Category: Uncategorized

Lis Kerr co-organises Atomb orthography workshop at CERDOTOLA in Yaoundé (Cameroon)

On August 13-14, 2025, a community workshop was held at the Centre International de Recherche et de Documentation sur les Traditions et les Langues Africaines (CERDOTOLA) in Yaoundé for the development of an orthography of the Atɔmb language (Bantu A461 [ttf]; Atomb/Tuotomb/Boneck) as part of Lis Kerr’s FWO-MBAM project. The workshop was organised by Lis Kerr (BantUGent), Emmanuel-Moselly Makasso (CERDOTOLA), Gilbert Palemagna Korot (Atomb linguistic committee), and Justine Dihenou Djahappi (Université d’Ebolowa), with financial support from a small grant from the Foundation for Endangered Languages (FEL) and a Language Legacies grant from the Endangered Language Fund (ELF).
During the workshop, Atomb community members decided on an alphabet for their language based on discussion of contrastive sounds, with guidance from the linguist facilitators. The workshop ended with planning the next steps of the documentation and revitalisation project funded by FEL and ELF, with the community members inputting the first entries into the Living Dictionaries online dictionary platform based on their transcriptions in the new community alphabet.

BantUGent will host 11th International Conference on Bantu Languages (Bantu11) in August 2026

The BantUGent team is happy to welcome you to the city of Ghent (Belgium) for the 11th International Conference on Bantu Languages (Bantu11). It will take place from August 18 to August 21, 2026, just before the 54th Colloquium on African Languages and Linguistics (CALL 2025) in Leiden (Netherlands) from August 24 till August 26, 2026. A first call for papers and workshops will follow early September 2025. All questions can be sent to Bantu11@UGent.be.

 

[Kiswahili]

Timu ya BantUGent ina furaha kukukaribisheni katika jiji la Ghent (Ubelgiji) kwa Kongamano la 11 la Kimataifa la Lugha za Kibantu (Bantu11). Litafanyika kuanzia Agosti 18 hadi Agosti 21, 2026, kabla tu ya Kongamano la 54 la Lugha na Isimu za Kiafrika (CALL 2025) huko Leiden (Uholanzi) kuanzia Agosti 24 hadi Agosti 26, 2026. Wito wa kwanza wa mawasilisho na warsha utafuata mwanzoni mwa Septemba 2025. Mkiwa na maswali tafadhali mtumie anwani ifuatayo: Bantu11@UGent.be.

 

[Lingála]

Ekipi ya BantUGent ezali na esengo ya koyamba bino na engumba ya Gand (Belgique) mpo na Likita ya 11 ya mikili nyonso ya minoko ya Bantu (Bantu11). Likita yango ekosalema wuto 18 kino 21 août, 2026, mwa moke liboso ya  CALL 2025 oyo ekosalema na Leiden (Pays-Bas) wuto 24 kino 26 août, 2026. Libenga ya yambo mpo na kotinda mikanda mpe ba-ateliers ekobanda na ebandeli ya septembre 2025. Mituna nyonso ekoki kotindama na Bantu11@UGent.be.

 

[français]

L’équipe BantUGent est heureuse de vous accueillir dans la ville de Gand (Belgique) pour la 11e Conférence internationale sur les langues bantoues (Bantu11). Elle aura lieu du 18 au 21 août 2026, juste avant le 54e Colloque sur les langues et la linguistique africaines (CALL 2025) à Leyde (Pays-Bas) du 24 au 26 août 2026. Un premier appel à communications et à ateliers sera lancé début septembre 2025. Toutes les questions peuvent être envoyées à Bantu11@UGent.be.

 

[português]

A equipa do BantUGent tem o prazer de vos dar as boas-vindas à cidade de Ghent (Bélgica) para a 11ª Conferência Internacional sobre Línguas Bantu (Bantu11). Terá lugar de 18 a 21 de agosto de 2026, imediatamente antes do 54º Colóquio sobre Línguas e Linguística Africanas (CALL 2025) em Leiden (Países Baixos) de 24 a 26 de agosto de 2026. No início de setembro de 2025, será lançado um primeiro convite à apresentação de comunicações e de workshops. Todas as questões podem ser enviadas para Bantu11@UGent.be.

Lis Kerr gives talk with Bernat Bardagil at Diachronic Generative Syntax workshop in Oxford

Lis Kerr gave a talk with Bernat Bardagil (UGent) at the 26th Diachronic Generative Syntax (DIGS) conference held from June 23rd – 26th at the University of Oxford. The talk was titled “Reconstructing changes in verbal synthesis without written records” and was part of a workshop dedicated to methods and theory for investigating historical syntax with less-documented and unwritten languages.

Several BantUGent talks at the SocioBaGS workshop (June 26-28) in Aix-en-Provence

The ANR-DFG SocioBaGs project investigates variation and change in the nominal classification systems of the Bantu languages. During a three-day workshop (June 26-28, 2026) at the Laboratoire Parole et langage (CNRS) of the University of Aix-Marseille, members of the SocioBaGS scientific committee as well as researchers from outside the project core team gathered to exchange ideas and findings on the latest research about the typology of Bantu and non-Bantu nominal classification systems and the population history and contact dynamics of sub-Saharan Africa.

 

BantUGent was well represented with team members being involved in four different talks.

  • Koen Bostoen, Jean-Pierre Donzo Bunza Yugia and Sara Pacchiarotti. The historical impact of Ubangi language shifters on Bantu gender systems:
    the case of Ngombe (Bantu, C41).
  • Sara Pacchiarotti, Paulin Baraka Bose and Koen Bostoen. The gender system of Gezon, a poorly known variety of Pagibete (Bantu C401).
  • Rasmus Bernander, Antti Laine and Nina van der Vlugt. On the status of Bantu class 19 in Eastern Bantu.
  • Hilde Gunnink. Noun class assignment of loanwords in Bantu: comparing European and African donor language.

 

The workshop’s entire program is available here.

 

BantUGent at Africa Platform of Ghent University Association event with Congolese personalities

On Friday May 23, 2025, the Africa Platform of Ghent University Association invited several professors and students working at UGent to meet three Congolese personalities:

  • Danny Boss Singoma, director of the Centre National d’Appui au Développement et à la Participation populaire;
  • Benjamin Diya Muabila, lawyer in Gombe, and active participant in campaigns in favor of respect for the fundamental rights and the rule of law;
  • Pascal Tschiamala, hepato-gastro-enterologist and national coordinator of the Programme National de Lutte contre les Hépatites Virales.

UGent research group presentations were given by

  • prof. dr. ir. Pascal Boeckx for of the UGent Congo Basin Centre of Excellence;
  • dr. Heidi Goes for BantUGent, the UGent Centre for Bantu Studies;
  • prof. dr. Koen Vlassenroot for the Conflict Research Group;
  • prof. dr. Xavier Verhelst for the Hepato-Enterology Department of UZ Ghent.

The meet-and-greet ended with an interesting discussion and an exchange of ideas and presents.

Gilles-Maurice de Schryver’s talk ‘Broken in Uganda’ now available on YouTube

The talk ‘Broken in Uganda’, which Gilles-Maurice de Schryver presented on August 15, 2023, at the ‘Third Biannual Conference of the Language Association of Eastern Africa’ in Kampala, is now available on YouTube. In this talk focusing on the Ugandan language Lusoga, he criticizes Uganda’s National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC), an institution under the Ministry of Education and Sports (MoE&S) responsible for the development of educational curricula for Pre-primary, Primary, Secondary and Tertiary institutions in Uganda, for not taking indigenous Bantu languages seriously enough.