EL Publishing aims to produce quality peer-reviewed open access electronic and print journals, multimedia, and monographs on documentation and support of endangered languages. We publish on the theory and practice of language documentation, language description, sociolinguistics, language policy, and language revitalisation, in relation to spoken, signed and written languages anywhere in the world. Since its founding in 2003, EL Publishing has distributed a number of research publications dealing with the documentation and description of languages spoken in Africa. The following is a list of 15 papers we have published so far, with links to freely download them. Later in 2020 we will be publishing a major new 300 page work on the so-called “click” languages of Southern Africa.
In addition to these academic papers, EL Publishing has produced an interactive multimedia app called Hearing Voices that features recordings by sound artist John Wynne in collaboration with visual artist Denise Hawrysio and linguist Andy Chebanne, conducted with speakers of highly endangered Khoi and San languages in the Kalahari Desert in 2003. The audio includes 10 original song recordings and interviews with 8 speakers of 5 different Khoi/San languages. These are all high quality professional recordings which highlight the extraordinary audio features of the languages and the polyphonic choir singing traditions. All are accompanied by English translations. The app is available for free download for Macintosh and Windows computers.
Publications on African Languages at EL Publishing
Barzilai, Maya L. & Nubantood Khalil. 2020. Nobiin (Egypt, Sudan) – Language Snapshot. In Peter K. Austin (ed.) Language Documentation and Description 17, 118-125. London: EL Publishing. link
Biesele, Megan, Lee Pratchett & Taesun Moon. 2012. Ju|’hoan and X’ao- ’aen documentation in Namibia: overcoming obstacles to community-based language documentation. In Stuart McGill & Peter K. Austin (eds.) Language Documentation and Description 11, 72-89. London: SOAS. link
Dimmendaal, Gerrit. 2004. Capacity building in an African context. In Peter K. Austin (ed.) Language Documentation and Description 2, 71-89. London: SOAS. link
Fast, Anicka. 2009. Managing linguistic diversity in the church. In Peter K. Austin (ed.) Language Documentation and Description 6, 161-212. London: SOAS. link
Good, Jeff. 2012. ‘Community’ collaboration in Africa: Experiences from Northwest Cameroon. In Stuart McGill & Peter K. Austin (eds.) Language Documentation and Description 11, 28-58. London: SOAS. link
Harvey, Andrew. 2019. Gorwaa (Tanzania) — Language Contexts. In Peter K. Austin (ed.) Language Documentation and Description 16, 127-168. London: EL Publishing. link
Hornberger, Nancy H. 2017. Portraits of three language activists in Indigenous language reclamation. In Wesley Y. Leonard & Haley De Korne (eds.) Language Documentation and Description 14, 160-175. London: EL Publishing. link
Lionnet, Florian. 2020. Kulaale (Chad) – Language Snapshot. In Peter K. Austin (ed.) Language Documentation and Description 17, 126-133. London: EL Publishing. link
Lüpke, Frederike. 2004. Language planning in West Africa – who writes the script? In Peter K. Austin (ed.) Language Documentation and Description 2, 90-107. London: SOAS. link
McGill, Stuart. 2009. Documenting grammatical tone using Toolbox: an evaluation of Buseman’s interlinearisation technique. In Peter K. Austin (ed.) Language Documentation and Description 6, 236-250. London: SOAS. link
McGill, Stuart. 2011. Aspects of deixis in Cicipu: evidence from real-time video commentary. In Julia Sallabank (ed.) Language Documentation and Description 9, 121-168. London: SOAS. link
McGill, Stuart & Roger Blench. 2012. Documentation, development, and ideology in the northwestern Kainji languages. In Stuart McGill & Peter K. Austin (eds.) Language Documentation and Description 11, 90-135. London: SOAS. link
Nurse, Derek. 2018. Documenting language shift and loss: Bajuni in Somalia. In Peter K. Austin & Lauren Gawne (eds.) Language Documentation and Description 15, 123-150. London: EL Publishing. link
Thanassoula, Marilena. 2012. The perception verbs in Lussese (Bantu J10): a matter of experience. In Niclas Burenhult, Arthur Holmer, Anastasia Karlsson, Håkan Lundström & Jan-Olof Svantesson (eds.) Language Documentation and Description 10, 307-328. Special Issue on Humanities of the lesser-known: New directions in the description, documentation and typology of endangered languages and musics. London: SOAS. link
Wynne, John. 2014. Hearing Voices: Research and creative practice across cultures and disciplines. In David Nathan & Peter K. Austin (eds.) Language Documentation and Description 12, 120-150. Special Issue on Language Documentation and Archiving. London: SOAS. pp. link