Final/completive publication of the results of a long-term documentation project (1968-2014) of the language, culture and literature (orature) of the Lamang, a minority group in North-Eastern Nigeria, whose linguistic and cultural identity is threatened by extinction.

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Ekkehard Wolff
• Subject Area: Applied Linguistics, Computational Linguistics
• Term: from 2014 to 2015
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 270834368

The long-term project targeting the comprehensive documentation of the language and culture of the Lamang, an endangered linguistic minority group in North-Eastern Nigeria, began with first linguistic fieldwork in 1968/69 which was continued 1973-74 and sporadically in 1976 and 1980-82. Fieldwork and subsequent desk research were partially supported by the DFG between 1972 and 1992. From the project resulted until now, apart from a PhD dissertation (1972), 4 books (1980, 1983, 1992, 1994) and, directly or indirectly, at least 25 contributions to learned journals and other academic publications. Missing until this day were(1) a bilingual corpus dictionary (Lamang-English),(2) comparative/dialectological research into the so-called Lamang-Hdi language continuum within the Central Chadic (Biu-Mandara) branch of Chadic,(3) a necessary up-date of the first linguistic description (1983) of the grammar on the basis of continuously growing insights and recent progress in Chadic and Afroasiatic linguistics.These three gaps and the whole project are now brought to a close.Out of the 4 book publications, the printing of nos 1, 2 and 4 were supported by the DFG. No 3 is a non-commercial publication made available solely for use in the language community for purposes of literacy and post-literacy.1. Sprachkunst der Lamang. Stil, Bedeutung und poetische Dimension in zwei Genres oral tradierter Ein-Satz-Literatur. (Afrikanististische Forschungen, Bd. VIII.) 1980. Verlag J. J. Augustin, Glückstadt.2. A Grammar of the Lamang Language (Gwàd Làmàng). (Afrikanististische Forschungen, Bd. X.) 1983. Verlag J. J. Augustin, Glückstadt.3. Ina Lamang. Documents of Oral Traditions in Gwad Lamang Collected in the Gwoza Area of Borno State, Nigeria. 1992. RaP - Research and Progress Verlag, Hamburg.4. Our People's Own (Ina Lamang). Traditions and Specimens of Oral Literature from Gwad Lamang Speaking Peoples in the Southern Lake Chad Basin in Central Africa. (Afrikanistische Forschungen, Bd. XI.) 1994. RaP - Research and Progress Verlag, Hamburg.

• DFG Programme: Publication Grants