African Linguistics

In both academic and non-academic circles, there is a growing awareness of our responsibility to document and describe languages as vehicles of intangible cultural heritage, especially endangered languages. It has become widely recognised that at least half of the world’s languages are threatened to disappear. This is also the case in Africa, which is by far the linguistically most diverse continent of the world.

As a world centre of research and knowledge dissemination on Africa, the Royal Museum for Central Africa wishes to play an important role in raising awareness about Africa’s linguistic diversity and the conservation of its intangible cultural heritage. In this regard, the “Tervuren Series for African Language Documentation and Description” is launched as an important vehicle for the diffusion of knowledge on African languages.

This new series intends to publish scientifically high quality books that contribute to both the description and documentation of hitherto poorly or non-described African languages. It will be complementary to Africana Linguistica, the RMCA’s journal of African linguistics, in that it aims at scientific contributions which do not fit the format of a research article. It welcomes not only lexical and grammatical descriptions of variable length (lexicons, dictionaries, full-fledged grammars, grammatical sketches), but also annotated text materials in African languages whose interest is larger than language description.

In harmony with the editorial policy of the RMCA, all contributions to the new series will be peer-reviewed. Contributions can be in English or French and should be submitted, both electronically to Isabelle Gérard and in hard copy to Publications Service, RMCA, Leuvensesteenweg 13, 3080 Tervuren, Belgium.

For more info regarding the contents of the new series send an e-mail to: lingui@museum.africamuseum.be