Sara Language Database Project, Phase 2

FAIN: FN-50104-12

John M. Keegan
Unaffiliated Independent Scholar (Sunnyvale, CA 94086-4915)

The Sara Languages form a group of approximately 17 languages of the Sara-Bagirmi branch of the Nilo-Saharan family, and are spoken primarily in southern Chad. Most of these languages are at risk of disappearing over the course of the 21st century. This project has three principle goals: first, to augment the language data contained in the database created during phase 1 of the project; second, to improve accessibility to the data; and finally, to ensure that the data is stored at a permanent and secure site. During phase 2 of the project, the control list will be expanded, new meanings and expressions sought, and recordings made of new words and sentences as they are added. Special attention will be paid to languages where language associations in Chad have expressed interest in creating a fuller dictionary. I will also add a brief introduction for each language, which will include a description of distinctive aspects of the phonology and morphology. All of the data will be moved to a permanent server at the department of Anthropology at La Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia (UNED) in Madrid, and a web application will be written which will allow access to both the written data and the sound files. (Edited by staff)