RFD: HUMANITIES.LANGUAGE.COMPARATIVE.AFRICAN

[T.Matthew Ciolek]

Forwarded message:
--------------------------------------------
To: ENDANGERED-LANGUAGES-L at coombs.anu.edu.au
From: nicolai at unice.fr (Robert Nicolai)
Subject: RFD: HUMANITIES.LANGUAGE.COMPARATIVE.AFRICAN

Il y a un mois (16 octobre 1995) j'avais poste une information concernant
un projet de creation d'un nouveau newsgroup sous le titre :

rfd : sci.lang.compar.africa

dont la finalite concernait  :

- d'une part la recherche comparative sur les langues africaines de la zone
sahelo-saharienne

- d'autre part la recherche en general sur les methodes, les modeles et les
theories qui sont utilises dans ce champ, plus particulierement dans leur
rapport aux langues sans traditions ecrites.

-----------

En fait ce RFD n'a pas ete poste officiellement a cause d'une erreur de
procedure de ma part et aussi parce qu'il est apparu souhaitable de
modifier son intitule en l'inserant dans une nouvelle hierarchie :
'humanities.language' plutot que 'sci.lang'

En consequence il se peut que certains lecteurs aient cherche en vain ce
RFD dans le newsgroup  "news.groups" ou la discussion a son sujet doit etre
conduite.
Je m'excuse aupres d'eux de les avoir fait chercher en vain.

MAINTENANT ce RFD est officiellement poste sur 'NEWS.GROUP' (17 novembre).
La discussion est effectivement ouverte aux chercheurs interesses. Sa
charte n'a pas change. Seul son titre a ete modifie de la facon suivante:

RFD : HUMANITIES.LANGUAGE.COMPARATIVE.AFRICAN

Avec encore mes excuses pour le contretemps

Robert Nicolai.
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Rappel de la charte :

            REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION (RFD)
       moderated group humanities.language.comparative.african

This a formal Request For Discussion concerning the creation of a new
moderated newsgroup called humanities.language.comparative.african.
This is not a Call For Votes (CFV). Please do not vote at this time.

RATIONALE: humanities.language.comparative.african

Research on African Languages; all with the exception of Bantu, is at
present non-existent in discussions carried out within Newsgroups or
on mailing lists. This is also true of comparative research on African
Languages.

It is for this reason that a group of comparative linguistics
specialists dealing in African languages of the Sahel region
(http://lolita.unice.fr/~rn/GDRE_orig.html) proposes to create a
newsgroup entitled:

               humanities.language.comparative.african

The group formed as a network around a research project concerned with
lexical distribution in the Sahel-Sahara zone, as well as with the
study of linguistic connections among languages in the region.  It is
a French CNRS research organism

CHARTER: humanities.language.comparative.african

As a moderated group, humanities.language.comparative.african would be
open to topics where comparative linguistics in african languages are
the subject of discussion, this would include :

 - languages and language families present in the
   Sahel-Sahara zone: Mande, Chadic, Berber, Nilo-Saharan...
 - Analysis of results obtained in the research on genetic
   relationships.
 - Problems related to the description of changes in the
   context of languages of oral tradition.
 - Understanding linguistic changes and all the relevant
   factors concerning language transformation.

Research workers who do not specialize in the above-mentioned
languages, but who nevertheless are interested in general issues of
theoretical or methodological value for the work carried out or
research tools involved, are welcome to contribute.

Issues of the following type will thus be discussed:
 - Empirical issues (Particular facts pertaining to a language or a
   group).
 - Methodological issues (Procedures and methods of description).
 - Theoretical issues (Principles of language change).
 - Epistemological or cognitive issues (The validity of established
   facts and how these are obtained).

Contributions can be posted either in English or in French.

Moderation Policy:

Contributions liables to be refused :

  1) off-topic articles
  2) gross profanity and indecency
  3) binaries
  4) advertising
  5) non-specialist articles

END CHARTER.

MODERATOR INFO: humanities.language.comparative.african

humanities.language.comparative.african will be a moderated group. The group
has designated Robert Nicolai, initiator and director of the project, as
Moderator.

Moderator: Robert Nicolai <nicolai at unice.fr>

END MODERATOR INFO.

PROCEDURE:

This message initiates a discussion period to consider the creation of
a humanities.language.comparative.african newsgroup. Discussion will
take place on news.groups. If discussions are made in other
newsgroups, they should always be cross-posted to news.groups.

* This is not a call for votes. Please do not attempt to vote now.

A call for votes (CFV) will be issued approximately 4 weeks after this
RFD. When the CFV is posted, there will be instructions on how to mail
your votes to the independent vote-taker.

DISTRIBUTION:

This RFD is in accordance with the Guidelines for Newsgroups Creation, and
has been cross-posted to the following relevant newsgroups:

news.announce.newgroups,news.groups,sci.lang,soc.culture.nigeria,
soc.culture.africa.

----------------------------------------
Robert NICOLAI
GDRE 1172 CNRS - UNSA
63 boulevard de la Madeleine
06000 NICE - FRANCE
Tel. (33) 93 97 59 39
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- forwarded -