Contributors

Contributors

  • Dr Ansu Berg

    Ansu Berg is a senior lecturer in the department of Setswana at the North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, South Africa. The focus of her research is Setswana morphology and syntax and the computational analysis thereof.

  • Professor Andy Chebanne

    Andy Chebanne is professor in general linguistics at the University of Botswana. He obtained his graduate degrees (Masters in Language Sciences, PhD in Languages) in France at the Université Stendhal (Grenoble III). He has researched and published on Botswana Bantu and Khoisan languages. He teaches general linguistics courses in French and Setswana. He has participated in numerous African languages orthography developments in Botswana and in Africa. He has lately developed particular interest in Khoisan languages linguistics.

  • Professor Denis Creissels

    Denis Creissels retired in 2008 after teaching general linguistics at the universities of Grenoble (1971-1996) and Lyon (1996-2008). His research interests center on linguistic diversity, the description of less-studied languages, and morphosyntactic typology. He has been engaged in fieldwork on West African languages (Baule, Manding languages, Balant Ganja, Soninke, Jóola Fooñi), Southern Bantu languages (Tswana), and Daghestanian languages (Akhvakh). His publications on Tswana include a book on the tonal morphology of Tswana verbs (co-authored by A.M. Chebanne and H.W. Nkhwa) and articles on the following topics: historical phonology, the TAM system and the conjoint/disjoint distinction, auxiliarization, the expression of comparison, the noun class system, non-verbal predication, valency-changing derivations, prepositions, adjectives, ideophones, infinitive as a mixed category, locatives and the inversion construction, and grammaticalization.

  • Ms Somikazi Deyi

    Somikazi Deyi Deyi is a lecturer in the African Languages Department at the University of Cape Town. She has been the course convener of isiXhosa in the Faculty of Health Sciences. Her work on multilingualism or language in education has been presented through a few articles, newspaper articles, conference papers and chapters in books. Somi is working towards her PhD and she holds an MEd (Applied Languages and Literacy Studies). Some of her work is in academic settings; such as participating in writing a Multilingual Mathematics Dictionary; A Science Multilingual Dictionary published by Maskew Miller; 2009: Understanding Concepts in Mathematics and Science Volume 2.

  • Professsor Sandile Gxilishe

    Sandile Gxilishe is Emeritus Associate Professor in the School of languages at the University of Cape Town since 2009. Previously he was appointed as Senior Researcher at the Institute for Language Teaching at the University of Stellenbosch. He was the first Black academic to obtain a Doctorate at the University of Stellenbosch. Thereafter he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study at Columbia University towards an MA in Applied Linguistics, as well as the Harry Crossley Scholarship to study at Essex, UK. He has published widely in his areas of interest namely, African Language Linguistics, Child Language Development, First Language Acquisition Research and Second Language Teaching and Learning. To date he has had around 229 Publication reads, 106 Full texts reads and 103 other reads.

  • Dr Mfusi Hoza †

    Mfusi Hoza worked at the University of Transkei in South Africa since 1987. The University later merged with two Technikons in the Eastern Cape Region, subsequently changing the name to Walter Sisulu University. Initially she was absorbed in the teaching fraternity as a linguistics lecturer in isiXhosa, and later received her MA degree from Stellenbosch University in 1991, having done research on the Possessive in isiXhosa. She has taught linguistics in isiXhosa to undergraduate students, focusing on the following language components: Phonetics, Phonology, Morphology, Semantics and Syntax. However, she later pursued her PhD studies in isiXhosa literature (gender issues) and received her PhD in 2009 at the University of Fort Hare. She has published several academic articles in isiXhosa literature in the peer reviewed Southern African Journal of African Languages (SAJAL). She passed on in 2023.

  • Ms Nandi Jack

    Nandi Jack is a senior lecturer at Walter Sisulu University (WSU), Chiselhurst Campus specializing in Communication in isiXhosa. She obtained the BA, BA Hons at the University of Transkei in 1982-1986. In 1990 she obtained her Post Graduate Diploma in Telecommunication at the University of South Africa. and obtained an MA in linguistics at Stellenbosch University in 1994. She obtained her qualification as an Assessor in 2004 at the Assessment College of South Africa. In 2014-2015 she assisted the Centre for Community International Partnership (CCIP) of WSU in translating documents from English to IsiXhosa of a project led by the Elizabeth City State University which is based in the United State of America (USA) which was operating in Mdantsane Township in East London. Currently she is pursuing her PhD in Language Policy Implementation at Rhodes University.

  • Professsor Rigardt Pretorius

    Rigardt Pretorius is a full professor at the School of Languages of the North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus. He has a PhD on the origin, classification, meaning and use of auxiliary verbs in Setswana and has worked on the description of Setswana from mostly a structural functional approach. He has been involved in the development of HLT tools for Setswana such as a morphological analyzer using Xerox finite state software and a parser prototype as part of the work done by SADiLaR.

  • Ms Nomfundo Qamata

    Nomfundo Qamata worked at the University of Transkei (Unitra), later called Walter Sisulu University (WSU), as a lecturer for undergraduate, honours and masters students in linguistic aspects such as Phonetics, Phonology, Morphology and Syntax in the Department of African Languages from 1988 to 2013. She obtained her Master’s degree at the University of Stellenbosch in 1990 specializing in isiXhosa Syntax and continued lecturing Linguistics. She has worked with Vivlia Publishers as an author of isiXhosa School Books from Foundation Phase to Matric level.

  • Professor Justus Roux

    Justus C Roux is Emeritus Professor in the Department of African Languages at the University of Stellenbosch South Africa, where he was first employed in 1972. His academic interests concern the relationship between phonetic data and phonological analyses and the implications thereof for linguistics in general, and for language technology applications in particular. He was the project leader of the African Speech Technology project (AST) in 1999, the first major Human Language Technology (HLT) project in South Africa, as well as a founder member and first Director of the South African Centre for Digital Language Resources (SADiLaR).

  • Dr Kagiso Jacob Sello

    Kagiso Jacob Sello is a Senior Lecturer in Teaching French as a foreign language in the Department of French at the University of Botswana. After completing his BA Double major in French and Environmental Sciences, he studied for Masters in Didactics of Teaching French as a foreign language at the University of Franche-Comté in France. In 2013, he completed his PhD in Teaching Translation and Interpreting to foreign language students at the University of Sorbonne in France. Apart from researching in didactics of Teaching French as a foreign language and teaching translation and interpreting, he is also interested in research on Setswana language as well as on linguistic social injustice.

  • Professor Daan Wissing

    Daan Wissing has been attached to the former PU for CHE (currently the North-West University) since 1966. There he completed his first degrees (up to MA). He then continued studying General Linguistics in the Netherlands (Drs Litt., Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam; D. Litt., Rijksuniversiteit, Utrecht). Back in Potchefstroom (1971) he lectured linguistics until 1991, notably phonology and acoustic phonetics, then became full-time researcher, subsequently till retirement he served as research director. Thereafter he became senior researcher in the Centre for Text Technology (CTexT). Most recently, as expert phonologist, he has been involved in various national and international interdisciplinary projects. He has published widely on topics related to the sound systems of Afrikaans, English, Sesotho and Setswana. He has been rewarded several times for his work as phonologist, the latest with the CJ Langenhoven award for General Linguistics by the South African Academy of Science and Arts (2009). He is an NRF rated researcher.

Acknowledgements

While the COVID epidemic as well as several staff and technical issues have had an impact on the completion of this project, I wish to acknowledge and thank each contributor mentioned above as well as others not explicitly mentioned. This includes the work of several staff members of SADiLaR, part-time assistants and the contributions of the late Dr Mfusi Hoza of the Walter Sisulu University as well as the late Dr Mhlobo Jadezweni of the Rhodes University. The interaction with Dr Folkert de Vriend, Policy officer at the Nederlandse Taalunie and his colleagues is acknowledged for their support on various occasions. A special word of thanks and appreciation for the layout and technical support which is the core of this project goes to Dr Friedel Wolff and Mr Cael Marquard of SADiLaR.

Justus Roux (Project Leader / Editor)