LINGUIST List 6.1469

Sat Oct 21 1995

FYI: Comparative Ling in African Languages (re-posting)

Editor for this issue: <lveselinemunix.emich.edu>

Directory

1. Robert Nicolai, Information: RFD:comparative linguistics in african languages

Editor's note
	[This announcement is posted again on subscribers' request
	since its last parts were truncated in the mail in the previous
	posting. To those of you who are not interested in the announcement -
	Many apologies for the inconvenience.]


 REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION (RFD)
 moderated group sci.lang.compar.africa

This a formal Request For Discussion concerning the creation of a new
moderated newsgroup called sci.lang.compar.africa. This is not a Call For
Votes (CFV). Please do not vote at this time.

RATIONALE:
Research on African Languages; all with the exception of Bantu, is at
present non-existent in discussions carried out within Newsgroups or on
mailing lists. This is also true of comparative research on African
Languages.

It is for this reason that a group of comparative linguistics specialists
dealing in African languages of the Sahel region
(http://lolita.unice.fr/~rn/GDRE_orig.html) proposes to create a newsgroup
entitled:

 sci.lang.compar.africa.

The group formed as a network around a research project concerned with
lexical distribution in the Sahel-Sahara zone, as well as with the study of
linguistic connections among languages in the region.
It is a French CNRS research organism

END RATIONALE

CHARTER: sci.lang.compar.africa

 As a moderated group, sci.lang.compar.africa would be open to
topics where comparative linguistics in african languages are the subject
of discussion, this would include :

 -languages and language families present in the
Sahel-Sahara zone: Mande, Chadic, Berber, Nilo-Saharan...
 - Analysis of results obtained in the research on genetic
relationships.
 - Problems related to the description of changes in the
context of languages of oral tradition.
 - Understanding linguistic changes and all the relevant
factors concerning language transformation.

 Research workers who do not specialize in the above-mentioned
languages, but who nevertheless are interested in general issues of
theoretical or methodological value for the work carried out or research
tools involved, are welcome to contribute.

Issues of the following type will thus be discussed:
 - Empirical issues (Particular facts pertaining to a language or a
group).
 - Methodological issues (Procedures and methods of description).
 - Theoretical issues (Principles of language change).
 - Epistemological or cognitive issues (The validity of established
facts and how these are obtained).

 Contributions can be posted either in english or in french.

END CHARTER

MODERATION:

sci.lang.compar.africa will be a moderated group. The group has designated
Robert Nicolai, initiator and director of the project, as Moderator.

Moderator: Robert Nicolai <nicolaiunice.fr>

Contributions liables to be refused :

 1) off-topic articles
 2) gross profanity and indecency
 3) binaries
 4) advertising
 5) non-specialist articles

END MODERATION

PROCEDURE

This message initiates a discussion period to consider the creation of a
sci.lang.compar.africa newsgroup. Discussion will take place on
news.groups. If discussions are made in other newsgroups, they should
always be cross-posted to news.groups.

* This is not a call for votes. Please do not attempt to vote now.
 A call for votes (CFV) will be issued approximately 4 weeks after this
RFD. When the CFV is posted, there will be instructions on how to mail your
votes to the independent vote-taker.

END PROCEDURE

DISTRIBUTION:

This RFD is in accordance with the Guidelines for Newsgroups Creation, and
has been cross-posted to the following relevant newsgroups:

news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,sci.lang,soc.culture.nigeria,
soc.culture.africa.

It will also be posted in the following discussion-list :

 Australian-Linguistics-
 Lcoombs.anu.edu.au
 CORPORA: CORPORAHD.UIB.NO
 LINGUIST: LINGUISTtamvm1.tamu.edu
 SCHOLAR: SCHOLARcunyvm.cuny.edu
 ADS-L: ADS-Luga.cc.uga.edu
 AMAZIGH-NET: Rodolphe Suescun
 suescunesmeralda.imag.fr
 Djamal Bouzida
 djbdarwin.bu.edu
 ENDANGERED-LANGUAGES-L: ENDANGERED-LANGUAGES-
 Lcoombs.anu.edu.au
 INDOEUROPEAN-L: Antony Green adg1cornell.edu
 NAT-LANG: NAT-LANGtamvm1.tamu.edu
 SWAHILI-L: SWAHILI-LRELAY.ADP.WISC.EDU
 SEALANG-L: * sealang-l-requestnectec.or.th
 * gwynipied.tu.ac.th (Gwyn Williams)
 * trinnucleus.nectec.or.th (Trin Tantsetthi)
 KAMUSI-L : kamusi-lyalevm.cis.yale.edu
 Martin Benjamin, email : hickoryyalevm.cis.yale.edu
 INFO-SIL: evan.antworthsil.org
	 INFO-SILSIL.ORG
 ARCLING: Malcom Ross , malcom.ross.anu.edu.au
 FUNKNET : tgivonoregon.uoregon.edu


Robert NICOLAI
GDRE 1172 CNRS - UNSA
63 boulevard de la Madeleine
06000 NICE - FRANCE
Tel. (33) 93 97 59 39