Karsten Legère, Göteborg University

 Below is a summary of the major activities and results which account for the project objectives.

1. Field trips and activities

  The following field trips were made:
- Kwangali (Namibia) 2004-06 March and November each (vegetation period)
- Mpiemo (CAR) 09/2003, 01/2004, 03+07/2005, 09/2006
- Vidunda (Tanzania) 10/2004, 02 +10/2005 and 2006

a) Identification of approx. 570 plant names in Kwangali, 485 in Mpiemo, 620 in Vidunda

b) Botanical identification of most collected specimens by botanists in Dar es Salaam (Vidunda), Windhoek (Kwangali) and Yaoundé (Mpiemo), the specimen was also photographed either in its habitat or before being packed

c) Detailed study of linguistic, semantic and cognitive aspects of the plant names

d) Comprehensive documentation of plant use in form of taped interviews

e) Elicitation of ethnobotanical information and of data on classification (e.g. life form, morphology)

f) Elicitation of linguistic data and data for cognitive analysis.

2. Data processing

a) Compilation of Excel data banks for the plant names and partly uses which includes information such as
number of sample
photo
common plant name
noun class
etymology
life form
botanical name
URL references
b) Transcription and typing of the recorded interviews, available in each language as follows:
Kwangali - 60 pages, Mpiemo - 60 pages, Vidunda - 175 pages text

c) Translation of these texts into the main language of the country, i. e. Kwangali > English, Mpiemo > French (pp60), Vidunda > Swahili (pp. 120)

d) Compilation of glossaries with language data extracted from the transcribed texts Kwangali - 150 entries, Mpiemo - 800 entries, Vidunda - 540 entries

d) Summary of the life forms and other ethnobotanic information

e) Metadata for the plant specimens (plant collector, habitat, coordinates) and for the recordings (resource person, equipment)

f) Photo documentation

3. Linguistic analysis and results

a) Morphological analysis of the noun structure or morpho-syntactic description of compound nouns and adnominal expressions (e.g. Legère 2004a, Legère, K & C Thornell 2006).

b) Noun class allocation - an unexpected wide range of noun classes are used Kwangali and Mpiemo (the former only excludes animate class 1/2, but not 1a) contrary to the general belief that plant names are mainly found in noun class 3/4 (a particular 5/4 pairing in Vidunda is unique and not reported from other languages). The noun class assignment of plant names in Mpiemo follows the general tendency of transition of the noun class system into an animate/inanimate and singular/plural system.

c) Cognitive and semantic issues involved in naming a plant - important criteria such as plant use, habitat, life form, etc. were identified. In Mpiemo, in general, the plant names are semantically transparent.

d) Identification of loan words (Kwangali borrowings from Bushman neighbours, borrowings from Swahili in Vidunda, borrowings from Gbaya, Lingala, French and Sango in Mpiemo).

e) Description of the sound system (based on the computer-assisted analysis of sound sequences) and phonological aspects, elaboration of orthography for Mpiemo or adoption of a Swahili-based writing convention for Vidunda.

4. Folk-taxonomic and ethnobotanic data

a) The folk-taxonomy makes use of the following life forms:
Kwangali - sitji (tree) - katji (small tree) - sihwa (bush, shrub) - wayi (grass) - simeno (herb, plant)
Mpiemo - le (tree) with sub-classification reflecting the floors in the rain forest - mbo? (thick, big liana) - k?li (slender liana) - mpuya, ka (herbs)
Vidunda - igodi ikulu (big tree) - igodi (tree) - kagodi (kadodo - small tree) -idzabi (creeper, vine) - kadzabi (small cr.) - isolo (grass) - limea (herb)
These life forms reflect the particular habitat which pertains to the area where the languages are spoken.

b) Comparison of folk plant classification with the botanical classification, i.e. contrasting a utilitarian approach with the intellectualist approach of the botanic system. What is more, the botanic system presents a strictly hierarchical taxonomy whereas e.g., the Mpiemo people set out from a prototypical plant.

c) Erosion of traditional knowledge about plants and their uses. Even guardians of the languages are no longer able to identify some plants (found in the area) or to explain their use.

5. Achievements

a) For the first time the Mpiemo sound system was thoroughly studied and phonological principles were applied in designing a scholarly writing system, which has been tested, taught, and applied in Mpiemo texts. Vidunda too disposes for the first time of an orthography, which is a substantial step for developing literature in this language.

b) The multitude of linguistic data and its analysis (sketched in 3) calls partly the relevance of the current noun classification in question; it contributes from these languages to phonetics and in its turn to phonology (e.g. voiceless nasals and implosives); and presents valuable semantic and cognitive aspects.

c) The compilation of plant name dictionaries has been overdue, but still came in time. A number of plants are disappearing as the result of extensive farming and scrupulous exploitation of forests which affects the biodiversity. In future, some plant names can no longer be associated with species that grow in nature. The written, sound and photo documentation of the specimens whose common names are recorded in the dictionaries is a lasting contribution of the historically grown knowledge preserved in each language. This material is highly appreciated by representatives of the speech community. Compared with existing plant name lists in African languages compiled by other authors the project has elicited a much larger number of common names and species which even for botanists is an impressive collection of data documenting the great variety of species in a particular area.

d) There is now a comprehensive documentation of current plant uses as food, fodder, building material, for manufacturing, fuel, traditional ceremonies and for medicine. In the latter case, however, only in a few cases a specific disease is treated, while there is often a more general use as a laxative, vomitive, tranquilizer, medicine for stomach trouble, but also as an aphrodisiac. In this respect, Mpiemo is an exception since the plants very often treat specific diseases. The documentation is an important source of reference for the speech community, ethnobotanists and other experts. For instance, the book Thornell (2005a) was disseminated in the Mpiemo region and very well received.

e) For Kwangali and Vidunda, but not for Mpiemo, it is now rather well predictable which noun class relates to which life form. This is almost regular in the case of trees and shrubs. But for other life forms the rule can be formulated - the smaller a plant is, the more diverse is the noun class allocation.

e) The position of Mpiemo and Vidunda as highly endangered languages has become evident with all of its negative consequences

5. Dissemination of results

a) Publications: 6 including a book; another 3 are accepted
b) Conference papers: 15
c) Poster: 1