Translation Africa Blog - Languages
Idaho Linguists Help Preserve Somali Languages
06/08/2015Linguists from Boise State in Idaho (USA) are joining forces to help preserve languages from Somalia from potential extinction. Michal Temkin Martinez and Jon Dayley are currently in the process of compiling the first-ever Somali Chizigula-English dictionary which they hope will be used by native speakers and linguists. The project will hopefully secure the future of…
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Sheng Street Language Helping to Heal Tribal Divisions
25/05/2015A Kenyan street language is helping to reduce tribal tensions and unite young people. So impressed are observers of the language’s influence that a social media platform promoting it will form the crux of a presentation at this year’s eLearning Africa conference. If you follow our blogs you might have come across the language before…
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Cambridge academics unlock African street language
02/05/2015The Ugandan government is being helped by Cambridge academics to understand an urban language that was originally used as code by criminals – but is now being used among Ugandan youth. Many of the country’s cool kids now speak Luyaaye rather than the traditional native languages of Kiswahili, English and Luganda. Originally Luyaaye was a…
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Teach our Kids African Languages Not Foreign Ones
14/04/2015In an interesting development in South African politics, The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) has called on the Minister of Basic Education to make African languages compulsory in schools rather than pushing foreign ones such as Mandarin. “This begs a question of whether schools in China will teach IsiZulu or other African languages, as the Minister…
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Uganda Named Best English Speaking Country in Africa
16/03/2015Uganda has been named the best English Speaking African Country in a study conducted by World Linguistic Agency. The study names Uganda as the best with Zambia and South Africa close behind. The study also sees Nigerians being credited for taking the spot for constructing good sentences that are grammatically flawless. The full list is…
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Xhosa Dictionary Embraces New Words
02/10/2014This September, a new Xhosa-English dictionary was published by the Oxford University Press Southern Africa. The Xhosa word for ‘condom’ made it along with other new words adapted from modern language. In their article on The Times Live, Aphiwe de Klerk and Philani Nombembe state that after three years of research, the new Xhosa-English dictionary…
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Linguicide in Cameroon
09/09/2014In Cameroon, the prevailing language in many fields, for example in court and in the media, is French. Not only does this mean the Anglophone inhabitants of the country are left out, this trend also seriously threatens Cameroon’s indigenous languages. Professor Peter Wuteh Vakunta, who works at the Department of Defence Language Institute in the…
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African Languages are Key to African Renaissance
08/09/2014Even though European languages are widely spoken on the African continent, some Africans believe that the African people should return to their mother languages. This so-called “African Renaissance” will not only keep Africa’s native languages from extinction, but will also prevent a lot of knowledge from disappearing. According to Apioth Mayom Apioth, ever since the…
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Research into Luyia Languages Gets Financial Boost
21/07/2014A financial grant has recenlty been awarded to a project that aims to document four African languages. This research wants to prevent these languages from dying out, but might prove to be very useful for overall linguistic research as well. If you are a regular follower of our blog, you know that many languages are…
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World Banks Wants More African Languages Online
18/07/2014The internet presence of vernacular languages, for example those spoken on the African continent, is quite small. According to some, this is the reason why many local languages are on the verge of extinction. Others claim, however, that ICT can be used to preserve local languages and improve language learning. As you might know, many…
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