African languages - research
Traditionally, research in African languages at the University of Gothenburg has primarily focused on undocumented and endangered Bantu languages, from linguistic and grammatical as well as sociolinguistic perspectives. Current research focuses on Bantu languages in Rwanda, South Africa, and Tanzania, as well as Somali in Ethiopia and Somalia.
Our research
The University of Gothenburg is the only university in Scandinavia to offer a full academic program in African languages. Our activities encompass both education (with degrees available at Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctoral levels) and research.
Our research is largely based on fieldwork, and all members of the group have extensive experience in elicitation and documentation techniques. Corpus linguistic methods are also applied.
Research Presentations
At the Department of Languages and Literatures, research in the subject contributes to the research area Linguistic Structures. Research findings are regularly presented at international conferences and in peer-reviewed publications; further details can be found on the individual profile pages linked below.
Researchers in the field
Eva-Marie Bloom Ström, Associate Professor
Morgan Nilsson, Senior Lecturer
Somali; prosody; gender, number, agreement; tense, aspect, mode, taxis; standardisation, regional variation; corpora; grammaticography, lexicography.
Malin Petzell, Professor
Bantu languages, language description (documentation and analysis), nominal and verbal morphosyntax, aspectual classification of verbs, valency, tense/aspect/mood, language endangerment, and field methods.