MSU
Name: Deogratias Ngonyani, associate professor
Department: Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic, Asian and African Languages
Type of research: Language documentation
Date of research: Ngonyani said he plans on leaving for Tanzania sometime this month and will be there for nine months.
He has done this type of research with two other African languages, but they were more vibrant in the number of speakers and locations in which they were spoken.
Basics of the project: Ngonyani is focused on collecting information about Kikisi, an African language facing extinction, and what functions it performs.
The language is only spoken among members of the community and is not written, he said.
"Kikisi is spoken by less than 10,000 people, and the number of speakers are decreasing over time," Ngonyani said.
Ngonyani will be collecting information about the language by writing down oral traditions, songs and folk tales.