Language documentation: a view from the Tanzanian Rift Valley
Channel: Andrew Harvey - Linguist
Date: 2019-11-04

Note: This talk has not gone through a process of peer review, and findings should therefore be treated as preliminary and subject to change.

How to cite: Harvey, Andrew. 2019. Language documentation: a view from the Tanzanian Rift Valley. Talk given at the African Studies Association of Africa conference, Nairobi, Kenya. 25/10/2019.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3526878

Abstract: The concept of language documentation (especially as articulated in Himmelmann 1998), is experiencing radical changes in both theory and practice across the African continent (c.f. Seyfeddinipur (ed.) 2016). With a focus on the Tanzanian Rift Valley Area (largely as conceived by Kießling, Mous, and Nurse 2008), this talk examines how language documentation in Africa 1) is strongest when it takes into account the performativeness at the core of communicative practices; 2) has met with general failure when serving agendas of text-based maintenance and revitalization; and 3) shows great promise when it seeks to work within and strengthen traditions of orality (c.f. Ameka 2015).

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