Language use in the Epena District of northern Congo
By Dr. Bill Gardner
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Dr. Bill Gardner
This paper, based on two language surveys conducted in 1988 and 1989, addresses the question "What language do you speak?" for the people of the district of Epena in the Likouala Region of the People's Republic of the Congo. The goals of the study were to:
- Inventory all the languages and dialects spoken in the district;
- Clarify their relationships with each other and neighboring languages;
- Measure the degree of intelligibility between speakers of different language varieties, specifically among the Bomitaba people;
- Investigate the particular situations the people use specific languages;
- Provide some bases for making a recommendation concerning the need and desirability for a vernacular literacy project in one or more of the languages of the district and propose the location of such a project, if needed.
This is a peer reviewed Article
Article in
Publisher: SIL International
Year: 2006