Documentation of the Bantu language Mpiemo of the Central African Republic (A86c)

Creator/Principal investigator(s):

Christina Thornell - University of Gothenburg, Department of Languages and Literatures

Description:

The overall aim of the study has been to document and preserve the minority language Mpiemo as well as to analyse it from a linguistic perspective. The language is spoken in some regions of the Central African Republic and Cameroon. The language is classified as A86c according to the Guthrie system and has approximately 29,000 speakers. When the project started there was a translation of the four gospels with a French-based orthography, but no other texts. The documentation has spanned several projects from 1998 onwards and has resulted in, amongst other things, a number of articles on Mpiemo phonetics, phonology, morphology as well as the publication of recorded speech together with transcripts and annotations and texts about the local wild plant life.

Subject area:

language and linguistics (CESSDA Topic Classification)
Specific Languages, General Language Studies and Linguistics (The Swedish standard of fields of research 2011)

Keywords:

minority languages, folklore, translation, linguistics, linguistic analysis, speech, literature, Bantu languages

Principal organisation:

University of Gothenburg

Accessibility status:

Access to data through SND
Data are accessible by order

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Responsible department/unit:

Creator/Principal investigator(s):

Christina Thornell - University of Gothenburg, Department of Languages and Literatures

Identifiers:

SND-ID: SND 0940

Purpose:

The purpose of the project has been to document and linguistically analyse the Central African language Mpiemo by means of varying subprojects.

Description:

The overall aim of the study has been to document and preserve the minority language Mpiemo as well as to analyse it from a linguistic perspective. The language is spoken in some regions of the Central African Republic and Cameroon. The language is classified as A86c according to the Guthrie system and has approximately 29,000 speakers. When the project started there was a translation of the four gospels with a French-based orthography, but no other texts. The documentation has spanned several projects from 1998 onwards and has resulted in, amongst other things, a number of articles on Mpiemo phonetics, phonology, morphology as well as the publication of recorded speech together with transcripts and annotations and texts about the local wild plant life.

Language:

English

French

Swedish

Mpiemo

Time period(s) investigated:

1998 — 2008

Geographic spread:

Geographic location: Central African Republic

Geographic description: Nola, southwestern Central African Republic.

Population:

Mpiemo

Funding:

Swedish Research Council

Subject area:

language and linguistics (CESSDA Topic Classification)
Specific Languages, General Language Studies and Linguistics (The Swedish standard of fields of research 2011)

Keywords:

minority languages, folklore, translation, linguistics, linguistic analysis, speech, literature, Bantu languages

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Publications

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Thornell, C. ; Ankouma, O. ; Mabessimo, A. et al. (2007). Boulettes de graines de courge, pêche, hospitalité... Enregistrements transcrits et annotés pour une documentation du mpiemo (langue bantoue de la République Centrafricaine et du Cameroun). Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.
Libris Swepub Institutional Repository

Thornell, C. ; Bessamia, R. ; Metekouli, Z. (2005). Des plantes à l’état sauvage chez le people mpiemo: leurs noms et leurs usages. Göteborg: Göteborg University.
Libris

Tronnier, M. ; Thornell, C. (2000). On the initial aggregation of nasality and stops in the Bantu language Mpiemo, Proceedings. Fonetik 2000. The Swedish Phonetics Conference. May 24-26 2000-05-21. 2000 pp. 137-140.
Libris Swepub Institutional Repository

Thornell, C. ; Tronnier, M. (1999). Morphological function, syllabic and phonetic form of nasal+plosive combinations in the Bantu language Mpiemo, Proceedings. Fonetik 99. The Swedish Phonetics Conference. June 2-4 1999. (1999) pp. 137-140.
Libris Swepub Institutional Repository

Thornell Christina & Yasuko Nagano-Madsén. 2004. Preliminaries to the phonetic structure of the Bantu language Mpiemo. In Africa & Asia, nr 4, pp 163-180. (Coauthor:). 17p.
Swepub Institutional Repository

If you have published anything based on these data, please notify us with a reference to your publication(s).

Version 1.0:

2014-03-25 doi:10.5878/001678

Dataset SND 0940-001

Word list

Citation:

Christina Thornell. University of Gothenburg, Department of Languages and Literatures (2014). Word list. Swedish National Data Service. Version 1.0. https://doi.org/10.5878/001678

Description:

Trilingual word list Mpiemo-French-English containing roughly 1,900 words and grammatical information like word class and noun class. The word list is an updated and extended version of the unpublished lists put together by Laurent Wanabetsina, Keith Beavon and Nkali Lazaro Mbaro (1986) and Lydia Lundström (197?). For the updates a number of native Mpiemo speakers, among others Abel Mabessimo and Zacharie Metekouli, have been consulted. They spoke the Mpiakoumbo and Kwabili dialects. The words i

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Keywords:

minority languages, folklore, translation, linguistics, linguistic analysis, Mpiemo, Bantu languages, A86c, endangered languages, word list

Data format / data structure:

Text

Audio

Data collection:

Time period(s) for data collection: 1998 — 2008

Source of the data: Population group

Time period(s) investigated:

1999 — 2008

Version 1.0:

2014-03-25 doi:10.5878/001679

Dataset SND 0940-002

Nasals and nasal+stop

Citation:

Christina Thornell. University of Gothenburg, Department of Languages and Literatures (2014). Nasals and nasal+stop. Swedish National Data Service. Version 1.0. https://doi.org/10.5878/001679

Description:

The phonological system of the Bantu language Mpiemo (A86c) features a combination of nasals and stops both word-initially and medially. These nasals are phonetically more or less opaque. The question is whether these nasals should be interpreted as phonemes of their own or as a prenasalisation of the following stop. The recordings in this dataset form the basis of (acoustic) phonetic studies of this question. The study also takes into account the morphological function of the nasal and the syll

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Keywords:

minority languages, folklore, linguistics, linguistic analysis, Mpiemo, Bantu languages, A86c, fonemic system, minimal pairs, sound system, nasals, prenasals

Data format / data structure:

Text

Audio

Data collection:

Time period(s) for data collection: 1998 — 2008

Source of the data: Population group

Time period(s) investigated:

1998 — 2000

Version 1.0:

2014-03-25 doi:10.5878/001680

Dataset SND 0940-003

Texts

Citation:

Christina Thornell. University of Gothenburg, Department of Languages and Literatures (2014). Texts. Swedish National Data Service. Version 1.0. https://doi.org/10.5878/001680

Description:

The dataset contains soud recordings of several texts. Matthew chapter 8 is read by a Mpiemo speaker (Mathurin Mpatoumbo). There are also PDF files of the text which follow the translation made by Gilbert Ankouma, Joseph Apang and Lydia Lundström (1978).
The fable Mpi na kubɔ (The dog and the hen) was written down by a native speaker of Mpiemo (Jean-Charles Ankouma) and was then edited together with him and another person (Mathurin Mpatoumbo). The fable was then recorded. Both a sound recording

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Keywords:

Mpiemo, Bantu languages, A86c, Bibel text, fable, proverb

Data format / data structure:

Text

Audio

Data collection:

Time period(s) for data collection: 1998 — 2008

Source of the data: Population group

Time period(s) investigated:

1998 — 1999

Version 1.0:

2014-03-25 doi:10.5878/001681

Dataset SND 0940-004

Vowels and tones

Citation:

Christina Thornell. University of Gothenburg, Department of Languages and Literatures (2014). Vowels and tones. Swedish National Data Service. Version 1.0. https://doi.org/10.5878/001681

Description:

The dataset contains recordings of elicitation sessions that deal with vowel quality, vowel quantity and tones.

Keywords:

Mpiemo, Bantu languages, A86c, fonemic system, minimal pairs, sound system

Data format / data structure:

Text

Audio

Data collection:

Time period(s) for data collection: 1998 — 2008

Source of the data: Population group

Time period(s) investigated:

1999 — 1999

Version 1.0:

2014-03-25 doi:10.5878/001682

Dataset SND 0940-005

Stops and implosives

Citation:

Christina Thornell. University of Gothenburg, Department of Languages and Literatures (2014). Stops and implosives. Swedish National Data Service. Version 1.0. https://doi.org/10.5878/001682

Description:

The dataset contains recordings of elicitation sessions that deal with stops and implosives.

Keywords:

Mpiemo, Bantu languages, A86c, fonemic system, minimal pairs, sound system

Data format / data structure:

Text

Audio

Data collection:

Time period(s) for data collection: 1998 — 2008

Source of the data: Population group

Time period(s) investigated:

1999 — 1999