The good news is that the computer problem in Burkina Faso has been resolved--I gave Damien, the computer person, instructions on how to contact ResourceMate for help, and all is well. He had feared the backup circulation data had been lost during the computer failure, was ready to install some previous back-up data that I had saved to a thumb drive a year ago, when he decided to look at the server one time where the library file had been originally saved. The file was basically empty, but there, hidden in a sub-folder were 52-weeks of regularly backed up circulation data from ResourceMate! The data hadn't been lost after all! The library's circulation data to the RM software has now been fully restored, so ALL IS WELL!! Ezéchiel was sooooo relieved that it was still there that he shot me an ecstatic message via Messenger... What a relief!
The bad news is that I have for some reason was locked out of my Hotmail account and was been unable to get in because I do not have a US long distance number to send a code to. [I use Skype and WhatsApp]. I have the same problem with two-step authentication so I can't check a number of my bank and other accounts while traveling. It is really annoying, and a step backward in my book. If you send me an email and don't receive a timely response, I may not have been able to get back to you readily for reasons beyond my control...
The other bad news is that I learned that Christina, one of the Swiss women accompanying Cordelia, had to visit the hospital yesterday, and the three of them will be flying back home today... I suspected it was just a touch of too much sun and not being hydrated enough as she was one of the ones who traveled to Sago this past weekend. My suspicions were later confirmed---too much activity, heat and subsequent dehydration... Glad to hear all is well...
Also, I understand linguistics consultant, Tim Gaved, will be flying in to Abidjan tomorrow. His wife, Maggie, will stay in the U.K. as she just recently returned from a trip to Sénégal herself, where the couple lived and worked for many years. There they worked assisting Mankanya language speakers develop an alphabet for their
language, then to translate the New
Testament and portions of the Old Testament
into it. They were also involved in the
continuing development of the Mankanya
language, including producing
materials to teach speakers of that language to read and write in their mother tongue. A plus for me is that Tim has some background in computer support, and archiving work for SIL Sénégal after returning to the U.K. while finishing his own linguistics consultant training, so I will be glad to see him.
Rooster and hens greet me as I start my afternoon walk
Sunday evening as I walked around my old haunts, past Notre-Dame de la Tendresse, the American Embassy, the Russian Embassy, the Saudi Embassy and other embassies and international organizations hidden behind walls, and noticed that those enclosures around the buildings seemed to be getting higher... The back entrance to the Ivoire Golf Club was closed off with a partially constructed cinder block barricade. Too bad, as the Sauers and I used to take our evening strolls around the golf course...
And Tuesday turns out to be a public holiday. Apparently, this year, Ramadan began on March 23, and runs for roughly a month. Among the highlights of this month of fasting is the Night of Destiny (or Laylat al-Qadr) which happens to be this Tuesday and a holiday. It is one of the most important nights of the Muslim religion since it commemorates the one during which the Koran was allegedly revealed to the Prophet Muhammad by the Archangel Gabriel. Here it means, among other things, that the Koran will be read in its entirety from the mosque just around the corner, the Grande Mosquée de Riviera Golf. I am now also worrying about when Ramadan ends [Friday, April 21] and the celebratory days of Eid al-Fitr [the holiday celebrating the breaking of the fast] starting on Saturday 22 April or Sunday 23 April, apparently depending on the siting of the new moon. Will there be a holiday Friday or Monday remains to be seen...
Grande Mosquée de Riviera Golf near me
As it turns out, the day was deadly quiet--like early Sunday mornings--and the streets were almost deserted. In the early morning took advantage of the good Internet connection and watched some YouTube videos with exercises for lumbar spinal stenosis, something I could never do in Ouagadougou. I recalled the many evenings when I would read because I couldn't connect, or the wifi was down. I have been slacking off on my exercises and am paying the consequences...
Since we all had the day off, the Campbells invited a number of us over for a brunch of waffles and quiche, and I brought bread, cheese and ham. They will be moving "off campus" soon to an enclosed house a few miles away, near the University [Université Félix Houphouët-Boigny], and the children are looking forward to having a yard again, and pets of their own.
Emily, Jack [Campbell] and assorted children. The wall decorations are leftover from a child's birthday party a couple of days ago
Speaking of food, because of the French influence you can get pretty good croissants, pain au chocolat and pain aux raisins here. The bread similar to the old French baguettes, but not quite as good, and they don't seem to have discovered the increasingly common French bread varieties like pain tradition, pain complet [whole wheat], pain multicéréales, etc. I've found that cakes in the bakeries here, although they look nice, tend to be a little heavy-handed, and not as skillfully made as their French counterparts.
I forgot to mention that I sometimes see the crossing guards eating in the SIL "restaurant". The crossing guards, wearing bright fluorescent greenish-yellow vests, are a recent feature during rush hour on the nearby highway, and a welcome sight as crossing it is taking your life into your hands. I love seeing them, and thank them every time they help me across the street.
Tchep aux poisson
Today in the library, I worked with a gentleman researching his own mother tongue [Cebaara] and a related language [Djimini], both of the Sénoufo [also spelled Senufo] language family. He was particularly interested in Bible translation, and the history of Bible translation in these languages, and how translators dealt with translating alien concepts [angels, snow, etc.] into those languages. I found a handful of titles basically treating linguistics in WorldCat, but nothing remotely close. There were also some portions of the Bible translated by Richard Mills associated with a Baptist mission organization in the early1960s. It appears that SIL has been working on these languages since the late 1980s. I found examples of what existed in print form that has been made available on the Ethnologue site--the alphabet, references to a linguistic study of two Sénoufo dialects in the journal Language from 1950, a study of the phonology done in 1984, examples of simple materials written in the Sénoufo language on local music, history, customs, and other related topics, as well as some folklore and oral literature, and a guide for teaching reading for the two languages in question. In addition the SIL Library in Abidjan has some archived SIL-published materials on similar subjects.
According to the Joshua Project, a Christian organization based in Colorado Springs, CO, which attempts to coordinate and track the efforts of Christian missionary organizations around the world, both language groups now have the entire Bible available in their respective languages [as of 2010 for the Cebaara, and 2014 for the Djimini Sénoufo speakers]. The Cebaara Bible was published by the Alliance Biblique de Côte d'Ivoire, and the Djimini one by Wycliffe Bible Translators. Copies of these were also available in the library.
Bible translators do occasionally publish articles on translation related subjects, but given the narrowness of the subject, it is likely that there is nothing specifically written out there. There is also the possibility that the subject might be touched on under the broader heading of Gur [also spelled Gour] languages, Niger-Congo languages, West-African languages or African languages in general and translation-related issues. There is certainly no shortage of handbooks and articles written on translating abstract concepts, or how to handle subjects that don't exist in a given language, as this is not Africa specific issue, but has existed as long as there have been different languages and translators. Since the completed Bible translations were so recent, I suggested that he might try and contact the local language translators themselves. The translators often work in teams and likely discuss their work as they go, particularly when there are specific translation hurdles. We did have a couple of older documents in our archives written in Cebarra Sénoufu, done in the 1960s by a Baptist Mission organization, which had also published a dictionary in 1967, according to WorldCat. The latter was not available nearby. I also found one article on a Sénoufo-related Malian language treating the translation of the Levitical sacrifices in the Pentateuch, which he found helpful.
Cebaara [Tyebala], one of a cluster of languages called Senari, is a major Sénoufo language, spoken by a million people in Côte d'Ivoire. Its language family is classified as : Niger-Congo/Atlantic-Congo/ Volta-Congo/ North/ Gur/ Senufo/ Senari; with Cebarra [or Tyebala] being the dialect spoken. Enough to give anyone a headache...
Another subject posed by two linguistics students from the nearby university was that of how linguists [and others] decide on an alphabet, a subject that goes way beyond phonemes and the phonetic symbols for a particular language... As you can see from the variant spellings of language names [depending on whether written in French or English or whatever] this can be a political hot potato, especially when consistency is sought by the powers that be in a particular county...
Just so you know, there are 78 languages [more if you include some dialects] spoken in the Côte d'Ivoire. The official language, French, introduced during the colonial period, is taught in schools and serves as the lingua franca, along with Dioula [also spelled Jula], a language of the Mandé language family which functions as a sort of trade language. The other indigenous languages fall into five main branches of the Niger–Congo language family, and tend to be localized in certain portions of the country, which may also be spoken in countries bordering those regions. The most spoken languages are Sénoufo [Gur language group], Baoulé [Akan language group], Bété [Kru language group], and, of course Diola [Mandé language group]. Also significant are the number of Dan [also called Yacouba, a Mandé language] and Agni [Kwa language group] speakers. There are six primary ethnic groups.
And speaking of free library databases [my previous post], now that I'm signed up at Academia.edu I'm receiving emails asking whether I'm the author of various papers and citations [as you can imagine "P. Roberts" comes up a lot], but I am also getting notified of articles of interest on Ivorian language studies, downloadable for free in .pdf which is nice...
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