Documentation of Nalu, Tristao Islands, Guinea (Atlantic, Niger-Congo)

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.

Nalu (ISO 639-3: naj) is an endangered Atlantic language spoken on the littorals of Guinea and Guinea-Bissau. In Guinea, most Nalu speakers live north of the river Nuñez on the Tristão islands, located in the sub-prefecture of Kanfarandé, prefecture of Boké. Across the border in Guinea-Bissau, speakers of Nalu inhabit the Cacine estuary in the Tombali region. Nalu is predominantly spoken by an adult population (>30 years) and counts significantly less than 22,000 speakers. This project aims at creating a record of this little studied and little known group of people. It will produce a dictionary, annotated audio and audiovisual data of texts from different genres, cultural activities etc., six short documentary films, an orthography, and a grammatical sketch. Primary investigator: Frank Seidel

Project Details


Location: Guinea Organiser(s): Endangered Languages Documentation Programme Project partner(s): University of Florida Funder(s): Arcadia Funding received: £97,322.00 Commencement Date: 01/2006
Project owner? Update this project



Related Projects

EAP1402 Pub003

19th-century documents from the Peruvian asylum el Manicomio del Cercado

The Victor Larco Herrera Hospital in the centre of Lima, Peru, was closed in 1917. Its archives, dating back to 1859, consist of medical documentation as well as administrativ…

Explore project
EAP1306 Silk Museum

The Caucasian Silk Circle: Digitising Photo Collection of the State Silk Museum in Georgia

The State Silk Museum of Georgia holds the only documentary evidence of the practice of sericulture in the 19th century. Taken during expeditions of the Caucasian Sericulture …

Explore project
EAP1294 team

Safeguarding for Posterity Two Private Collections of Palm-Leaf Manuscripts from the Tamil Country

The Kalliṭaikuṟicci and Villiyampākkam collections are palm-leaf collections held privately in India. The collections are essential to study the prevalent reading practices in…

Explore project