Microvariation and youth language practices in Africa

该项目力求审查非洲青年语言的语法差异，重点放在三个地理区域。它调查了东非和中非(坦桑尼亚、肯尼亚和刚果民主共和国)说斯瓦希里语、中部非洲说林加拉语(DRC)和南部非洲说IsiZulu-Ndebele语(这些名字指的是津巴布韦和南非之间地区所说的某种连续体)的青年语言实践。以前的研究往往侧重于青年语言的具体方面，特别是在非洲的背景下。这包括研究青少年语言常见的创造性操作和文字游戏，以及快速变化的词汇。近年来的一个平行发展是，越来越多的工作研究班图语结构微变异的各个方面--班图语是中部、东部和南部非洲大部分地区使用的大约450-600种语言。语言家族表现出一系列广泛的相似之处，但也有高度的细粒度、更细微的差异。拟议的项目力求将这两个过去截然不同的工作结合在一起，一方面增进对青年语言实践的了解(不再侧重于操纵和人种学方法)，另一方面也更好地了解班图语之间的结构差异。预计这一创新办法将有助于更好地了解非洲青年语言的结构变化。该项目汇集了一个国际专家小组，围绕四个工作流程展开。英国的团队将领导专注于斯瓦希里语的工作流，德国的团队将领导专注于林加拉语的工作流。两个团队将在IsiZulu-Ndebele上共同工作，并在最后的比较流上进行合作。该项目的关键是国际专家的参与以及与非洲大陆合作伙伴的密切合作。

This project seeks to examine grammatical variation in African youth languages with a focus on three geographical areas. It investigates youth languages practices amongst speakers of Kiswahili in East and Central Africa (Tanzania, Kenya and DRC), Lingala in Central Africa (DRC) and isiZulu-Ndebele in Southern Africa (these are names which refer to a continuum of sorts spoken in areas between Zimbabwe and South Africa). Previous studies have tended to focus on specific aspects of youth languages, particularly in the African context. This includes work looking at the creative manipulation and word play with which youth languages are commonly associated, as well as the rapidly changing vocabularies. A parallel development in recent years has seen an increasing body of work examining aspects of structural microvariation in the Bantu languages - a group of some 450-600 languages spoken across much of central, eastern and Southern Africa. The language family exhibits a range of broad similarities but also a high degree of fine-grained more subtle differences. The proposed project seeks to bring these two erstwhile distinct strands of work together and provide an improved understanding of youth languages practices on the one hand (moving away from the focus on manipulation and ethnographic approaches), and a better understanding of structural variation across the Bantu languages on the other. It is also anticipated that this innovative approach will contribution to an improved understanding of the structural variation found in African youth languages.The project brings together an international team of experts and is structured around four streams of work. The team in the UK will lead the workstream focusing on Kiswahili and the team in Germany will lead the workstream focusing on Lingala. The two teams will work jointly on isiZulu-Ndebele, as well as collaborating on a final comparative stream. Crucial to the project is the involvement of international experts and close collaboration with partners based on the African continent.