Bird Names in African Languages (1 Viewer)

[Gompou]

Hi

I am doing research on bird names in African languages, especially the languages of Southern Africa. I have publsihed two articles. The ultimate goal is to standardise the names up to species level that has already been done in many other languages.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Paul Clapham]

Are those articles accessible on line?

 

[Gompou]

They were published in the newsletter of BirdLife Polokwane and can be downloaded here:

http://www.birdlifepolokwane.co.za/includes/downloads/newsletters/2021_0304_the_lark_issue_34_march_april_2021.pdf

and here:

http://www.birdlifepolokwane.co.za/includes/downloads/newsletters/2020_1112_the_lark_issue_32_november_december_2020.pdf

There is no index so you will have to search for the artciles in the newsletter.

 

[Andy Adcock]

Hi

I am doing research on bird names in African languages, especially the languages of Southern Africa. I have publsihed two articles. The ultimate goal is to standardise the names up to species level that has already been done in many other languages.

Any help would be appreciated.

All Afrikaan names are indexed at the back of the SASOL field guide although I suppose that Afrikaans, isn't really a truly African language?

 

[Paul Clapham]

When Roberts 7 was published, back in 2005, the website had a lot of background data (PDFs, spreadsheets, etc). One of the spreadsheets contained names for South African birds in many languages. As Andy suggests, the Afrikaans list was comprehensive, but the other languages, their lists were much as you described in your article. One name for all swallows, for example, or one for all francolins.

So it's likely that if you want for there to be a comprehensive list of South African birds in Zulu, for example, you would not only have to interview Zulu elders who might remember old bird names, you would also have to get a group of Zulu speakers to work on generating that list. Many names would be neologisms for Zulu, of course, but such things should be generated by Zulu speakers and not by outsiders, I think.