transformations and translation. Technology does not fix all (I'm not nearly that extreme, as someone once dubbed a "dirt forester" in Mali) but it does open new possibilities. In multilingual Africa, there are certainly possibilities that have yet to be fully explored to facilitating communication, expression, and learning in any and all maternal languages. Which in turn should assist in efforts to preserve and develop languages such as Badiaranke. Mainly, while understanding the realities of language impoverishment and loss, I think the extent to which solutions can be proposed that don't emphasize competition between languages (in Africa or elsewhere) is the extent to which positive solutions can be devised. Anyway, I hope your work on Badiaranke is going well. It sounds like an interesting project. (For those not familiar with it, see message #386 in the group archives.) Don Osborn Bisharat.net --- In [email protected], Rebecca Cover <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Dear Donald, > > I'm the one you posted about a few months ago (found > the posting by Googling myself :) - I got a grant from > the Documenting Endangered Languages program from > NSF/NEH to document and describe Badiaranke, which is > spoken in Guinea, Senegal, and Guinea-Bissau. > > I had to respond to this message because it strikes me > as ridiculously ignorant to the point of being > irresponsible - this is not your fault, of course, but > the fault of whoever wrote the article. In particular, > the claim that " Concerns that African languages could > become extinct are almost over" because "The internet > is becoming a refuge for the continent's languages > that would otherwise become extinct" is quite an > amazing statement, if the languages we are talking > about here are "Kiswahili .... Uganda's Luganda, > Kenya's Kikuyu, Burundi's Kirundi, Rwanda's > Kinyarwanda, Somalia's Somali, and Nigeria's Hausa." > Languages like Kiswahili, Somali, and Hausa are really > not the languages that anyone is worried will go > extinct. Quite the contrary, languages like Kiswahili > and Hausa are the very languages that are threatening > other smaller, indigenous languages in countries like > Kenya and NIgeria. Africa is not like other parts of > the world like Australia and the US, where indigenous > languages have been wiped out by the prestige and > policies favoring the colonial language - though of > course this is to some extent a threat in Africa as > well, its strength depending on where one is in > Africa. The greater threat to small languages in many > parts of Africa is the dominance of other local > languages - e.g. Hausa, Swahili, Fula... in the case > of Badiaranke, for instance, French is practically > irrelevant in whether Badiaranke survives, but the > relative economic, political, and social dominance of > Fulacounda/Pularfuta and Mandinka speakers in the area > is what threatens the language most. > > I thought your other readers of these postings might > be interested in this clarification. I will also look > up the article itself and see if I can figure out how > to contact the author, because - as you can see - I > feel very strongly about this issue. > > While I'm at it, thanks for a wonderful job moderating > this listserv, and thanks for sending along so many > interesting stories. > > Sincerely, > > Rebecca Cover > > > --- "Donald Z. Osborn" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > FYI, the following article from Highway Africa News > > Agency is available on > > AllAfrica.com at > > http://allafrica.com/stories/200511180584.html (I > > was alerted > > to the article by its posting on the ILAT list)... > > DZO > > > > > > Internet: A New Space for African Languages > > > > Highway Africa News Agency (Grahamstown) > > http://www.highwayafrica.org.za/hana/ > > November 18, 2005 > > By Ansbert Ngurumo > > Geneva > > > > Concerns that African languages could become extinct > > are almost over. The > > internet is becoming a refuge for the continent's > > languages that would > > otherwise become extinct. > > > > Despite the powerful influence of English, French > > and Portuguese as official > > languages in certain African countries, indigenous > > African languages are > > proving that technology belongs to no language. > > ... ------------------------ Yahoo! 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