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Language presentation
Sorosoro film crews operate on-site with linguists working on the documentation of endangered languages and culture, in order to enhance their academic studies with sound and visual material. In 2009, Sorosoro went filming within several linguistic communities of Guatemala and Gabon.
We asked our linguists to present these languages and the documentation conducted at this point.
Languages of Gabon
Linguists believe there are around 50 languages and dialects spoken in Gabon, which has a population of approximately 1,5 million. Most of these languages are understudied and threatened with extinction.
In 2009, Sorosoro filmed in 4 Bantu language communities: the Benga, the Mpongwe, the Akele (Lake variant), and the Punu (or Bapunu).
Presentation on the Akele language by the linguist Jean-Marie Hombert
Akele is the language of the Akele people from Gabon. It’s a Bantu language, whose speakers are scattered around various parts the country. The Akele are fishermen and farmers living along the Ogooué and Ngounie rivers, and in the lake region around Lambaréné.
Read more on the Akele language
In May and June 2009, Sorosoro was in the area of Lambaréné with linguist Jean-Marie Hombert (Lyon 2 University) to shoot a film on Mutumbudie, the language of the Lake Akele people. Nowadays there could be less than fifty speakers of Mutumbudie left. The sound and visual material collected through our filming sessions are probably the first documents ever in this variant of Akele, also seriously endangered.
Linguist: Jean-Marie Hombert
Camera and sound: Luc-Henri Fage
Editing : Caroline Laurent
Presentation on the Punu language by the linguist Jean-Marie Hombert
Punu is the language of the Bapunu, second largest ethnic group in Gabon in terms of population. It’s a Bantu language, spoken in the Tchibanga area. The increasingly important movement of Bapunu people towards larger urban areas is causing a gradual loss of their language and cultural knowledge.
Read more on the Punu language
In June 2009, Sorosoro shot a film on the Punu language in the area of Tchibanga, southern Gabon. Our team was there with linguists Jean-Marie Hombert (Lyon 2 Louis Lumière University) and Patrick Mouguiama-Daouda (University of Libreville) to collect sound and visual material.
Linguist: Jean-Marie Hombert
Camera and sound: Luc-Henri Fage
Editing : Caroline Laurent
Presentation of the Benga language by the linguist Patrcik Mouguiama-Daouda
Benga is spoken on the Gabonese coastal zone (Cap Esterias and Cap Santa Clara), north of Libreville. Nowadays less that 1000 people are able to use this language, and the number of Benga speakers is constantly dropping partly because they are progressively blending into the neighbouring Myene community.
Linguist : Patrick Mouguiama-Daouda
Image and sound : Muriel Lutz
Editing : Caroline Laurent
Languages of Guatemala
Guatemala is one of the Latin American countries counting the highest proportion of Indian population (60% are Maya) and the highest density of Amerindian language speakers (over 6 million on a 110000km² territory).
We were there in February 2009 filming with the Tektiteko and Kaqchikel communities, both speakers of endangered Mayan languages.
Presentation on the Kaqchikel language by linguist Nikte Sis Iboy, in Achi
Kaqchikel counts around half a million speakers, it one of the most widely spoken Mayan languages along with K’ichee’, Yukateko, Wasteko, Mam, and Q’eqchi. Despite accounts of a promising demography, Kaqchikel lacks diffusion among the young generations and faces serious decline.
Watch all the videos in Kaqchikel
We’d like you to hear linguist Nikte Sis Iboy who was there with us. As you’ll see in this video, Nikte’s moving intervention in a call for the preservation of Kaqchikel and all Mayan languages for that matter, as the loss of a language ultimately implies the loss of knowledge, culture and identity.
You’ll also notice that Nikte address us not in Kaqchikel, but in her own mother tongue, Achi, another Mayan language, dialectal variation of K’ichee’.
Linguist : Juliana Sis Iboy
Camera and sound : José Reynès
Editing : Caroline Laurent
Presentation on Tektiteko by linguist Juventino de Jesus Pérez Alonzo – in Spanish
In 2009, we had filming sessions in the Tektiteko community, in Tectitan, region of Huehuetenango, a mountainous area near the Mexican boarder.
Watch all the videos en Tektiteko
The linguist Juventino de Jesus Pérez Alonzo, who was with out chief operator José Reynès. Juventino here presents Tektiteko: one of the Mayan languages among the most threatened in Guatemala. With around 2000 speakers, this language of the Mam’ branch is greatly influenced by Spanish, and transmission of the language as well as the culture of the Tektiteko aren’t really ensured anymore.
Linguist : Juventino de Jesus Pérez Alonzo
Image and sound : José Reynès
Editing : Caroline Laurent
Languages of Senegal
Presentation on the Baynunk language by linguist Sokhna Bao-Diop
Baynunk is spoken in Senegal, Gambia, and Guinea-Bissau. It belongs to the Niger-Congo language family (North Atlantic branch). The language counts around 6 000 speakers and is considered endangered by the UNESCO.
Read more on the Baynunk language
Watch all the videos in Baynunk
Sorosoro sent a filming crew to Senegal in April and March 2010, as part of our collaboration with the Sénélangues project launched by the CNRS based LLACAN lab dedicated to « Speech, languages and cultures of Sub-Saharan Africa ». Sokhna Bao-Diop, Ph.D student in linguistics and member of the Sénélangues project, was on the spot with out filming crew. She gives us here a full presentation of the Baynunk language.
Linguist: Sokhna Bao-Diop
Image & sound: Muriel Lutz, assisted by Cheikh Tidiane Sall
Editing: Caroline Laurent
Video created within the ANR Sénélangues project
The Menik language by linguist Adjaratou O. Sall
Linguist Adjaratou Oumar Sall, from the University of Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar, gives us here a concise presentation of the Menik language, illustrated by some of the material shot by Sorosoro.
Read more about the Menik language
Linguist: Adjaratou Oumar Sall
Bedik area, image & sound: Muriel Lutz
Adjaratou’s interview, image & sound: Mathias de Vulpian
Editing: Caroline Laurent
Video created within the ANR Sénélangues project
Aramaic languages
Aramaic languages by Father Yakup Aydin
Image & sound France: Baptiste Etchegaray
Image & sound Turkey: Jean-Claude Luyat
Editing: Caroline Laurent
Berber languages
Tamasheq
Tamasheq (or Tamajeq, or Tamaheq, stemming from the word Tamazight) is the language of the Tuareg, a nomadic people that has been settled in the desert areas of North Africa for millennia, over a vast territory reaching from Mali to Libya, from Burkina Faso to Algeria, and including Niger. There are around one million speakers of Tamasheq. As are Kabyle, Shawia, or Rifian, Tamasheq is actually a variant of Berber (or Tamazight), a group of languages found in the entire part of North Africa (Marocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Niger, Mauritania, Mali, and Burkina Faso), not to mention a large diaspora in Europe and America. In total, estimations account for over 45 million speakers of Berber languages.
Image & sound: Arnaud Contreras
Language advice: Salem Mezhoud
Editing: Caroline Laurent
Greenlandic languages
Kalaallisut
Sorosoro has filmed in many sun-kissed countries – Africa (Gabon, Senegal), Latin America (Guatemala, French Guiana), Oceania (New Caledonia) – but has yet to reach the lands of ice and extreme cold.
We’re getting there one step at the time, at this point from our very office, thanks to a captivating lecture on Greenland and the Kalaallisut language delivered by University of Chicago linguist and Arctic languages specialist Lenore Grenoble.
Outlining the history of the country and its population of 57,000, Lenore Grenoble describes the situation of the country’s native language, Kalaallisut, of the Eskimo-Aleut or Inuit-Aleut language family.
Colonized by Denmark in the 18th century, Greenland today has increased autonomy: following the self-government referendum in 2008, the Danish parliament granted the country further autonomy on May 19 2009. 32 areas of responsibility were then returned to Greenland, including justice and the police force.
Kalaallisut nowadays is an official language and a significant part of the everyday life of Greenlanders, especially in education. What’s more, Kalaallisut appears to be the only non-endangered Arctic language.
Hear Lenore Grenoble on the subject with her brilliant enthusiasm and limpidity, in the illustrated conference below:
Linguist: Lenore Grenoble
Image & sound: Christian Dury and Didier Leblanc, Institut des Sciences de l’Homme (Lyon, France)
Editing: Caroline Laurent
Photos credits: Lenore Grenoble, Carl Christian Olsen (Puju), Alexander Reich, Judith Maréchal, UPI – Uummannaq Polar Institute.
This video is based on a lecture given by Lenore Grenoble at the Lyon 2 University-based DDL – Language Dynamics – laboratory on November 25, 2009, comparing the situations of languages in Greenland and Siberia.
Watch the full lecture here.
