Hands on Kinyarwanda! - Investigating the phonology, morphosyntax and typology of Bantu languages

Kinyarwanda is a Central/Eastern Bantu language that has a variety of interesting linguistic properties. In this block seminar, we will learn about both the phonology and morphosyntax of Kinyarwanda by using authentic Kinyarwanda spoken data. Instead of just reading about the linguistic properties, students will discover these themselves, by applying their theoretical linguistic knowledge to real data. We will first review the most important concepts necessary for the practical work. Students will then 1) transcribe Kinyarwanda speech and find out about the phonology, 2) segment and gloss the data to find out about the morphosyntax 3) compare their findings to the actual linguistic structure of Kinyarwanda. On the practical side, students will 1) use Praat and ELAN, as well as LaTeX to transcribe, segment and gloss the speech data, and 2) present their findings in small groups using a shared Overleaf document. We will also talk about linguistic field methods, i.e. how the speech data was
elicited, how such data can be stored, as well as ethical aspects important for working with a community. This seminar serves to expand both students theoretical and practical linguistic knowledge: On the theoretical side, they will gain insights about linguistic diversity, the phonological and morphosyntactic differences between languages, as well as more extensive knowledge on a Bantu language. On the practical side, they will learn how to use Praat, ELAN and LaTeX for collaborative linguistic work. Presentation skills and analytical thinking will be practiced throughout the week.
BN: Active participation (work in groups, presentations, written summary of the work done)
AP: Term paper