Bantu Microvariation Digital Archive

Africa is a continent embracing one third of world’s languages. Its linguistic diversity is not solely defined by the existence of various indigenous languages, a number of which have not been linguistically described, also characterized by people's daily practices of multilingual communication that bring ever changing dynamism to this linguistically and culturally diverse continent. Based on this understanding, the ReNeLDA project aims to explore the linguistic diversity and dynamism of Africa by establishing an inter-institutional research network involving leading institutions working for linguistic description and documentation of African indigenous languages based in Africa and in Japan. [Project Website] [Publication]

This Bantu Microvariation Digital Archive contains a collection of materials from the "Establishment of a Research Network for Exploring the Linguistic Diversity and Linguistic Dynamism in Africa (ReNeLDA)” grant. Various sentence structures and corresponding recordings are archived for further dissemination of the project. In 2020, the archive enlisted mateirals from six Southern Bantu languages: Northen Sotho, Sesotho, Siswati, Southern Ndebele, Tshivenda and Xitsonga.