The Bureau of Ghana languages hosts Yale’s associate Professor Jason Shaw for Africa’s first-ever electromagnetic articulography experiment

 

First, of its kind in Africa, the Bureau of Ghana Languages is hosting a team from Yale University to perform Africa’s first-ever Electromagnetic Articulography experiment on the Dangme language. 

Led by Yale Associate Professor and the Director of Phonetics Labs at Yale, Prof Jason Shaw, the team was excited to take a trip to Ghana when they came in contact with the Dangme language through a Dangme-speaking student at Yale, Simon Charwey. Curious to learn and collect more data on the complex language segments, the team moved its very complex and sensitive machines to experiment with the support of the Bureau of Ghana languages. 

An Electromagnetic Articulography experiment studies the movement of the tongue and the lips during speech. The team is particularly interested in studying Ghanaian languages because there is very little data of that type for any language in Ghana. Before they arrived in Ghana, only two Ghanaian Ewe speakers had done the experiment conducted in the US about 30 years ago when the technology was developed. 

Extending its support to Prof. Jason Shaw and his independent collaborators, the Bureau of Ghana Languages offered its state-of-the-art studio setup. It hosted the team in Ghana, which was important for properly collecting the data needed for the orthography and the development of the writing system experiment in Africa. 

The research will help understand the cognitive function of the language, the diversity, and the documentation of the signs of languages. For Ghanaians, this experiment means resources for Ghanaian languages for education, development material for teaching, and aiding literacy level so other people can learn the Dangme language.

On the global front, a successful experiment of the diverse Ghanaian languages will raise the global profile and acknowledgment of the Ghanaian language moving it towards an official status through scientific study and documentation. 

Hopefully, this opens the gateway to more research to fill the language gap in the study and digitization of African languages for global use. 

Written by:

Tilly Akua Nipaa