Documenting the =Khomani Language: Field Research and Digital Technology for Audio, Video, and Text Archives

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Each human language encodes particular understandings of the world that are not shared exactly with any other language. These understandings are part of the joint heritage we share as world citizens. It is imperative that as many as possible of the world's endangered languages be professionally documented before they disappear. Of the remaining Khoisan, or "click" languages of southern Africa, =Khomani (N/u), with only ten speakers, is high on the critical list. Recent technological advances and rising standards for "best practice" now make it possible to help =Khomani speakers preserve the words, idioms, and verbal art of their past. This collaborative approach combines anthropological and linguistic expertise with native speaker expertise for both scholarly and local community purposes. With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Marguerite Biesele will undertake the textual, audio, and video documentation of the =Khomani language in and near Upington, South Africa. Drawing on her many years of experience with the Ju/'hoan San click-speakers of Namibia, Dr. Biesele will direct the work of two linguistic consultants, Gueldemann and Namaseb, who are already familiar with the =Khomani language. The materials collected through digital field documentation will be prepared for archiving by transcribing, annotating, translating, and analyzing the language data. This project will add substantially to the scholarly materials available for linguistic research on Khoisan. These materials will be made available electronically to researchers around the world, and will also be disseminated to the community of origin. The project will contribute to the training of the two young =Khomani speakers in the production of socially meaningful texts of traditional and contemporary lore and language.