PhD research on a Bantu Language-

Expected Contributions of my PhD Research

Most Tanzanian Languages are endangered  and not well documented. In order to reverse this trend it is crucial that solid descriptions and analyses of the local languages is conducted as a way of also preserving cultural heritage and enhancing identity. With my research local languages  will remain  strong community languages that can act as a vehicle for positive national development in different spheres of life. This will also importantly preserve the heritage of present and the future generations.

The focus on community-based data collection will produce work and language description that is valued by the native community who will contribute to the development of knowledge about their community language. The goal of this research is to make a difference in the way people in the community think about their languages. It is also about creating new knowledge and understanding of their language practices in order to bring about change and mindset transformation concerning the status of their languages as providing access to prosperity in socio-economic terms. By being community-based the research is therefore collaborative, gender and age inclusive, participatory, empowering, systematic and transformative.

More broadly this research will  contribute to national development, from the positive effects of the research on the community in developing their language but also from the skills and knowledge I will gain from my studies which will be directly transferred to my students who can then go on to do similar research on the other many languages of Tanzania and therefore arrest language endangerment.