Arnott, David Whitehorn

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0102 PP MS 73
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	: Arnott, David Whitehorn
Date(s)	: 1950s-1980s
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 9 boxes
Name of creator(s)	: Arnott | David Whitehorn | fl 1955-2000 | linguist

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

D W Arnott was Professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies. Publications include: The nominal and verbal systems of Fula (1970); supplementary bibliography in Diedrich Hermann Westermann and Margaret Arminel Bryan's The languages of West Africa (1970).

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers, 1950s-1980s, of Professor David W Arnott on West African languages, comprising papers, including notes and questionnaires, from his study leave (1955-1956) spent travelling from Nigeria through Niger, Dahomey (Benin), Upper Volta (Burkina Faso), French Sudan (Mali), Senegal and Gambia to Guinea and Sierra Leone; copies (photocopied and photographic) of manuscripts; translations and transcriptions; transcriptions of language recordings; seminar and conference papers; teaching material; offprints of articles by Arnott; typescripts or corrected proofs of articles; and reviews of books by other authors. The papers relate largely to Nigeria but also to Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Niger and Senegal, relating mainly to Fulfulde, Fula and Fulani (language of the Fulani people of West Africa), and also to Tiv and to Hausa poetry and songs. The subjects include literature, including poetry (religious and non-religious), oral literature and folklore, proverbial lore, Islamic influences on African literary cultures, grammar, including morphology, verbal and nominal systems, nouns, vocabulary, and the distribution of dialects.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English, French, Fulfulde, Fula, Fulani, Tiv, Hausa. Some manuscripts are in Arabic script.

System of arrangement:

As received.

Conditions governing access:

Unrestricted.

Conditions governing reproduction:

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

Finding aids:

Box lists by the depositor.

Archival Information

Archival history:

Former references include MS 380362 and MS 380416.

Immediate source of acquisition:

Various deposits, presented by D W Arnott between 1982 and 1995.

Allied Materials

Related material:

The School of Oriental and African Studies also holds a typescript Fulfulde-English dictionary by F W de St Croix, based on the central Nigerian dialect of Fulfulde (Fula, Fulani), also deposited by Arnott; and miscellaneous letters and notes of Arnott among the papers of Malcolm Guthrie (Ref: PP MS 27) and Frederick Wiliam Parsons (Ref: PP MS 50). The Africa Department of SOAS holds sound recordings on African languages deposited by Arnott.

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Compiled by Rachel Kemsley as part of the RSLP AIM25 project. Source: British Library OPAC.

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