Living Grammar Sketches
Living Grammar Sketches present concise yet authoritative grammatical introductions to under-researched, endangered, and minority languages spoken in Africa. Each volume is authored by a team of linguists, including at least one native speaker of the language described.
We call these publications “Living Grammar Sketches” because they are dynamic, collaborative projects that will continue to evolve. The PDFs found on this page will be updated over time.
Structure of a Living Grammar Sketch
The sketches follow a consistent and transparent structure, covering the sound system (phonetics), morphosyntax (verbal and non-verbal), and basic word order, thereby ensuring both comparability across volumes and accessibility for a broad readership, for scholarly and pedagogical purposes.
License
These works are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Always provide attribution when citing these works.
Arusa
PDF link: A Living Grammar Sketch of Arusa (by Michael Karani & Andrason)
Arusa is a Nilotic language spoken by a Maasai ethnic group inhabiting the Arusa region in northern Tanzania close to the Mount Kilimanjaro. Arusa is a Maasai dialect, Maasai being the standard language of the broad Maasai community located in Kenya and Tanzania. Apart from Arusa, Maasai also includes Samburu, Ilchamus, Kisongo, Parakuyo, Ilkeekoɲokie, Purko and Ilwasiŋgiʃu, as well as several other self-identified ethnic and sub-ethnic groups and their linguistic varieties. Arusa is one of the three Maasai dialects spoken in Tanzania.
A Living Grammar Sketch of Arusa constitutes the second, substantially revised edition of the grammar of Arusha, a Nilotic language spoken by a Maasai community in the Arusa region of northern Tanzania, near Mount Kilimanjaro. This edition significantly updates the earlier publication, with major improvements and expansions, particularly in the treatment of phonetics.
Teŋukan Dogon
PDF link: A Living Grammar Sketch of Teŋukan Dogon (by Idrissa Sagara & Alexander Andrason)
In A Living Grammar Sketch of Teŋukan, readers are offered the first comprehensive grammatical description of one of the most under-documented languages within the Togo–Teŋukan dialectal continuum and, more broadly, the Dogon language family.
Teŋukan is spoken in the Dourou community, approximately twenty kilometers from Bandiagara, the regional and cercle capital, and nearly 700 kilometers from Bamako, the capital of Mali.
Teŋukan is one of the dialects of Togo Teŋukan – a Dogon language spoken by approximately 127 000 people in the south-eastern region of the Dogon country, in the area between the escarpment of Bandiagara and the non-Dogon fringe that penetrates some 20-30 km north-west from the Burkina border into Mali. Togo-Teŋukan is not a single uniform language but rather a linguistic continuum contained between two main dialectal poles, i.e., Togokan and Teŋukan.
Mingang Doso
PDF link: A Living Grammar Sketch of Mingang Doso (by Peace Benson & Alexander Andrason)
A Living Grammar Sketch of Mingang Doso provides the first scholarly introduction to a minority Adamawa language spoken in a small area of Taraba State, Nigeria. Prior to this volume, the grammatical structure of Mingang Doso had not been described in the linguistic literature, making this sketch a significant contribution to the documentation of the Adamawa languages.
Mingang Doso [mko] – also known as Munga, Mingã, and Doso – is spoken in a village called Munga in Karim-Lamido Local Government Area of Taraba State in Nigeria. The inhabitants of the Munga village live in four quarters, known by the Hausa term angwa: Bunkachi /bunkətʃi/, Bunkaubu /bunkəubu/, Bugbamui /bugbamui/, and Bwei /bwei/. The speakers called their language Nwa Mingã and to themselves they refer as Mwə Mingã.
Tjwao
PDF link: A Living Grammar Sketch of Tjwao (by Admire Phiri & Alexander Andrason)
The volume A Living Grammar Sketch of Tjwao aims to familiarize readers with a Khoe–Kwadi language spoken in the Tsholotsho District of western Zimbabwe and belonging to the Kalahari Khoe linguistic group. Tjwao is critically endangered, with fewer than ten elderly native speakers remaining, underscoring the urgency and importance of its documentation.
Tjwao (Glottolog: tshw 1239 / ISO: hio) is spoken in the Tsholotsho district of western Zimbabwe. Tjwao belongs to the Khoe-Kwadi branch of the Kalahari Khoe linguistic group. The comparative analysis suggests that Tjwao is closely related to languages spoken in eastern Botswana commonly referred to as Tshwa (tsoa1238 / hio), particularly the doculects Hiechware, Ganadi, and Gǁabak’e, as well as Tcire-Tcire.