Linguistics
project: Documentation of endangered languages and cultures in the Nigeria-Cameroon borderland
Grant Holder: David Zeitlyn
The Nigeria-Cameroon borderland is one of the most linguistically diverse regions of the world, with many languages either near extinction or severely endangered. This project builds on previous work by the participants in surveying and documenting endangered languages in this region. One example is the language of the Somyewe, a small group of blacksmiths whose language and culture are on the verge of disappearing. Documentation of two other local languages will also be undertaken. [read more]
project: The Cairo Genizah manuscripts: Taylor-Schechter Old Series and the Mosseri Collection
Grant Holder: Dr Ben Outhwaite
The project aims to complete the cataloguing and detailed description of the Old Series of the Taylor-Schechter Cairo Genizah Collection and a substantial proportion of the Jacques Mosseri Genizah Collection. The T-S Collection consists of approx. 193,000 medieval (and early modern) Jewish manuscripts recovered from a storeroom (Genizah) in Old Cairo one hundred years ago, and is an unparalleled resource for the study of medieval Judaism, Islam and the history of the Mediterranean and Near East in the Middle Ages. The Old Series is the historical core of the Collection, and approx. [read more]
project: Angloromani: A structural and functional description
Grant Holder: Professor Yaron Matras
English Romanes - also called 'Angloromani' by researchers - is the language or speech form of the English and Welsh Romani Gypsies. Earlier generations of British Gypsies spoke a dialect of Romani that was closely related to the Romani dialects of continental Europe. Knowledge and use of Romani declined among Gypsies in Britain during the nineteenth century, and today what remains of the language is mainly a vocabulary of words of Romani origin. English Gypsies often use these Romani words within their English conversation. [read more]
project: Sudamih (Supporting Data Management Infrastructure for the Humanities)
Grant Holder:
The Supporting Data Management Infrastructure for the Humanities (Sudamih) Project aims to address a coherent range of requirements for the more effective management of data (broadly defined) within the Humanities at an institutional level. Whilst the project is fully embedded within the institutional context of Oxford University, the methodologies, outputs and outcomes will be of relevance to other research-led universities, especially but not only, in their support of research within the humanities. [read more]
project: Germanic possessive -s : an empirical, historical and theoretical study
Grant Holder: Professor Kersti Börjars
Two much-debated questions in recent theoretical linguistics concern the historical origin of grammatical markers and their synchronic status. Researchers have adduced key evidence for both from the evolution of English possessive -s and the related but subtly different constructions in Swedish and Dutch. What has not to date been attempted, and what the present proposal offers, is a systematic synchronic and diachronic comparison of these constructions across all three languages. [read more]
project: Revision of the Anglo-Norman Dictionary, F-H
Grant Holder: Professor David Trotter
The Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND) is the only serious attempt to present in its entirety the vocabulary of this form of French from which so much of modern English derives, and as such, it is a fundamental scholarly resource for the history of English, as well as of French, and of medieval society. [read more]