Benjamin Nyong

Documentation of Ukwa Oral literature

Language: Ukwa
Glottocode: ukwa1238
Speakers: 300'000

Benjamin Nyong leads this project to document the oral literature of Ukwa (glottocode: ukwa1238), a non-Bantu language of the Atlantic-Congo family of languages spoken in southern Nigeria. In addition to an annotated corpus of literary texts in the language, the project seeks to produce learning materials based on the corpus. While Ukwa still has more than 300’000 speakers, the community is undergoing language shift (AES Glottoscope), and in particular the indigenous literature falls out of knowledge in younger generations.