Bozo languages of Mali (spreadsheets, media)

This collection will archive lexical spreadsheets, audio files, geographic information, images, and videos that complement the reference grammars in pdf and docx form in the collection “Bozo languages of Mali (documents)” that are archived in Deep Blue Documents (https://dx.doi.org/10.7302/6632). See the “readme” for that collection and the introductory material in the reference grammars for general information about the languages and the fieldwork.

The initial material archived in the present collection consists of audio files. They are recordings of narratives, interviews, and conversations. Some of them have been transcribed and are presented as appendices in the reference grammars. Others have not been transcribed; they are presented here in the hope that they can eventually be transcribed or at least listened to by native speakers. If the author is able to transcribe some of them in the future, the transcriptions will be added here (and to the Deep Blue Documents collection).

Many of the recordings, as well as most of the images and videos to be added to this collection, have been made by project assistant Minkailou Djiguiba. He has courageously traveled into Bozo-speaking zones, some of which are highly insecure, to do this work. In addition, he has been instrumental in recruiting and transporting Bozo speakers to the author’s base in Bobo Dioulasso where much of the grammatical and lexical work has been done.

The author’s fieldwork is supported by grant PD-1941828 (2020-2024) from the National Science Foundation, Documenting Endangered Languages program, which is also supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities.