Thanks Anja for these references. I think we'll see a lot more in the next few years. Some of us have discussed how ICT can facilitate not only greater literacy but also a "neo-oral" uses. The question is whether expanding the literate uses of languages must come at the expense of oral skills (which are sometimes considerable and underappreciated by literate cultures).
Regarding transcriptions, one advantage of most African languages is that they are much closer - much more phonetic - to what is pronounced in the language than English or French writing is. Kind of "WYSIWYG" (what you see is what you get) orthographies. The only disadvantage is it is hard to find a standard spelling ambiguous enough to be read/pronounced differently in different dialects. Don --- In AfricanLanguages@yahoogroups.com, "Anja Choon" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Hi Don, > > I too think that recordings are very helpful. Just text will not tell you > how to pronounce phrases. > > That's why we are trying to include recordings in our lessons at > uwandiigbo.com. We have also one page where you can directly click at the > orthographic transcriptions to listen to a native speaker ( > http://www.uwandiigbo.com/recordings/SurvivalIgbo). > > A friend of mine has also worked on something similar for Ega ( > http://www.spectrum.uni-bielefeld.de/phonlab/survega.htm). They've used > phonetic transcriptions I think. > > I hope there will be more recordings and on more languages soon. Greetings, > Anja > Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AfricanLanguages/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
