Video-documenting the dying language Mani in Sierra Leone (Isocode buy)

Portland State University, Portland OR

Investigators

Abstract

This project continues the documentation of Mani (Ethnologue ISO code buy), a dying West African language once spoken in a broad swath stretching from Conakry, Guinea, to Freetown, Sierra Leone. Mani, which belongs to the South Atlantic Group of Niger-Congo, exhibits some unusual grammatical features. Since the few hundred remaining speakers are elderly and widely scattered, the language seems destined to die. As part of an earlier documentation project, however, it was discovered that on a remote island in Sierra Leone, children still grow up speaking the language. These children won a special Mani cultural competition in 2009 demonstrating the traditional arts of singing, dancing, and story-telling, and were provided with the first Mani books. They, their parents, and village elders are now ready to continue the documentation effort, which will be video-recorded as part of a continuing partnership with the Voice of America, who will provide high definition video equipment and the expertise of a senior producer. This partnership will enable the project to expand its documentation to record children and adults using the language on an everyday basis. This project will pioneer the E-MAGINE wi-fi field station developed at the University of Michigan, provide computers and internet access to Mani children and adults, and exploit the linguistic and technological expertise at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. Developing literacy in Mani is a Sierra Leone educational initiative, and the project will partner with educators at the University of Sierra Leone in offering classes and public lectures and in training students in the field. The filmed documentation and the use of the internet will be a model of what fieldworkers can accomplish, recording cultural practices together with context-appropriate uses of the Mani language. Technological innovations (miniaturization, digitization, the internet, etc.) can modernize the efforts of the language documentation community and extend their global reach. Because Voice of America has a well-established world-wide distribution network, information about language documentation will reach a wide audience. Finally, the project will provide a record of Mani cultural practices for the people themselves.