Documenting oral genres in the Bolga dialect of Gurene (Northern Ghana)

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 aims to collect an audio-visual corpus of oral genres in the Bolgatanga dialect of Gurene (ISO 639-3: gur), a Gur language in northern Ghana spoken by about 22,000 people. The Geographical reference of Bolgatanga is 100N 0048?W. Language standardization, modern life, and contact with English and Hausa is leading to loss of variation and disappearance of oral genres such as folktales, riddles, ritual texts, and other linguistic resources. It will serve as a resource to be exploited for my PhD thesis and for the community to re-energise the use of these genres in the socialization of children. Primary investigator: Samuel Atintono

Project Details


Location: Ghana, Western Africa, Africa Organiser(s): Endangered Languages Documentation Programme Project partner(s): The University of Manchester Funder(s): Arcadia Funding received: £6,960.00 Commencement Date: 01/2006
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