A preliminary documentation of Siluyana: comparing Mbowe and Mwenyi
The Endangered Language Documentation Programme (ELDP) provides grants worldwide to for the linguistic documentation of endangered language and knowledge. Grantees create multimedia collection of endangered languages. These collections are preserved and made freely available through the Endangered Languages Archive (ELAR) housed at the library of SOAS University of London.
This project provides a preliminary documentation of Mbowe and Mwenyi (14°S, 22°E) of the Siluyana dialect cluster in the Western Province of Zambia. The main dialect Luyi is no longer spoken with only 3 rememberers remaining. Mbowe has 2,690 speakers and Mwenyi an estimated 6,000. Documentation will produce audio and video data of different speech genres and create archival data providing a database for future documentation of the cluster. Documenting these two languages will provide key evidence for understanding the dynamics of language and identity in the area in both its historical and structural dimensions.
Primary investigator: Nancy C Kula
Project Details
Location: Zambia, Eastern Africa, Africa
Organiser(s):
Endangered Languages Documentation Programme
Project partner(s): University of Essex
Funder(s):
Arcadia
Funding received: £9,976.00
Commencement Date: 01/2007
Project Status: Active
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