The African Languages Research Institute: a Milestone in The
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The African Languages Research Institute: A Milestone in the Development of the Zimbabwean Languages* Emmanuel Chabata, African Languages Research Institute (ALRI), University of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe ([email protected]) Abstract: This article is an assessment of the work the African Languages Research Institute (ALRI) has done towards developing the indigenous languages of Zimbabwe. It looks at what the research team at ALRI has achieved, first in initiating serious research on the Zimbabwean lan- guages and the progress it has made towards achieving its goal, developing and raising the status of these languages. It also considers what ALRI has planned for the future of the different catego- ries or levels into which the various Zimbabwean languages have been classified. Part of the as- sessment focuses on measures ALRI has put in place to ensure the initiated research programme is sustainable and will continue in future. The article furthermore discusses the importance of the research work being done at ALRI, especially with regard to language development as a means towards self-realisation and -actualisation, national advancement and the sustenance of the lan- guages involved. ALRI's agenda is also analysed to see how well it agrees with popular thinking in Zimbabwe concerning the development and promotion of all of the indigenous languages. Keywords: ALRI, CAPACITY BUILDING, INSTITUTIONALISATION, LANGUAGE HAR- MONISATION, LANGUAGE STANDARDISATION, MONOLINGUAL LEXICOGRAPHY, ZIM- BABWEAN LANGUAGES Opsomming: Die African Languages Research Institute: 'n Mylpaal in die ont- wikkeling van die Zimbabwiese tale. Hierdie artikel is 'n evaluering van die werk wat die African Languages Research Institute (ALRI) gedoen het in die ontwikkeling van die inheemse tale van Zimbabwe. Dit kyk na wat die navorsingspan bereik het, eerstens deur ernstige navorsing oor die Zimbabwiese tale te onderneem en die vordering wat gemaak is met die bereiking van sy doel, die ontwikkeling en die statusverhoging van hierdie tale. Dit beskou ook wat ALRI beplan het vir die toekoms van die verskillende kategorieë of vlakke waarin die onderskeie Zimbabwiese tale geklassifiseer is. 'n Deel van die evaluering fokus op maatreëls wat ALRI in plek gestel het om te verseker dat die onderneemde navorsingsprogram volhoubaar is en in die toekoms sal voortgaan. Verder bespreek die artikel die belangrikheid van die navorsingswerk wat by ALRI gedoen word, veral met betrekking tot taalontwikkeling as 'n manier tot selfverwesenliking en -aktualisering, * This article is based on a paper presented at the Sixth International Conference of the African Association for Lexicography organised by the Sesotho sa Leboa National Lexicography Unit, University of the North (at present University of Limpopo), Polokwane, Republic of South Africa, 8–10 July 2001. Lexikos 17 (AFRILEX-reeks/series 17: 2007): 278-291 The African Languages Research Institute 279 nasionale vooruitgang en die onderhoubaarheid van die betrokke tale. ALRI se agenda word ook ontleed om te sien hoe goed dit ooreenstem met die algemene denke in Zimbabwe betreffende die ontwikkeling en bevordering van al die inheemse tale. Sleutelwoorde: ALRI, VERMOËNSBOU, INSTITUSIONALISERING, TAALHARMONI- ERING, TAALSTANDAARDISERING, EENTALIGE LEKSIKOGRAFIE, ZIMBABWIESE TALE 1. Introduction In this article, which focuses on the contribution of the African Languages Research Institute (ALRI) towards the development of Zimbabwe's indigenous languages, language development is viewed as involving two steps. The first is that of reducing a language to writing, the aim being that of standardising it to become a literary language. In this case, the standardisation process results in the establishment of an alphabet for the language and the rules of spelling and word division to be followed when writing that language. The rules are gener- ally referred to as the language's orthography. The second step, which follows after the establishment of a language's orthography, is the development of tools that further enhance the research on and documentation of a particular lan- guage. Some such tools include general and specialised dictionaries, corpora, morphological parsers, syntactic analysers and spell checkers, the compilation of which rely on the agreed or standard orthography of a language. In the light of what is involved in these two steps, it becomes clear that language develop- ment is an ongoing process of researching and updating a language's orthogra- phy and its descriptive tools. Once a standard orthography has been developed and the language has been adequately described and documented, its status is automatically raised. In this article, it will be considered how ALRI is trying to raise the status of Zimbabwean indigenous languages through its research agenda. To date, efforts towards developing the African languages spoken in Zim- babwe are more than a century old. Researchers, both foreign and local, as individuals or small groups, have made varying contributions towards the standardisation and documentation of the country's different languages. The earliest efforts comprised missionary activities, which mainly centred on the development of orthographies for various languages and/or dialect clusters. This was realised through different missionary groups strategically located in different parts of the country where they set up presses for printing Bibles, church literature and educational books to create literature for their new con- verts. Although missionary efforts have often been viewed as aimed at creating a literate group of individuals to use in spreading the gospel, the local lan- guages ended up gaining in the process by having their orthographies devel- oped. Examples where missionary activities benefited local languages can be drawn from developments in Shona, Kalanga and Nambya. For Shona, for example, missionary activities based in different parts of Mashonaland led to 280 Emmanuel Chabata the creation of dialect clusters, identified as Zezuru, Karanga, Manyika, Ndau and Korekore. The missionaries working on these particular dialect clusters were then instrumental in developing orthographies for each of them. How- ever, after the establishment of a central colonial government and also follow- ing the general problems of writing differently in rather highly mutually intel- ligible dialects, a standard Shona orthography was created through the rec- ommendations of Doke (1931) in his Report on the Unification of the Shona Dia- lects. Since then, the Shona writing system is largely based on these recommen- dations. Doke's writing system was successful because all the background research and necessary documentation had been done by missionaries, who had championed the idea of promoting literary Shona. It was also the mission- aries who gave the necessary personal and financial assistance to Doke. Similar missionary efforts were witnessed at Inyati mission in Plumtree, which led to the development of a writing system for Kalanga. A writing system for Nam- bya again resulted from efforts by the Catholic missionaries based at St Mary's mission in Hwange. Following the establishment of writing systems in the different languages through missionary activities, researches on Zimbabwe's indigenous languages, by individuals and groups of linguists and non-linguists flourished. Basic grammar books were produced, especially for Shona and Ndebele which had been selected as the indigenous languages to be taught in schools in Mashona- land and Matebeleland respectively (see Doke 1931). Bilingual dictionaries were also published (see, for example, Hannan 1959, Dale 1981, and Moreno 1988, among others). Whilst all these efforts should be acknowledged for pio- neering the research on and documentation of the various indigenous lan- guages, they were either limited in scope or lacked the much needed focus towards the development and raising of the status of these languages. For example, most of the work on documenting the indigenous languages ensued from research by individuals towards the attainment of their academic qualifi- cations at Honours, Masters and Doctoral levels. Whilst these are valued works, they tended to be narrowly focused on specific linguistic aspects which lacked the necessary impact or influence needed in the formulation of national policies to be followed in the development and raising the status of the Zim- babwean languages. As has also been observed, the dictionaries published were bilingual. Generally speaking, bilingual dictionaries are mainly meant for second-language speakers. In the case of the Zimbabwean languages, the dic- tionaries were compiled for the use of the colonial authorities. Such dictionaries do not effect as direct an influence on language development as monolingual dictionaries, neither do they contribute to empower the concerned languages. Language researches carried out before the establishment of ALRI were not coordinated. The studies tended to narrowly focus on one language or dia- lect or another and also to be based on short-term research programmes. How- ever, most language researchers in Zimbabwe, just as in other countries of the world, have now realised that their efforts can bear more fruit if they are coor- The African Languages Research Institute 281 dinated at local, regional, national and even international levels. They have also realised that through such coordination larger and long-term research pro- grammes can be embarked on in a more sustainable manner.