The SLC* is a collaborative effort documenting the language and culture of the Sherbro people. Collaboration involves the Sherbro people but also host-country linguists and linguistics students from the national university. The emphasis is on training, developing local capacities, and on continuing support for the language after the project is formally completed. These goals depend on local support, of course, and all revolve around the central goal of language documentation.
The documentation consists of high quality audio and video recordings of the language used in different contexts, as determined in negotiation with the speech community. Traditional genres such as song, music, and dance have been recorded as well as daily activities such as fishing, food preparation, and normal interaction. Proverbs and folk tales, for example, are two popular genres that have been documented. The use of proverbs has often been a mark of oral skill and at the core of traditional knowledge in related cultures. Life histories form another documented genre and provide insights as to language attitudes and ideologies.
Activities are narrated by participants, and commentary provided post facto by others. One successful technique has been staged events, e.g., a bargaining session over a bata (five imperial gallons) of palm oil. There has been an emphasis on videotaping language use whenever possible.
The written output consists of both scholarly and locally desired products, the latter produced in collaboration with local constituencies. The scholarly portion will consist of the familiar troika of a grammar, a dictionary, and texts, as well as scholarly papers derived from those sources.
Popular written materials within the community are oral histories, folk tales, songs, and pedagogical materials. One particular request was for an English-Sherbro dictionary. There has been a strong focus on training community members to document, read and write their own language. Popular materials, including recordings and videos, have been provided to the community. All materials produced by the SLC will be archived at the Endangered Language Archive (ELAR) at the University of London, at Fourah Bay College, the University of Sierra Leone, and Portland State University in Portland, Oregon.
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* The SLC is supported by a major grant from the Endangered Language Documentation Programme at the University of London, which support is here gratefully acknowledged.
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