2022 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Microvariation in Bantu languages of South Africa: building theories from typology data
| Project/Area Number |
21KK0005
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| Research Institution | International Christian University |
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Principal Investigator |
李 勝勲 国際基督教大学, 教養学部, 上級准教授 (20770134)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
古本 真 東京外国語大学, アジア・アフリカ言語文化研究所, 研究員 (20796354)
品川 大輔 東京外国語大学, アジア・アフリカ言語文化研究所, 准教授 (80513712)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2021-10-07 – 2027-03-31
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| Keywords | Southern Bantu languages / Tone / Fieldwork / Acoustics |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
The second year of the project had multiple subparts: (a) remote data collection, (b) two field data collection, and (c) a two-day workshop of the grant members. The main aim of AY2022 was to collect a comparable baseline data across 9 Bantu languages in the project. Data sets were constructed from nouns, verbs and adjectives obtained from the Swadesh list. Production of these words in high tone and low tone contexts was recorded. The remote data collection was conducted with two Southern Ndebele speakers who joined the online sessions. Assistants were able to experience remote fieldwork by actively interacting with the speakers. The fieldwork in December 2022 was conducted in Thohoyandou for Xitsonga and Tshivenda, and Lenyenye for Northern Sotho. Each participant read more than 700 sentences for the project. Data from 30 speakers were processed within two months. In March 2023, fieldwork in Mbombela for Southern Ndebele, and Thohoyandou for Siswati was conducted. IsiXhosa and isiZulu data was also collected, which is being processed. At the workshop in March 2023, all the members were present in a face-to-face meeting in Johannesburg. During the 2-day workshop, research topics were shared and plan for data processing as well as project planning was made. In AY2022, 3 conference presentations and 1 invited talk were delivered.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
In the beginning of AY2022, the project was moving a bit slow, but at the onset of the end of the pandemic, fieldwork became possible, so the project was able to pick-up speed in data collection. The data collection is moving on smoothly so we expect to have data for further analysis during the summer months.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
In AY2023, continuing activities are planned: (a) data processing using a forced alignment system, (b) data collection, (c) conferences and article writing, and (d) workshops among members. Currently, we are developing a forced alignment model of all the official South African Bantu languages to facilitate data processing. Data collection will be conducted in Lesotho for Sesotho, in Grahamstown for isiXhosa. After collecting isiZulu and Tswana data, the project will have baseline data for all the 9 Southern Bantu languages. Analyses of the data will be disseminated at domestic and international conferences, and we plan to submit analyses of the data to journals to be considered for publication. Grant workshops are planned online in September 2023, and face-to-face in March 2024.
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| Causes of Carryover |
Due to the end of the pandemic being later in AY2022, the funds were mostly spent in March 2023. As such, most of the incurring amount should have been paid out in April or May 2023.
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