Glavda in rural and urban contexts

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 documents Glavda, a small, largely unstudied Central Chadic language of considerable phonological, morphological and syntactic complexity spoken in Northeastern Nigeria. Beyond building a sound archive based on interviews, free conversations and verbal art among speakers in the rural homeland, this study will also concentrate on the language of Glavda speakers in Maiduguri, the largest urban center in the region, and the goal of considerable out-migration from the rural homeland. This documentation of second generation urban speakers is crucial for gauging the effect of emigration on the longer term maintenance of Glavda in an increasingly urban world. Primary investigator: Jonathan Owens

Project Details


Location: Nigeria, Western Africa, Africa Organiser(s): Endangered Languages Documentation Programme Project partner(s): University of Bayreuth Funder(s): Arcadia Funding received: £9,060.00 Commencement Date: 01/2005
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