Author: Mmasibidi Setaka (SADiLaR Sesotho Researcher)

The South African Centre for Digital Language Resources (SADiLaR) organised a workshop (originally expected to be held at the LREC 2020 conference in Marseille, France) in the field of African Indigenous Language Resources. This workshop aimed at bringing together researchers who are interested in showcasing their research and thereby boosting the field of African indigenous languages. It provided an overview of the current state-of-the-art and emphasises availability of African indigenous language resources, including both data and tools. Additionally, it allowed for information sharing among researchers interested in African indigenous languages as well as starting discussions on improving the quality and availability of the resources. Many African indigenous languages currently have no or very limited resources available and, additionally, they are often structurally quite different from more well-resourced languages, requiring the development and use of specialised techniques. By bringing together researchers from different fields (e.g., (computational) linguistics, sociolinguistics, language technology) to discuss the development of language resources for African indigenous languages, we hoped the workshop would boost research in this field.

Author: Mmasibidi Setaka (SADiLaR Sesotho Researcher) 

My name is Mme Mmasibidi Setaka, I am a Sesotho Researcher at the South African Centre for Digital Language Resources which is a national centre supported by the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI). SADiLaR has an enabling function, with a focus on all official languages of South Africa, supporting research and development in the domains of language technologies and language-related studies in the humanities and social sciences. The Centre supports the creation, management and distribution of digital language resources and software which are freely available for research purposes.

Author: Benito Trollip (SADiLaR Afrikaans researcher)

Short summary and English title:

A video series on intensified adjectives in Afrikaans

In this blog a video series on intensified adjectives in Afrikaans is introduced. Interesting questions about these words are raised, including but not limited to who decides when a compound becomes and intensified adjective and where do these intensified adjectives originate from? The motivation for the videos is given, as well as the disclaimer that the content of the videos is not intended to say what is right and wrong or to change school curricula. The reader is urged to think about the questions raised in the videos as it highlights the complexities of intensified adjectives in Afrikaans.

Author: Respect Mlambo (SADiLaR Xitsonga Researcher)

Manghenelo

Swivuriso swi hlamuseriwa tanihi xigaririmi lexi nga na tinhlamuselo to enta hi mayelana na vutomi bya vanhu naswona ntirhokulu wa swona i ku letela, ku laya, ku khutaza, ku ahlula timhaka no aka rixaka hi ku angarhela. Shabangu (1996) u hlamusela swivuriso ku ri ntiyiso lowu nga cinciki, lowu vanhu va hanyaka hi wona masiku hinkwawo.