Celebrating African languages in digital spaces w/rotating acct where a different language activist shares their story. This week:
Aug 24, 2022 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
The Nubian Language: How do we write it? [Thread] 💈
We have two types for the Nubian Language, and arguably many ways to write it, because of the different rules of the Nubian region across history
Old Nubian is the oldest written Nubian language, and then we had Nobiin and other modern Nubian languages. Some of the texts we have for the Nubian language are stemmed from the Old Nubian alphabet and also from the Coptic alphabet
May 27, 2022 • 30 tweets • 13 min read
Hausa language has over 100m speakers in over 20 countries
1 Benin
2 Burkina Faso
3 Cameroon
4 CAR
5 Chad
6 Congo
7 Egypt
8 Guinea
9 Eritrea
10 Gabon
11 Gambia
12 Ghana
13 Ivory Coast
14 Liberia
15 Mali
16 Moroc
17 Niger
18 Nigeria
19 Saudi Arabia
20 Sierra Leone
21 Sudan
22 Togo 1) Hausa in Nigeria
There're close to 100m Hausa speakers across Nigeria, with the native speakers numbering about 70 million. Hausa is the lingua franca of the north, with a growing number of non-native speakers due to global interest in the language. vanguardngr.com/2016/12/hausa-…
Mar 25, 2019 • 33 tweets • 7 min read
A short case for changing the current Nigerian English syllabus for high school children.
I’ve made a different case for mother tongue use as mediums of instruction in Nigerian schools, so this is not that. You can read that here if you missed it:
A thread about teachers who taught me, mentored me, or gave me lasting appreciation for linguistics and languages over the years.
1. Francis Egbokhare (b. 1962) was the youngest professor of linguistics at the University of Ìbàdàn in 2002. He taught me phonology and fieldwork. He also supervised my final year long essay/project. He’s also been a mentor and friend. More about him: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_E…
Mar 23, 2019 • 15 tweets • 4 min read
Okay, here’s another thread of things I think should exist in as many Nigerian languages as possible (many of them online, but some not). Please add yours.
Multimedia online dictionaries. Something like YorubaName.com but for words. Full lexical dictionaries. That have sound, are exhaustive, and can be added to. We’re working on one at YorubaWord.com. Imagine ALL Nigerian languages visible online in this way.
Mar 23, 2019 • 12 tweets • 3 min read
I often speak about my grandfather (now about 92) who can read and write in Yorùbá but not in English. He lived a successful life as a goldsmith, and lived in many parts of Nigeria.
[a thread]
I think of him often when I think of the issues of inclusion in today’s language technology. There are many times I go to his house and I have to help him operate his mobile phone, retrieve old messages, or respond to some phone commands.
Mar 22, 2019 • 19 tweets • 3 min read
So, here’s a question I’ve asked in Nigeria for a while without a good response: why do our Heads of State speak English when they’re abroad?
I ask, of course, because 1. When they’re shown on foreign TV, their speeches/interviews, are usually close-captioned for the local (English-speaking audience).
Mar 21, 2019 • 25 tweets • 5 min read
Today I want to talk about education. Specifically the role of education in this conversation about the use of indigenous languages in Nigeria and other African countries.
When we talk about “education” in Nigeria, the unstated implication is always that we are talking about English language education. When people are called “illiterates” (usually as an insult), it is referring to their inability to speak/write/read English.
Mar 20, 2019 • 16 tweets • 4 min read
Writing in Yorùbá on the internet has come a long way. I remember my undergraduate days, and my first computer, and my inability to combine both subdots like ọ and ẹ with tone marks like ọ́ and ẹ̀. Microsoft (or is it unicode) didn’t seem to care enough about the language.
That’s what I thought, in any case. I was just upset that I couldn’t write some things properly. We had to make do with the possibility of ambiguity. But over time, I realized that the problem wasn’t limited to Yorùbá. African languages in general seemed to get a raw deal.
