First steps towards the detection of contact layers in Bangime: a multi-disciplinary, computer-assisted approach.

Bangime is a language isolate, which has not been proven to be genealogically related to any other language family, spoken in Central-Eastern Mali. Its speakers, the Bangande, claim affiliation with the Dogon languages and speakers that surround them throughout a cliff range known as the Bandiagara Escarpment.  However, recent genetic research has shown that the Bangande are genetically distant from the Dogon and other groups. Furthermore, the Bangande people represent a genetic isolate.  Despite the geographic isolation of the Bangande people, evidence of language contact is apparent in the Bangime language. We find a plethora of shared vocabulary with neighboring Atlantic, Dogon, Mande, and Songhai language groups. To address the problem of when and whence this vocabulary emerged in the language, we use a computer-assisted, multidisciplinary approach to investigate layers of contact and inheritance in Bangime. We start from an automated comparison of lexical data from languages belonging to different language families in order to obtain a first account on potential loanword candidates in our sample. In a second step, we use specific interfaces to refine and correct the computational findings. The revised sample is then investigated quantitatively and qualitatively by focusing on vocabularies shared exclusively between specific languages. We couch our results within archeological and historical research from Central-Eastern Mali more generally and propose a scenario in which the Bangande formed part of the expansive Mali Empire that encompassed most of West Africa from the 13th to the 16th centuries. We consider our methods to represent a novel approach to the investigation of a language and population isolate from multiple perspectives using innovative computer-assisted technologies.

African multilingualism viewed from another angle: Challenging the Casamance exception.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES/PURPOSE/RESEARCH QUESTIONS: The former region of southern Senegal, the Casamance, has been portrayed throughout the literature on African multilingualism in a singular light, for example, as an area where monolingualism does not exist. The purpose of this article is to stress the previously unacknowledged importance of monolingual settings and practices by discussing data that have yet to be presented in the literature. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: We investigate rural multilingualism and monolingualism across the Casamance by carrying out the following four studies: (a) we conduct a survey of 62 villages with a questionnaire and our newly created 'blindfold test', classifying them into two main types; (b) with 34 women we study the role of exogamy in multilingual language acquisition in one of the villages; (c) we analyse child language production data and child directed speech to examine the existence of monolingual language acquisition; (d) we examine the sociolinguistic profiles of 101 speakers of one language community to investigate intergenerational multilingualism. DATA AND ANALYSIS: Data were analysed using descriptive statistics in the form of frequency counts. Additionally, we couch our results on multilingualism in the theory of canonical typology. FINDINGS/CONCLUSIONS: We propose a distinction between multilingual settings, e.g. communities where speakers are most likely to accommodate, and who live among villages largely located on national roads and around cities, and monolingual settings, which constitute most of the villages of the Casamance and where language acquisition is monolingual and where migration, rather than exogamy, accounts for the development of individual multilingualism. ORIGINALITY: This article contributes unprecedented research methodology for the study of complex multilingual situations such as those found in African multilingual contexts. SIGNIFICANCE/IMPLICATIONS: Our study adds to the growing understanding of small-scale multilingualism and the emergence of multilingualism in monolingual contexts.

The Database of Cross-Linguistic Colexifications, reproducible analysis of cross-linguistic polysemies.

Advances in computer-assisted linguistic research have been greatly influential in reshaping linguistic research. With the increasing availability of interconnected datasets created and curated by researchers, more and more interwoven questions can now be investigated. Such advances, however, are bringing high requirements in terms of rigorousness for preparing and curating datasets. Here we present CLICS, a Database of Cross-Linguistic Colexifications (CLICS). CLICS tackles interconnected interdisciplinary research questions about the colexification of words across semantic categories in the world's languages, and show-cases best practices for preparing data for cross-linguistic research. This is done by addressing shortcomings of an earlier version of the database, CLICS2, and by supplying an updated version with CLICS3, which massively increases the size and scope of the project. We provide tools and guidelines for this purpose and discuss insights resulting from organizing student tasks for database updates.