{"id":585,"date":"2022-01-11T14:38:59","date_gmt":"2022-01-11T14:38:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/living-language-land.org\/?p=585"},"modified":"2022-01-11T14:39:00","modified_gmt":"2022-01-11T14:39:00","slug":"collaborative-documentation-of-siphuthi-in-lesotho","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/living-language-land.org\/es\/collaborative-documentation-of-siphuthi-in-lesotho\/","title":{"rendered":"Collaborative documentation of siPhuthi in Lesotho"},"content":{"rendered":"

SiPhuthi is spoken by a few thousand ebaPhuthi, most of whom reside in southern Lesotho. Intergenerational language transmission \u2013 in which children acquire siPhuthi from their parents and grandparents \u2013 is confined to two remote river valleys, Daliwe and Sinxondo. Even in these two valleys, when ebaPhuthi marry Basotho or amaXhosa, siPhuthi is often no longer used in the home environment. In these mixed marriages, children grow up speaking Sesotho or isiXhosa as their main languages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For over a decade, we have been pursuing our passion and have been working as a team in supporting marginalised communities in documenting and revitalising their threatened languages. Since 2016, we closely collaborate with ebaPhuthi in Lesotho and South Africa. Over the last six years, we have been recording siPhuthi<\/a> narratives, conversations, interviews, folktales, oral histories and poems for present and future generations. We also support the production of materials in siPhuthi, such as COVID health awareness posters<\/a>. Together with siPhuthi speakers, we are producing a quadrilingual siPhuthi-Sesotho-isiXhosa-English dictionary, which we hope will serve as a basis for the development of learning and teaching materials for siPhuthi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We regularly facilitate language documentation workshops for community members, since we strongly believe that the speakers should have agency to decide on how and by whom their languages are being documented. From 17th<\/sup> to 22nd<\/sup>November 2021, we trained six young ebaPhuthi from Daliwe and Sinxondo in language documentation methods and techniques. These young fluent siPhuthi speakers might well be considered key guardians of their threatened language and culture. <\/strong>This workshop took place in a Corona-safe environment at the Bethel Business and Community Development Centre (BBCDC)<\/a>, a vocational training centre in one of the most marginalised parts of Lesotho.<\/p>\n\n\n\n