ILCAA Joint Research Project

A new perspective on descriptive linguistics in Africa based on the translingual ecology (jrp000268)

Keywords

• African linguistics
• African translingual ecology
• linguistic description
• ‘noisyʼ linguistics
• language contact
• linguistic area
• creativity in language
• linguistic resources
• special codes

Areas

• Sub-Saharan Africa

Website

Translingual Africa

About the Project

Project term: April, 2021–March, 2024

  This project aims to establish a new perspective on the multilingual nature of Sub-Saharan Africa by focusing on linguistic features uniquely observed on the African continent. We explore not only well-studied typological subjects but also unique linguistic phenomena arising in African multilingual environments that have tended to be ignored in the literature. This project also aims for a better understanding of African languages and translingual ecology by expanding the scope of traditional research on African linguistics by strengthening scholarly networks of African linguistics in Japan.

Members

Coordinator

• Daisuke SHINAGAWA

Joint Researchers

• Maya ABE
• Yuko ABE
• Makoto FURUMOTO
• Shigeki KAJI
• Toshiro KAMIYA
• Kazuhiro KAWACHI
• Kyoko KOGA
• Junko KOMORI
• Sayaka KUTSUKAKE
• Yuka MAKINO
• Kumiko MIYAZAKI
• Shuichiro NAKAO
• Nico Nassenstein
• Katsuhiko SHIOTA
• Anne Storch
• Motomichi WAKASA
• Nobuko YONEDA

Outputs

Meetings

The 6th meeting/ International workshop

• Date/Time: Sat 4 Nov 2023 13:00–18:00
• Venue: 303
• Language: English
• Jointly sponsored by Core Project “Description and Documentation of Language Dynamics in Asia and Africa: Toward a More In-depth Understanding of the Languages and Cultures of People Living in Asia and Africa”(DDDLing), ILCAA Joint Research Project “Phonetic typology from cross-linguistic perspectives”

• Daisuke SHINAGAWA (ILCAA)

  “Introduction: Linguistic description in translingual ecology in Africa”

  1. Andries COETZEE (ILCAA Joint Researcher, University of Michigan)

  “Patagonian Afrikaans: Identity and History in a Bilingual Speech Community”

  2. Nico NASSENSTEIN (ILCAA Joint Researcher/ Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz)

  “The role of Lingala in Eastern Congo’s Swahili ecologies and young speakers’ repertoires (Goma/Lubumbashi)”

  3. Sayaka KUTSUKAKE (ILCAA Joint Researcher/Tohoku Gakuin University)

  “Review of recent studies on multilingual practices in Africa and future perspectives”

  4. Janika KUNZMANN (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz)

  “What is Mbum and what is not? Addressing multi- and translingualism in the creation of a reference grammar”

The 5th meeting

• Date/Time: Sat 2 Sep 2023 15:00–18:00
• Venue: 302, Online meeting
• Language: Japanese
• Organized by Description and Documentation of Language Dynamics in Asia and Africa: Toward a More In-depth Understanding of the Languages and Cultures of People Living in Asia and Africa (DDDLing)

• 1. Kyoko KOGA (ILCAA Joint researcher, Kochi University)

  “Syntactic alternation of possessive and existential sentences in Akan”

  2. Shigeki KAJI (ILCAA Joint researcher/ Kyoto Sangyo University)

  “Texts in nonliterate languages, in particular focus on taboo expressions of the Nyoro of West Uganda”

  3. All participants

  “General discussions on the planned international WS and publication”

The 4th meeting ：Report (Japanese)

• Date/Time: Sat 11 Mar 2023 15:00–18:00
• Venue: Online meeting
• Language: Japanese
• Organized by Core Project “Description and Documentation of Language Dynamics in Asia and Africa: Toward a More In-depth Understanding of the Languages and Cultures of People Living in Asia and Africa”(DDDLing)

• 1. Junko KOMORI (ILCAA Joint researcher, Osaka University)

  “Typological features in Bambara”

  2. Kumiko MIYAZAKI (ILCAA Joint researcher, State Universit of Zanzibar)

  “One language, one translation?: Many translations yielded by multilingualism”

  3. All participants

  “General discussions: perspectives on the final year of the project including publication”

The 3rd meeting ：Report (Japanese)

• Date/Time: Sat 8 Oct 2022 14:00–18:00
• Venue: 302, Online meeting
• Language: Japanese
• Organized by Core Project “Description and Documentation of Language Dynamics in Asia and Africa: Toward a More In-depth Understanding of the Languages and Cultures of People Living in Asia and Africa”(DDDLing)

• Session-1: 14:00–14:40

  Kazuhiro KAWACHI (ILCAA Joint Researcher, Keio University)

  “Toward descriptive studies of Eastern African languages that contribute to speaker communities”

  Motomichi WAKASA (ILCAA Joint Researcher, Atomi University)

  “Aspects of verbal nouns in Wolaytta”

  Kyoko KOGA (ILCAA Joint Researcher, Kochi University)

  “Information structure and prosody in Akan”

  Session-2: 15:00–15:40

  Maya ABE (ILCAA Joint Researcher, Osaka University)

  “Relative clauses in Bantu G20”

  Daisuke SHINAGAWA (ILCAA)

  “cl.8 relatives in Kenyan Colloquial Swahili”

  Nobuko YONEDA (ILCAA Joint Researcher, Osaka University)

  “The “wa-ga” construction in Swahili”

  Session-3: 16:00–16:50

  Yuko ABE (ILCAA Joint Researcher, Lanzhou University)

  “The clan system (Mulahilo) in Bende”

  Makoto FURUMOTO (Junior Research Fellow)

  “Considering social situations in Zanzibar from a viewpoint of Swahili dialects (Interim)”

  Katsuhiko SHIOTA (ILCAA Joint Researcher, Osaka University)

  “A brief report on recent research outcomes”

  Shuichiro NAKAO (ILCAA Joint Researcher, Osaka University)

  “Describing norms: a case of metalinguistic activities in Juba Arabic discourse”

  Session-4: 17:10–18:00

  All participants

  General discussion (mainly on expected project outcomes)

The 2nd meeting ：Report (Japanese)

• Date/Time: Sat 4 Dec 2021 14:30–17:00
• Venue: Online meeting
• Language: Japanese
• Organized by Core Project “Linguistic Dynamics Science3 (LingDy3)”

• 1. Shuichiro NAKAO (ILCAA Joint Researcher, Osaka University)

  “Linguistic description of bilingualism: Three case studies of bilingual description”

  2. All participants

  General discussions

The 1st meeting ：Report (Japanese)

• Date/Time: Sat 17 Jul 2021 15:00–18:00
• Venue: Online meeting
• Language: Japanese
• Organized by Core Project “Linguistic Dynamics Science3 (LingDy3)”

• 1. Daisuke SHINAGAWA (ILCAA)

  “Translingual situation in Africa revisited: based on Lüpke and Storch (2013)”

  2. Shigeki KAJI (ILCAA joint researcher, Kyoto Sangyo University)

  “A typological analysis on the linguistic means by which people speaking different languages form a unified communication field: with special reference to the multilingual situations in western Uganda”

  3. All participants

  General discussions

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