Academic resources

Conference presentation (2022)

Jones, K. and Sands, B. (2022). Lexicography in the Northern Cape, a N|uu-Nama-Afrikaans-English dictionary.

Conference presentation (2022)

Jones, K. and van Zaanen, M. (2022). Development of a digital dictionary for N|uu. Afrilex, Stellenbosch, South Africa.

Conference presentation (2021)

Jones, K. and Slingsby, T. (2021). 100 Years of South African Kalahari Place Names: Featuring N|uu, Khoekhoe, Tswana, Afrikaans, English and Gaelic.

100 Years of South African Kalahari Place Names, featuring: Nǀuu, Khoekhoe, Tswana, Afrikaans, English and GaelicThis presentation recording was delivered to the 2021 International Symposium on Place Names and outlines the process of place name extraction and geocoding from transcripts and other items in the ǂKhomani San | Hugh Brody Collection, held by the Special Collections department of the University of Cape Town Libraries.The resulting geospatial data set is linked via DOI from the references below. The work was done as a collaboration between UCT Libraries and African Tongue, a professional linguistic consultancy that collaborates with contemporary speakers of Ju, Tu and Khoe languages in southern Africa to produce creative and educational resources.The ǂKhomani San are the first people of the southern Kalahari. They lived as hunters and gatherers in the immense desert in the northwest corner of South Africa. For them, it is a land rich in wildlife, plants, trees, great sand dunes and dry riverbeds. When the ǂKhomani San share their history, they tell a story of dispossession from their lands, erasure of their way of life, and disappearance of their language. To speak of their past is to search in memory for all that was taken from them in the colonial, apartheid and post-apartheid era. They also tell a story of reclamation and recovery of lands, language, and even of memory itself.

Conference presentation and Paper (2020)

Jones, K. and Muftic, S. (2020). Endangered African Languages featured in a Digital Collection: The Case of the ǂKhomani San, Hugh Brody collection. Proceedings of the first workshop on Resources for African Indigenous Languages.

Endangered African Languages Featured in a Digital Collection: The Case of the ǂKhomani San, Hugh Brody CollectionKerry Jones, Sanjin Muftic. Proceedings of the first workshop on Resources for African Indigenous Languages. 2020.

Poem publication (2020)

Jones, K. (2020). Shshsh...listen. In My Heart in Your Hands: Poems from Namibia. UNAM Press. Windhoek

Conference presentation (2020)

Jones, K., Laws, M. and Biesele, M. (2020). Coronavirus Health Care Communication in Endangered Languages of Southern Africa

Coronavirus Health Care Communication in Endangered Languages of Southern AfricaThe coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic of 2020 has caused social and economic distress worldwide (Sohrabi et al. 2020). In this wake of new government regulations, national lockdowns and isolation, speakers of minority languages are at risk of being excluded from important health care communication (Sood, 2020). In an attempt to solve this exclusion, the Kalahari Peoples Fund (KPF) initiated an international effort to provide health care information in endangered languages of southern Africa. This is a collaborative effort among community members as well as local and international researchers and volunteers. The languages provided for so far in Botswana, Namibia and South Africa are: Afrikaans, OtjiHerero, Himba, Ju|’hoansi, Naro, G|ui, G||ana, Omaheke Ju|’hoansi, Khwedam, Khoekhoegowab and !Xun. Throughout the process of language material development, it became evident that a one-size-fits-all approach for each language was not going to be feasible nor effective (Hays, 2002). Speaker communities were in different countries, with different living conditions from location to location with varying resources at their disposal (le Roux & White, 2004; Hays, 2009). Therefore, for each location, individual action plans needed to be established to suit the needs of each affected community. For example, some communities lead sedentary lives with access to running water, electricity, permanent housing and internet connection, even if only through a smartphone. Other communities lead more nomadic lives and do not necessarily have access to running water, electricity, network coverage or a permanent dwelling. Such differences are not language specific but rather location specific and therefore one can encounter both scenarios for one language (le Roux, 1999). Additionally, many contexts called for a bilingual or multilingual approach. For example, in the small town of Platfontein in South Africa there are approximately 8 000 speakers of !Xun. In this context there is also a local radio station and community members have access to running water, electricity and network coverage (Jones, 2019). Community members then elected for audio and video materials in !Xun to be shared via social media and the local radio station, XK-fm. However, laminated posters at selected locations, e.g. outside shops, and booklets for local distribution, were requested in Afrikaans due to low literacy rates in the mother tongue. In order to cater for these different contexts, a multimodal model was developed for each language and applied to each context to be both communicatively effective and prudent with a limited budget. The three media outputs created in each of the above languages are: 1) an 18 panel A2 booklet, 2) an 18 panel A2 laminated poster, and 3) an animated video including accompanying text in the mother tongue and audio. In-person outputs include local teams travelling to remote villages to deliver information in person as well as, where possible, to provide protective masks and soaps. This paper reports on the work, done together with local language experts and community members, and reflects upon the process of finding ‘correct’ (Silverstein 1976; Saville-Troike, 2008) ways to communicate the range of issues posed by the pandemic within different local contexts. References Hays, J. (2002). "We should learn as we go ahead" Finding the way forward for the Nyae Nyae Village Schools Project: Many languages in education: issues of implementation. Perspectives in Education, 20(1), 123-139. Hays, J (2009). Steps forward and new challenges: indigenous communities and mother- tongue education in southern Africa. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 12:4, 401-413, DOI: 10.1080/13670050902935771 Jones, K. (2019). Contemporary Khoesan Languages of South Africa. Critical Arts, 1-19. Le Roux, W. (1999). Torn apart: San children as change agents in a process of acculturation. A report on the educational situation of San children in Southern Africa. Shakawe: Kuru Development Trust. Le Roux, W., and White, A. (2004). Voices of the San: Living in southern Africa today. Kwela Books. Silverstein, M. (1976). Shifters, Linguistic Categories, and Cultural Description. In Meaning in Anthropology, ed. K. Basso and H. Selby, 11-55. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. Saville-Troike, M. (2008). The ethnography of communication: An introduction (Vol. 14). John Wiley & Sons. Sohrabi, C., Alsafi, Z., O'Neill, N., Khan, M., Kerwan, A., Al-Jabir, A., Iosifidis, C., & Agha, R. (2020). World Health Organization declares global emergency: A review of the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19). International journal of surgery (London, England), 76, 71–76. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijsu.2020.02.034 Sood, S. (2020). Psychological effects of the Coronavirus disease-2019 pandemic. Research & Humanities in Medical Education, 7, 23-26.

Conference presentation (2020)

Jones, K. and Muftic, S. (2020). Curating South African Languages Online: A Linked Data Site Showcasing N|uu and Khoekhoegowab.

Endangered African Languages Featured in a Digital Collection: The Case of the ǂKhomani San | Hugh Brody CollectionPresentation supporting a paper published as part of the Proceedings of the Language Resources and Evaluation Conference (LREC - organised virtually) 2020 first workshop on Resources for African Indigenous Languages (RAIL) on May 16, 2020. The presentation was also updated for the 50th Colloquium of African Languages and Linguistics on Wednesday September 2, 2020 (updated with more discussion curating place names).The ǂKhomani San | Hugh Brody Collection features the voices and history of indigenous hunter gatherer descendants in three endangered languages namely, Nǀuu, Kora and Khoekhoe as well as a regional dialect of Afrikaans. A large component of this collection is audio-visual (legacy media) recordings of interviews conducted with members of the community by Hugh Brody and his colleagues between 1997 and 2012, referring as far back as the 1800s. The Digital Library Services team at the University of Cape Town aim to showcase the collection digitally on the UCT-wide Digital Collections platform, Ibali which runs on Omeka S. In this presentation we highlight the importance of such a collection in the context of South Africa, and the steps that were taken to prepare the transcripts which were generated from the audiovisual material for publication. We outline our development process in preparing the collection for a linked data online showcase website, from digitisation to repository publishing as well as present some of the challenges in data clean-up, the curation of legacy media, multi-lingual support, and site organisation.TOC:00:00 | Welcome and Intro05:30 | Overview of Collection and Transcription Process09:38 | Digital Curation18:13 | Conclusion19:12 | ReferencesAs both conferences were held online the presentation was pre-recorded in each case.

Poster (2019)

Jones, K. (2019). Missing link: A centralised digital archive for endangered languages of Southern Africa. UNESCO. Language Technologies for All.

Missing link: A centralised digital archive for endangered languages of Southern AfricaLanguage endangerment and language loss is a worldwide phenomenon. As a result, the scramble to identify, document and preserve indigenous languages using digital technology has gained traction. The challenge we face in southern Africa, is the lack of a centralised digital archive for endangered languages. Currently, efforts are dispersed on various platforms, hosted by universities, non-government organisations or private collections, if digitised at all. In order to provide a holistic description of endangered and extinct languages in southern Africa, an online digital archive could centralise existing efforts, while creating opportunities for the digitisation of historical records and new digitised entries. Gowaga ǁōǂoas ǃaorosasib tsî gowaga ǀaris tsîra ge ǃhūbaib ǂhabase, harase a ǂansa ǃnaeǃkhaira. ǁNā-amaga di ge ǀoro ǁanǂgāsaben gowaga nēsi hâ texnoloxib ǀkha ôaǂui, xoamâi tsi ǁkhaubas di ǁgūbade nēsi ǀgaisase ra ǂoaxa. Afrikab ǃkhawagas ǃnâ da ra hōǃâ nausa ǁgoaǂuis ge ǀguiǃnâxa digitelǂkhanisâuǁgâugu ǃnuwusiba, ǁōǂoas ǃaorosasib ǃnâ mâ gowagu ǃaroma. Nē ǁaeb ai di ge ǀguiǀguibe dītsârode ǃkharagaǃnâgu ǃharodi ai ra hōhe, universiteitdi tawa i ka hâ tama kara io, o ǂhanub ǃauga hâ ǂnûiǂgādi tawa, tamas ka io, ǀguiǀguibe khoen tawa - ǁnās ge hâna i ka digitelǀgaub ǃnâ a hōhe ǁkhā osa. Hoa ǃhariga ǃkhōǂgā hâ ǀgaub ǃnâ da ka ǁōǂoas ǃaorosasib ǃnâ mâ gowagu tsî ǀnai ge ǁōǂoa gowagu Afrikab ǃkhawagas digu tsîna a xoamâi ǂgao, o i ge kaise nî ǃgâi online digitelǂkhanisâuǁgâuba kurusa. Nēti ī digitelǂkhanisâuǁgâub ge ǀnai hâ sîsengu hoaga ǀhaoǀhao tsî ǀgui ǃkhais tawa ǀgui nî ǃkhōǀgara, tsî nēs ǃnâ-u ǀgūǀgarus ǃnaeǃkhaidi xoaǁguigu tsî ka hâ ǀasa xoadi tsîna digitalǀgaub ǃnâ sâus di sîsen-i di daode nî ǁkhowa-am. (Khoekhoegowab translation written by Sylvanus Job)

Journal article (2019)

Jones, K. (2019). Contemporary Khoesan languages of South Africa. In Critical Arts, 33:4-5, 55-73, DOI: 10.1080/02560046.2019.1688849

www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02560046.2019.1688849

Book chapter (2018)

Jones, K. & Biesele, M. (2018). Will there be written literature in Ju|'hoansi, a Khoesan language of Namibia? In Writing Namibia: Literature in Transition, 291. UNAM Press: Windhoek.

muse.jhu.edu/book/59124

Ph.D thesis (2017)

Jones, K. (2017). Language attitudes as a change agent for language vitality: The case study of two Khoesan languages in Platfontein (RSA). University of KwaZulu-Natal.
Available for free download below:

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse