Bantu and other African Languages

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0102 MS 380565
Held at	: School of Oriental and African Studies   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://www.soas.ac.uk/Archives/home.html ›
Full title	: Bantu and other African Languages
Date(s)	: 1943-1974
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 3 boxes
Name of creator(s)	: Unknown

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Bantu refers to an African ethnic and linguistic group, numbering c120 million and inhabiting much of Africa south of the river Congo. There are almost a hundred Bantu languages, which include, for example, Swahili and Zulu. Most are tonal. The Bantu group of languages forms a subdivision of the Benue-Niger division of the Niger-Congo branch of the Niger-Kordofanian language family. African languages have been subject to scholarly interest particularly in the 20th century.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers, largely undated, some dated 1943-1974, by various authors, some unidentified, concerning the study of Bantu and other, mainly East African, languages, comprising typescript and manuscript papers on Bantu and its various forms, 1973 and undated, including word lists; typescript and manuscript papers on non-Bantu languages, c1957-1974 and undated, including phonetics, grammar and word lists; papers on other subjects, 1943 and undated, including English vocabulary with reference to African education; general files, 1954-1973 and undated, on linguistics, including glottochronometry and lexico-statistics, and related subjects.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

The papers are roughly divided between language groups, but the original folders have been kept intact and therefore some similar material is divided between various files.

Conditions governing access:

Unrestricted

Conditions governing reproduction:

No publication without written permission. Apply to archivist in the first instance.

Finding aids:

Unpublished handlist and database.

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Unknown.

Allied Materials

Related material:

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Revised by Rachel Kemsley as part of the RSLP AIM25 project. Source: http://www.encyclopedia.com

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
Apr 2002