Collection of sound files for inclusion in a dictionary of Korana and eventual integration with a corpus of heritage texts.

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.

The project will collect sound files of Korana, or !Ora, a South African Khoesan language of the KHOE family, which may be the direct descendant of the variety spoken by inhabitants of the Cape when Europeans first arrived. It was believed extinct until the recent discovery of four elderly speakers around Bloemfontein and Kimberley. The files will be incorporated into an electronic dictionary, and ultimately integrated with a text corpus. This is part of a greater project to produce a compendium – in print and online - with historical background, grammatical information, heritage texts with parallel translations, and a dictionary. Primary investigator: Menan Du Plessis

Project Details


Location: South Africa, Southern Africa, Africa Organiser(s): Endangered Languages Documentation Programme Project partner(s): University of Cape Town Funder(s): Arcadia Funding received: £7,880.00 Commencement Date: 01/2007
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