OLAC Record: A Documentation of Bati Language and Oral Traditions

OLAC Record
oai:soas.ac.uk:MPI1101952

Metadata

Title: Interaction in the home - part 1- Mbaa

Mba_Interaction-in-the-Home_01

A Documentation of Bati Language and Oral Traditions

Contributor: ASSOMO

Contributor (consultant): MBOMBOG LIYEP LI DJOM

NYEMB-E

Contributor (interviewer): Madame Veuve BASSANA

Contributor (researcher): NGUE UM

Coverage: Cameroon

Date: 2017-06-16

Description: This session has been recording at Mbombog Liyep André's courtyard. Mbombog Liyep André's housing is situated right at the road junction between Log-Bikoy, Nyambat, Ndom, and Ndog Bikim. The speech variety in usage in Mbay-Bati (also referred to natives of the village as Mbaa) is not directly related to the three Bati varieties namely, Nyambat, Mbougue and Kelleng. Prior to undertaking extensive fieldwork within the framework of the present research project, it has been hypothesized based on existing literature and outsider's declarations, that the speech variety of Mbay-Bati could be related to the other three speech varieties. As it turned out during year one of the project, this variety could not fit typologically into the Bati cluster. Consequently, the research team had decided to discard this variety from the core documentary work. After review of first year report by the ELDP panel, recommendation were made to the Principal investigator to pay closer attention to Mbaa variety which appears not to have ever been recorded in any existing language inventory. This justifies why the research have continued with the documentation of this speech variety through the second year of the project.

The project to Document aspects of Bati language and oral traditions is an original idea of Dr Emmanuel-Moselly Makasso, who had initially surveyed the Bati speech area as part of a pilot research project granted by the Ministry of Scientific Research and Technological Innovation of the Republic of Cameroon. Based on the results of this pilot research which have revealed a situation of critical endangerment of Bati language and ancestral practices, the idea to submit a major documentation project to ELDP has matured. The project has eventually been submitted during the 2015 funding round with Dr Emmanuel Ngué Um as Principal Investigator, and Dr Emmanuel-Moselly Makasso as co-applicant. The project started in October 1st, 2015, and will run till the 30th of September in 2018.

The interaction starts with a question-and-response dialogue between the principal investigator and Nyemb Elisabeth. During this first part of the interaction, questions are mostly oriented towards elicitation of vocabulary and common expression of daily language use. At a later stage of the interaction, more participants join in: Mbombog Liyep Li Djom André, Madame veuve Bassana, and Nkokoo. The interaction becomes more spontaneous, and topics evolve aroung communty life, ancestral rites, ancestral life style, etc.

Two speech varieties are used throughout the recording session: Basaa and Mbaa. The use of these two varieties is akin to dualigualism, that is, the overlapping usage of two distinct varieties in the course of the same interaction involving two or more speaker; each speaker or group of speaker uses exclusively a separate speech variety than the other speaker o group of speakers. The principal investigator speaks in Basaa while the other speakers mostly speak in Mbaa, which is intelligible to some extent to the principal investigator.

Mme Veuve Bassana Hortense is a native of Mvengue area in the South region of Cameroon. She was therefore born speaking Ewondo. Later on, she got married to late Bassana who was a native of Mbay-Bati. She has since settled in Mbay-Bati, and has begotten children. She is a widow since her husband's death, and has been struggling to bring up her children with difficulty. She is a cathechist at the Catholic parish in Log-Bikoy in the Nyanon speech area. She is also one of the assistants of Mbombog Anne, the female priest. For the purpose of the research, she has willingly agreed to act as the interviewer.

Assomo Celestine Ghislaine is a PhD student who is enroled in the Linguistic program at the University of Yaoundé I, Department of African Languages and Linguistics. She has completed her gratuade program in the same Department, and later on graduated with a Master's Degree in descriptive Linguistics in 2015. Ghislaine Assomo is part of the research team working on the documentation of Bati language and Oral traditions. She works on the project on a part-time basis; the remaining part of her schedule being devoted to her PhD research, which deals with aspects of Multilingualism within the broader area covered by the overall Bati Canton.

Emmanuel Ngué Um is the Principal Investigator for the Bati project. He is mainly employed at the University of Yaoundé one where he holds the position of Senior Lectuer of Linguistics, in the Departement of Cameroonian Languages and Cultures at the Higher Teacher Training School. Ngué Um is also Associate Researcher at CERDOTOLA, where he is charged with the responsibility of Archive Manager for ALORA (Archive of Languages and Oral Resources of Africa).

Nyemb Elisabeth is daughter to Mbombog Liyep li Djom André. She was born and has lived continuously in Mbay-Bati till the date of this recording. She has been the main informant during the interview part of this session. This part has consisted in spontaneous elicitation of the vocabulary and common expressions in Mbaa.

Mbombog Liyep li Djom André is a male priest (Mbombog). He is one of the elders of Mbay-Bati. He has shown very keen interest in participating in the research session, because he believes that his community has been subject to much despise and negligence over the course of history. In fact, being a minority group of only a dozen of members, and stuck between dominant groups such as Basaa, Bisoo, Yambasa (a little bit father) and Bati (to some extent), they have been constantly assimilated to third ethnic groups, either Bisoo or Basaa, which they intrinsically do not identity with. According to Mbombog Liyep li Djom André, Mbaa exist as a distinct and genuine ethnic group. The share the same origin with Basaa, Bati and Bisoo, as they have Ngog-Lituba (Mbombole) as their migration starting point, just as the other three ethnic groups.

Format: video/mp4

audio/x-wav

image/jpeg

Identifier: oai:soas.ac.uk:MPI1101952

MDP0332

Identifier (URI): https://lat1.lis.soas.ac.uk/ds/asv?openpath=MPI1101952%23

Publisher: Ngué Um Emmanuel

International Center for Research and Documentation on African Traditions and Languages (CERDOTOLA)

Subject: Discourse

Type: Video

Audio

Image

OLAC Info

Archive: Endangered Languages Archive

Description: http://www.language-archives.org/archive/soas.ac.uk

GetRecord: OAI-PMH request for OLAC format

GetRecord: Pre-generated XML file

OAI Info

OaiIdentifier: oai:soas.ac.uk:MPI1101952

DateStamp: 2019-03-31

GetRecord: OAI-PMH request for simple DC format

Search Info
Citation: Madame Veuve BASSANA (interviewer); ASSOMO; MBOMBOG LIYEP LI DJOM (consultant); NGUE UM (researcher); NYEMB-E (consultant). 2017-06-16. Ngué Um Emmanuel.

http://www.language-archives.org/item.php/oai:soas.ac.uk:MPI1101952
Up-to-date as of: Mon Oct 18 18:48:33 EDT 2021

Metadata
Title:		Interaction in the home - part 1- Mbaa
		Mba_Interaction-in-the-Home_01
		A Documentation of Bati Language and Oral Traditions
Contributor:		ASSOMO
Contributor (consultant):		MBOMBOG LIYEP LI DJOM
Contributor (consultant):		NYEMB-E
Contributor (interviewer):		Madame Veuve BASSANA
Contributor (researcher):		NGUE UM
Coverage:		Cameroon
Date:		2017-06-16
Description:		This session has been recording at Mbombog Liyep André's courtyard. Mbombog Liyep André's housing is situated right at the road junction between Log-Bikoy, Nyambat, Ndom, and Ndog Bikim. The speech variety in usage in Mbay-Bati (also referred to natives of the village as Mbaa) is not directly related to the three Bati varieties namely, Nyambat, Mbougue and Kelleng. Prior to undertaking extensive fieldwork within the framework of the present research project, it has been hypothesized based on existing literature and outsider's declarations, that the speech variety of Mbay-Bati could be related to the other three speech varieties. As it turned out during year one of the project, this variety could not fit typologically into the Bati cluster. Consequently, the research team had decided to discard this variety from the core documentary work. After review of first year report by the ELDP panel, recommendation were made to the Principal investigator to pay closer attention to Mbaa variety which appears not to have ever been recorded in any existing language inventory. This justifies why the research have continued with the documentation of this speech variety through the second year of the project.
		The project to Document aspects of Bati language and oral traditions is an original idea of Dr Emmanuel-Moselly Makasso, who had initially surveyed the Bati speech area as part of a pilot research project granted by the Ministry of Scientific Research and Technological Innovation of the Republic of Cameroon. Based on the results of this pilot research which have revealed a situation of critical endangerment of Bati language and ancestral practices, the idea to submit a major documentation project to ELDP has matured. The project has eventually been submitted during the 2015 funding round with Dr Emmanuel Ngué Um as Principal Investigator, and Dr Emmanuel-Moselly Makasso as co-applicant. The project started in October 1st, 2015, and will run till the 30th of September in 2018.
		The interaction starts with a question-and-response dialogue between the principal investigator and Nyemb Elisabeth. During this first part of the interaction, questions are mostly oriented towards elicitation of vocabulary and common expression of daily language use. At a later stage of the interaction, more participants join in: Mbombog Liyep Li Djom André, Madame veuve Bassana, and Nkokoo. The interaction becomes more spontaneous, and topics evolve aroung communty life, ancestral rites, ancestral life style, etc.
		Two speech varieties are used throughout the recording session: Basaa and Mbaa. The use of these two varieties is akin to dualigualism, that is, the overlapping usage of two distinct varieties in the course of the same interaction involving two or more speaker; each speaker or group of speaker uses exclusively a separate speech variety than the other speaker o group of speakers. The principal investigator speaks in Basaa while the other speakers mostly speak in Mbaa, which is intelligible to some extent to the principal investigator.
		Mme Veuve Bassana Hortense is a native of Mvengue area in the South region of Cameroon. She was therefore born speaking Ewondo. Later on, she got married to late Bassana who was a native of Mbay-Bati. She has since settled in Mbay-Bati, and has begotten children. She is a widow since her husband's death, and has been struggling to bring up her children with difficulty. She is a cathechist at the Catholic parish in Log-Bikoy in the Nyanon speech area. She is also one of the assistants of Mbombog Anne, the female priest. For the purpose of the research, she has willingly agreed to act as the interviewer.
		Assomo Celestine Ghislaine is a PhD student who is enroled in the Linguistic program at the University of Yaoundé I, Department of African Languages and Linguistics. She has completed her gratuade program in the same Department, and later on graduated with a Master's Degree in descriptive Linguistics in 2015. Ghislaine Assomo is part of the research team working on the documentation of Bati language and Oral traditions. She works on the project on a part-time basis; the remaining part of her schedule being devoted to her PhD research, which deals with aspects of Multilingualism within the broader area covered by the overall Bati Canton.
		Emmanuel Ngué Um is the Principal Investigator for the Bati project. He is mainly employed at the University of Yaoundé one where he holds the position of Senior Lectuer of Linguistics, in the Departement of Cameroonian Languages and Cultures at the Higher Teacher Training School. Ngué Um is also Associate Researcher at CERDOTOLA, where he is charged with the responsibility of Archive Manager for ALORA (Archive of Languages and Oral Resources of Africa).
		Nyemb Elisabeth is daughter to Mbombog Liyep li Djom André. She was born and has lived continuously in Mbay-Bati till the date of this recording. She has been the main informant during the interview part of this session. This part has consisted in spontaneous elicitation of the vocabulary and common expressions in Mbaa.
		Mbombog Liyep li Djom André is a male priest (Mbombog). He is one of the elders of Mbay-Bati. He has shown very keen interest in participating in the research session, because he believes that his community has been subject to much despise and negligence over the course of history. In fact, being a minority group of only a dozen of members, and stuck between dominant groups such as Basaa, Bisoo, Yambasa (a little bit father) and Bati (to some extent), they have been constantly assimilated to third ethnic groups, either Bisoo or Basaa, which they intrinsically do not identity with. According to Mbombog Liyep li Djom André, Mbaa exist as a distinct and genuine ethnic group. The share the same origin with Basaa, Bati and Bisoo, as they have Ngog-Lituba (Mbombole) as their migration starting point, just as the other three ethnic groups.
Format:		video/mp4
		audio/x-wav
		image/jpeg
Identifier:		oai:soas.ac.uk:MPI1101952
Identifier:		MDP0332
Identifier (URI):		https://lat1.lis.soas.ac.uk/ds/asv?openpath=MPI1101952%23
Publisher:		Ngué Um Emmanuel
Publisher:		International Center for Research and Documentation on African Traditions and Languages (CERDOTOLA)
Subject:		Discourse
Type:		Video
		Audio
		Image
OLAC Info
Archive:		Endangered Languages Archive
Description:		http://www.language-archives.org/archive/soas.ac.uk
GetRecord:		OAI-PMH request for OLAC format
GetRecord:		Pre-generated XML file
OAI Info
OaiIdentifier:		oai:soas.ac.uk:MPI1101952
DateStamp:		2019-03-31
GetRecord:		OAI-PMH request for simple DC format
Search Info
Citation:		Madame Veuve BASSANA (interviewer); ASSOMO; MBOMBOG LIYEP LI DJOM (consultant); NGUE UM (researcher); NYEMB-E (consultant). 2017-06-16. Ngué Um Emmanuel.