The Gorwaa Noun Phrase: Toward a Description of the Gorwaa 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.

Gorwaa (South-Cushitic, Afro-Asiatic) is an undocumented language, spoken by approximately 15,000 individuals in Babati District, Manyara Region, Tanzania. Gorwaa is accorded no formal status in Tanzania, and is banned from use in important public domains. This project will build a corpus based on culturally rich oral arts including stories, riddles, prayers and songs, which will be used for further documentation and descriptive work. The project will culminate in the completion of my PhD thesis: a detailed examination of the noun phrase which will lay the foundation for the future creation of a Gorwaa reference grammar and dictionary. Primary investigator: Andrew Harvey

Project Details


Location: Tanzania, Eastern Africa, Africa Organiser(s): Endangered Languages Documentation Programme Project partner(s): SOAS, University of London Funder(s): Arcadia Funding received: £46,055.00 Commencement Date: 01/2011
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