Online linguistics course for early-career linguists in eastern Africa

Only around half of the world's approximately 7,000 spoken languages have been properly described and a third are endangered. Describing languages is important because it forms the foundation for school materials and books, for understanding cultural heritage and history, and to determine the typology of language structures. There is thus a large and urgent task, requiring good linguistic skills. The ELSEA project, funded by the Una Europa–Africa Partnership Seed Funding, aims to enhance these skills through an online course and a field school.

Applications for the online course are now open. Successful participants will be invited to attend a summer field school at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda from 26 July to 9 August 2025. There they will gain hands-on experience in linguistic data collection and analyses (e.g. recording for documentation, digital data management, project organisation).

The course will cover the basics of descriptive linguistics with a focus on the languages of eastern Africa, from phonetics to morphosyntax, so you can hear and transcribe tone, analyse morphosyntactic data of Cushitic, Nilotic and Bantu languages, and set up your own research project.

There will be seven online interactive seminars, plus self-study in the form of video lectures, exercises, and reading assignments. In total the course will take about 60 hours: 14 hours of seminars and 3-3.5 hours of self-study per week. There will be a multiple-choice exam at the end.

All early-career researchers in linguistics based in eastern Africa are welcome. This includes doctoral researchers and those who have finished their degree up to five years ago.

Please note:

• The course will be in English. A decent level of competence is required to make the most of the course.
• As the course is online, a good internet connection is important. If you need support for Wi-Fi, you can indicate this in the form.
• You are expected to participate in the whole course and will be awarded a certificate upon successful completion.

Submit the following documents through this form by 15 December 2024:

• Your motivation for participation (max 250 words).
• The topics you are working on/areas of interest (max 250 words).
• A short CV with previous experience (qualifications, project participation, publications; max 1 A4).

Successful participants will be notified around 10 January 2025.

Organisers/instructors:

• Lotta Aunio, Helsingin yliopisto/Helsingfors universitet
• Bert Remijsen, the University of Edinburgh
• Allen Asiimwe, Makerere University
• Saudah Namyalo, Makerere University
• Jenneke van der Wal, Universiteit Leiden

with assistance by Håvard Weiberg-Johansen, Universiteit Leiden.

Photo sourced by the ELSEA project, which will provide hands-on fieldwork training to early-career linguists in Eastern Africa. © Saudah Namyalo