Documentation of Extreme North Cameroon Sign Language and Cameroon Sign Language
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 aims to document and compare two languages: the rural sign language referred to here as Extreme North Cameroon Sign Language (ExNorthCamSL), which is used in and around the town of Maroua, and Cameroon Sign Language (CamSL) which is used in the rest of the country (Central, Littoral, North-West, South-West, and West regions). CamSL has been influenced by American Sign Language (ASL) and Langue des Signes Française (LSF, or French Sign Language) through educators and missionaries. The linguistics of both sign languages is undocumented (De Clerck, 2011). Approximately 150 signers use ExNorthCamSL, while an estimated 4,500 use CamSL.
Primary investigator: Sam Lutalo-Kiingi
Project Details
Location: Cameroon, Middle Africa, Africa
Organiser(s):
Endangered Languages Documentation Programme
Project partner(s): Kyambogo University
Funder(s):
Arcadia
Funding received: £38,487.00
Commencement Date: 01/2008
Project Status: Active
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