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Sherbro Language
The Sherbro language (also known as Southern Bullom, Shiba, Amampa, Mampa, and Mampwa) is an endangered language of Sierra Leone. It belongs to the Mel languages, Mel branch of the Niger–Congo language family. While Sherbro has more speakers than the other Bullom languages, its use is declining among the Sherbro people, in favor of Krio and English. The first recorded publication in Sherbro is a selection of seven parables from Matthew and Luke in the New Testament. This was translated by James Schön of the Church Missionary Society The Church Mission Society (CMS), formerly known as the Church Missionary Society, is a British mission society working with the Christians around the world. Founded in 1799, CMS has attracted over nine thousand men and women to serve as mission ... (CMS) and published in 1839. References External links Sherbro entry in the UNESCO Red Book of Endangered Languages Bullom languages Endangered languages of Africa Languages of Sierr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra Leone has a tropical climate, with diverse environments ranging from savanna to rainforests. The country has a population of 7,092,113 as of the 2015 census. The capital and largest city is Freetown. The country is divided into five administrative regions, which are subdivided into Districts of Sierra Leone, 16 districts. Sierra Leone is a constitutional republic with a unicameral parliament and a directly elected executive president, president serving a five-year term with a maximum of two terms. The current president is Julius Maada Bio. Sierra Leone is a Secular state, secular nation with Constitution of Sierra Leone, the constitution providing for the separation of state and religion and freedom of conscience (which includes freedom of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sherbro Island
Sherbro Island is in the Atlantic Ocean, and is included within Bonthe District, Southern Province, Sierra Leone. The island is separated from the African mainland by the Sherbro River in the north and Sherbro Strait in the east. It is long and up to wide, covering an area of approximately . The western extremity is Cape St. Ann. Bonthe, on the eastern end, is the chief port and commercial centre. Historically, this was part of the territory of the historic Sherbro people, who dominated a large area of what is now Sierra Leone. Today they are concentrated in the southern and central part of Moyamba District. They make up by far the largest ethnic group in the island, where the total population is 28,457. The island has more than of tropical beaches. It has been earmarked by the Ministry for Tourism and Development of Sierra Leone for tourism development. Economic activities Swamp-rice cultivation, tourism, and fishing are the main economic activities. History Sherbro Isl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atlantic–Congo Languages
The Atlantic–Congo languages are the largest demonstrated family of languages in Africa. They have characteristic noun class systems and form the core of the Niger–Congo family hypothesis. They comprise all of Niger–Congo apart from Mande, Dogon, Ijoid, Siamou, Kru, the Katla and Rashad languages (previously classified as Kordofanian), and perhaps some or all of the Ubangian languages. Mukarovsky's West-Nigritic corresponded roughly to modern Atlantic–Congo. In the infobox, the languages which appear to be the most divergent are placed at the top.Roger BlenchNiger-Congo: an alternative view/ref> The Atlantic branch is defined in the narrow sense, while the former Atlantic branches Mel and the isolates Sua, Gola and Limba, are split out as primary branches; they are mentioned next to each other because there is no published evidence to move them; Volta–Congo is intact apart from Senufo and Kru. In addition, Güldemann (2018) lists Nalu and Rio Nunez as unclassi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mel Languages
The Mel languages are a branch of Niger–Congo languages spoken in Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. The most populous is Temne, with about two million speakers; Kissi is next, with half a million. Languages Mel has traditionally been classified as the bulk of a southern branch of a West Atlantic branch of Niger–Congo. However, these are geographic and typological rather than genealogical groups; Segerer (2010) shows that there is no exclusive relationship between Mel and the other southern languages, Sua (Mansoanka) and Gola. Fields (2004) splits Mel into a ''Highlands'' group originating in Guinea, and also a ''Bullom-Kisi-Gola'' group.Fields, Edda LBefore "Baga": Settlement Chronologies of the Coastal Rio Nunez Region, Earliest Times to c.1000 CE In: ''The International Journal of African Historical Studies'', Vol. 37, No. 2 (2004), pp. 229-253. Boston University African Studies Center. *Mel **Bullom-Kisi-Gola *** Gola ***Bullom-Kisi **** Bullom **** ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bullom Languages
The Bullom languages are a small group of Mel languages spoken in Sierra Leone, including along the Bullom Shore Bullom Shore is geographical area in Sierra Leone facing the Atlantic Ocean and the estuary of Sierra Leone River The Sierra Leone River is a river estuary on the Atlantic Ocean in Western Sierra Leone. It is formed by the Bankasoka River and Rokel .... They were historically sometimes referred to as one language or dialect continuum, divided into Southern Bullom (Krim and Sherbro) and Northern Bullom (Bullom So).''African Language Review'' (1966), volume 5, page 140 The languages are: ''Glottolog''. : Bom ( Krim), [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Endangered Language
An endangered language or moribund language is a language that is at risk of disappearing as its speakers die out or shift to speaking other languages. Language loss occurs when the language has no more native speakers and becomes a "dead language". If no one can speak the language at all, it becomes an "extinct language". A dead language may still be studied through recordings or writings, but it is still dead or extinct unless there are fluent speakers. Although languages have always become extinct throughout human history, they are currently dying at an accelerated rate because of globalization, imperialism, neocolonialism and linguicide (language killing). Language shift most commonly occurs when speakers switch to a language associated with social or economic power or spoken more widely, the ultimate result being language death. The general consensus is that there are between 6,000 and 7,000 languages currently spoken. Some linguists estimate that between 50% and 90% of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Niger–Congo Languages
Niger–Congo is a hypothetical language family spoken over the majority of sub-Saharan Africa. It unites the Mande languages, the Atlantic-Congo languages (which share a characteristic noun class system), and possibly several smaller groups of languages that are difficult to classify. If valid, Niger-Congo would be the world's largest in terms of member languages, the third-largest in terms of speakers, and Africa's largest in terms of geographical area.Irene Thompson"Niger-Congo Language Family" "aboutworldlanguages", March 2015 It is generally considered to be the world's largest language family in terms of the number of distinct languages, just ahead of Austronesian, although this is complicated by the ambiguity about what constitutes a distinct language; the number of named Niger–Congo languages listed by ''Ethnologue'' is 1,540. If valid, it would be the third-largest language family in the world by number of native speakers, comprising around 700 million people as of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sherbro People
The Sherbro people are a native people of Sierra Leone, who speak the Sherbro language; they make up 1.9% of Sierra Leone's population or 134,606. The Sherbro are found primarily in their homeland in Bonthe District, where they make up 40% of the population, in coastal areas of Moyamba District, and in the Western Area of Sierra Leone, particularly in Freetown. During pre-colonial days, the Sherbro were one of the most dominant ethnic group in Sierra Leone, but in the early 21st century, the Sherbro comprise a small minority in the nation. The Sherbro speak their own language, called Sherbro language. The Sherbro are divided into two main groups: the Sherbro in Southeastern Sierra Leone, and the Sherbro in the Western Area of Sierra Leone. The Sherbro in Southeastern Sierra Leone, which is home to most of the Sherbro population of Sierra Leone, are a close ally of their neighbor the Mende people, and most Sherbro in Southeastern Sierra Leone speak the Mende language and they h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Krio Language
Sierra Leonean Creole or Krio is an English-based creole language that is lingua franca and de facto national language spoken throughout the West African nation of Sierra Leone. Krio is spoken by 96 percent of the country's population, and it unites the different ethnic groups in the country, especially in their trade and social interaction with each other. Krio is the primary language of communication among Sierra Leoneans at home and abroad, and has also heavily influenced Sierra Leonean English. The language is native to the Sierra Leone Creole people, or Krios, a community of about 104,311 descendants of freed slaves from the West Indies, Canada, United States and the British Empire, and is spoken as a second language by millions of other Sierra Leoneans belonging to the country's indigenous tribes. English is Sierra Leone's official language, and Krio, despite its common use throughout the country, has no official status. Overview The Krio language is an offshoot of the lan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
English Language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the island of Great Britain. Existing on a dialect continuum with Scots, and then closest related to the Low Saxon and Frisian languages, English is genealogically West Germanic. However, its vocabulary is also distinctively influenced by dialects of France (about 29% of Modern English words) and Latin (also about 29%), plus some grammar and a small amount of core vocabulary influenced by Old Norse (a North Germanic language). Speakers of English are called Anglophones. The earliest forms of English, collectively known as Old English, evolved from a group of West Germanic (Ingvaeonic) dialects brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the 5th century and further mutated by Norse-speaking Viking settlers starting in the 8th and 9th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Schön
James Frederick Schön (1802, in Ober Weiler – 30 March 1889, in Chatham) was a German missionary and linguist who was active in Sierra Leone. He also participated in the Niger expedition of 1841. After attending the Basel Seminary, Schön attended the Church Missionary Society College in London. He qualified as a priest in 1832 and immediately went to Sierra Leone. He remained active with the Church Missionary Society until 1853. He became an expert on the Hausa language and was awarded an honorary doctorate from Oxford University in 1884. Works * ''Translations of seven Parables and Discources of our Lord Jesus Christ into the Sherbro Language of West Africa'' (1839) * ''Journal of the Niger Expedition'' (1842) * ''Vocabulary and Elements of Grammar of the Haussa Language'' (1843) * Translations of Genesis, Exodus, the Gospels, and the Acts of the Apostles into the Hausa Language (1857-1861) * ''Grammar of the Haussa Language'' (1862) * ''Dictionary of the Hausa Language'' ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Church Missionary Society
The Church Mission Society (CMS), formerly known as the Church Missionary Society, is a British mission society working with the Christians around the world. Founded in 1799, CMS has attracted over nine thousand men and women to serve as mission partners during its 200-year history. The society has also given its name "CMS" to a number of daughter organisations around the world, including Australia and New Zealand, which have now become independent. History Foundation The original proposal for the mission came from Charles Grant and George Uday of the East India Company and David Brown, of Calcutta, who sent a proposal in 1787 to William Wilberforce, then a young member of parliament, and Charles Simeon, a young clergyman at Cambridge University. The ''Society for Missions to Africa and the East'' (as the society was first called) was founded on 12 April 1799 at a meeting of the Eclectic Society, supported by members of the Clapham Sect, a group of activist Anglicans who met ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
