LINGUIST List 5.1211

Tue 01 Nov 1994

Sum: Threatened Sudan Languages

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1. "Dr R.M. Blench", Threatened Sudan Languages II.

Threatened Sudan Languages: Response

>From Roger Blench, Cambridge

I would like to thank the many people who responded to my posting on
threatened languages of Kordofan. It seems there is a large unsatisfied
need out there to work with real speakers in situ, which is very
encouraging for individuals such as myself who often feel marooned in the
arid wastes of theory. I am attempting to set up a direct email address
for those who have expressed interest and we will attempt to sort and answer
all the queries with more detailed information as soon as possible.

I append to this a few reflections occasioned by the response which you
can ignore.

1. Of all the countries mailed the one major nation from which there was
absolutely no response was England. This is disappointing, but not at all
surprising. I had always suspected that both anthropology and field
linguistics in England were closely bound up with the Empire and that now
the Empire has gone, inward-looking has become the rule. Anthropology I
have had to largely discard now that the seminar rooms are awash with
post-modernist chitchat, while linguistics seems bent on disappearing up
its own theoretical orifices.

2. The evident desire to go out and work with informants in context in
order to actually assist communities (as opposed to the parade of
taxi-driver informants who have provided much of the "African" language
material these last few years, especially in North America) makes one ask
why field linguistics has such a low prestige and why the making of
dictionaries and the preparation of reference grammars is a barely
acceptable activity (as measured by the difficulty in getting these
published).

3. I posted a message about Sudan, but every African country has
threatened languages that require immediate attention. My work on the
Language Atlas of Nigeria (finally published recently) has made me aware
of at least 50 languages in Nigeria that are close to extinction. Why,
for example, is it easier to hold conferences and make up committees on
threatened languages than to actually pay somebody to go out and do some
basic work?

Thank you again for the encouraging response.

Roger Blench