Greater Swahili – Swahili Varieties in L2+ Swahili Teaching

In this paper, I focus on what we could call the ‘myth of Standard Swahili’ and its consequences for language teaching. Instead of distinguishing between ‘standard’ and ‘deviant’ varieties of Swahili, I suggest the term Greater Swahili to designate the whole of the varieties spoken in Africa and the African diaspora. Starting with some remarks on the ‘ideal’ Swahili speaker and the standardization of Swahili (a thoroughly political decision), this paper focuses on the challenge of using a Standard for teaching while language learners will meet mostly speakers of Greater Swahili. The diversity in the ways of speaking is not only a challenge for language teachers and learners, but also for speakers of the so-called core area. I will then discuss some examples to illustrate acceptance and comprehension of Greater Swahili by L2+ Swahili students. May aim is to underline the importance of Greater Swahili varieties for Swahili Studies

Komorisch im transnationalen Kontext

Die Untersuchung widmet sich dem plurilingualen Repertoire der komorischen SprecherInnengemeinschaften in Marseille und im transnationalen Raum unter primär funktionaler Perspektive. Dieses sprachliche Repertoire umfasst potentiell sechs verschiedene Sprachen und deren Varietäten: Komorisch (bestehend aus vier inselspezifischen Varietäten bzw. Dialekten: ShiNgazidja/Grande Comore, ShiMwali/Mohéli, ShiNdzuani/Anjouan, ShiMaore/Mayotte), Swahili, Arabisch, Französisch, Malagasy und ShiBushi. Ausgehend von einer Analyse des soziolinguistischen Kontextes auf den Komoren und in Frankreich, der Untersuchung von Spracheinstellung und Sprachverwendung, Status, Prestige und Funktion wird aufgezeigt, wie sich die individuelle und kollektive Mehrsprachigkeit gestaltet. Zunächst liegt der Fokus auf dem Status und dem damit verbundenen Prestige, das die SprecherInnen den einzelnen Varietäten und Sprachen zuweisen. Damit verbunden ist auch die Funktionalität der Sprachen und Varietäten in ihrem spezifischen Kontext. Die sprachliche Situation auf den Komoren zeichnet sich dadurch aus, dass neben den komorischen Varietäten seit Beginn der Seefahrt auch Arabisch und Swahili eine Rolle spielen und seit der Kolonisation durch Frankreich auch Französisch. Die Migration der KomorianerInnen nach Frankreich brachte für die bereits plurilingualen KomorianerInnen der Erstgeneration deshalb keine traumatische neue Erfahrung mit einer unbekannten Sprache mit sich, sondern die KomorianerInnen fanden und finden sich in einer Umgebung, die dadurch gekennzeichnet ist, dass sie von einem Code (Französisch) – über den die komorischen SprecherInnen innerhalb ihres plurilingualen Repertoires verfügen – dominiert ist. Von besonderem Interesse ist der Umstand, dass im vorliegenden Fall Swahili, als eine der Sprachen im Repertoire der SprecherInnengemeinschaft, als Lingua Franca fungieren könnte, dies von den SprecherInnen aber sehr unterschiedlich beurteilt wird und es zeigt sich, dass Französisch in vielen Fällen die Rolle als Lingua Franca übernommen hat. Eine linguistisch klare Abgrenzung der komorischen Varietäten gestaltet sich schwierig und auch die SprecherInnen selbst nehmen manchmal eine Differenzierung vor und manchmal nicht. Angenommen wird in diesem Zusammenhang, dass eine Unterscheidung der Varietäten durch SprecherInnen keine formal-linguistische Grundlage hat, sondern sowohl auf den komorischen Inseln, als auch in Frankreich identitätsstiftende Relevanz besitzt. Anhand von Interviewauszügen wird illustriert, wie Status, Prestige und Funktionen der Varietäten und Sprachen von den InterviewparterInnenexplizit und implizit zum Ausdruck gebracht und eingeschätzt werden. In einem zweiten Teil wird die aktuelle Sprachverwendung der KomorianerInnen in Frankreich und im transnationalen Kontext mithilfe des Konzepts des plurilingualen Modus (Matras 2009) beschrieben und analysiert. Dieser plurilinguale Modus charakterisiert das Verhältnis der Sprachen/Codes in einem Repertoire. Innerhalb dieses Modus wird zwischen den Codes gewechselt; diese Wechsel werden mit Hilfe des Code-Copying Framework von Johanson (2002a, 2002b, 2002c) und des Matrix Language Frame Model von Myers-Scotton (2002, 2006) analysiert, wobei davon ausgegangen wird, dass die Codes keinem dominierten respektive dominanten Code entsprechen. Dabei zeigt sich, dass plurilinguale SprecherInnen einer multilingualen Gemeinschaft in einem spezifischen kommunikativen Kontext diejenigen sprachlichen Ressourcen verwenden, die ihnen für eine erfolgreiche Verständigung als zielführend erscheinen. In einem letzten Teil werden die Strategien aufgezeigt, mit welchen sich die komorischen SprecherInnen eine der Situation angemessene soziale Identität (oder mehrere Identitäten) schaffen und auch, dass die SprecherInnen die individuelle Plurilingualität nicht mehr nur als problembehaftet einschätzen, sondern vermehrt den Wert ihrer Ressource erkennen und auch nutzen.The study focuses on the plurilingual repertoire of the Comorian language community in Marseille and in transnational spaces from a functional perspective. This linguistic repertoire potentially includes six different languages and their varieties: Comorian (consisting of four island specific dialects or rather varieties: ShiNgazidja/Grande Comore, ShiMwali/Mohéli, ShiNdzuani/Anjouan, ShiMaore/Mayotte), Swahili, Arabic, French, Malagasy and ShiBushi. Based on the analysis of the sociolinguistic context on the Comoro islands and in France as well as the examination of language attitude and language use, status, prestige and function, it will be illustrated, how individual and collective multilingualism has evolved. At first, the status and subsequent prestige that speakers ascribe to the different language varieties will be examined. This also entails the functionality of the languages and varieties in their particular contexts. The Comoro islands’ linguistic setting reflects its history; apart from the Comorian varieties, Arabic and Swahili have been prominent since early seafaring and trade interactions. While starting with the French colonisation, the French language has become equally important. Thus, for the already plurilingual Comorian first generation immigrants, migration to France was not a traumatic experience with respect to an unknown language. Instead, Comorians found and find themselves in an environment, which is characterised and dominated by a code (French) that Comorian speakers already have at their disposal owing to their plurilingual repertoire. Of particular interest is the fact that Swahili – one of the languages within the language community’s repertoire – could serve as a lingua franca, but speakers diverge in their respective assessments of its importance as it becomes quite obvious that in many cases French has assumed the role of lingua franca. From a linguistic perspective, an unambiguous classification of the Comorian varieties is difficult, and also the Comorian speakers sometimes differentiate between the varieties and at other times they do not. In this context it is argued that the speakers’ distinction of varieties is not based on formal linguistic principals, but rather their identity formation not only in Comoro Islands but also in France. By means of interview extracts, the interviewees’ explicit and implicit perceptions of the status, prestige and functions of the varieties and languages are examined. The second part of the study investigates the current Comorian’s language use in France from a transnational context with reference to the concept of a plurilingual mode (Matras 2009). The plurilingual mode characterises the relation between languages/codes within a repertoire. In this mode, speakers switch between codes; those switches are analysed by means of Johanson’s (20021, 2002b, 2002c) Code-Copying Framework and Myers-Scotton’s (2002, 2006) Matrix Language Frame Model, based on the assumption that the codes cannot be classified as dominated and dominant code respectively. The analysis displays that within a particular communicative context the multilingual community’s plurilingual speakers use those lingual resources, which they consider useful for a successful communication. Finally, the doctoral thesis examines the strategies that Comorian speakers use in forming a situational adequate social identity (or multiple identities). In addition, the finding that speakers no longer deem the individual plurilingualism as problematic, but increasingly realise and exploit their resource’s value will be discussed

Greater Swahili – Swahili Varieties in L2+ Swahili Teaching

In this paper, I focus on what we could call the ‘myth of Standard Swahili’ and its consequences for language teaching. Instead of distinguishing between ‘standard’ and ‘deviant’ varieties of Swahili, I suggest the term Greater Swahili to designate the whole of the varieties spoken in Africa and the African diaspora. Starting with some remarks on the ‘ideal’ Swahili speaker and the standardization of Swahili (a thoroughly political decision), this paper focuses on the challenge of using a Standard for teaching while language learners will meet mostly speakers of Greater Swahili. The diversity in the ways of speaking is not only a challenge for language teachers and learners, but also for speakers of the so-called core area. I will then discuss some examples to illustrate acceptance and comprehension of Greater Swahili by L2+ Swahili students. May aim is to underline the importance of Greater Swahili varieties for Swahili Studies

Greater Swahili – Swahili Varieties in L2+ Swahili Teaching

In this paper, I focus on what we could call the ‘myth of Standard Swahili’ and its consequences for language teaching. Instead of distinguishing between ‘standard’ and ‘deviant’ varieties of Swahili, I suggest the term Greater Swahili to designate the whole of the varieties spoken in Africa and the African diaspora. Starting with some remarks on the ‘ideal’ Swahili speaker and the standardization of Swahili (a thoroughly political decision), this paper focuses on the challenge of using a Standard for teaching while language learners will meet mostly speakers of Greater Swahili. The diversity in the ways of speaking is not only a challenge for language teachers and learners, but also for speakers of the so-called core area. I will then discuss some examples to illustrate acceptance and comprehension of Greater Swahili by L2+ Swahili students. May aim is to underline the importance of Greater Swahili varieties for Swahili Studies

STIM1 Juxtaposes ER to Phagosomes, Generating Ca(2+) Hotspots that Boost Phagocytosis

BACKGROUND: Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membranes are recruited to phagosomes, but the mechanism and functional significance of this ER recruitment is not known. Here, we show that the ER Ca(2+) sensor stromal interaction molecule 1 (STIM1) sustains high-efficiency phagocytosis by recruiting thin ER cisternae that interact productively but do not fuse with phagosomes. RESULTS: Endogenous STIM1 was recruited to phagosomes upon ER Ca(2+) depletion in mouse neutrophils, and exogenous YFP-STIM1 puncta coincided with localized Ca(2+) elevations around phagosomes in fibroblasts expressing phagocytic receptors. STIM1 ablation decreased phagocytosis, ER-phagosome contacts, and periphagosomal Ca(2+) elevations in both neutrophils and fibroblasts, whereas STIM1 re-expression in Stim1(-/-) fibroblasts rescued these defects, promoted the formation and elongation of tight ER-phagosome contacts upon ER Ca(2+) depletion and increased the shedding of periphagosomal actin rings. Re-expression of a signaling-deficient STIM1 mutant unable to open Ca(2+) channels recruited ER cisternae to the vicinity of phagosomes but failed to rescue phagocytosis, actin shedding, and periphagosomal Ca(2+) elevations. The periphagosomal Ca(2+) hotspots were decreased by extracellular Ca(2+) chelation and by Ca(2+) channels inhibitors, revealing that the Ca(2+) ions originate at least in part from phagosomes. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that STIM1 recruits ER cisternae near phagosomes for signaling purposes and that the opening of phagosomal Ca(2+) channels generates localized Ca(2+) elevations that promote high-efficiency phagocytosis

Single-cell transcriptomics of 20 mouse organs creates a "Tabula Muris"

Here we present a compendium of single-cell transcriptomic data from the model organism Mus musculus that comprises more than 100,000 cells from 20 organs and tissues. These data represent a new resource for cell biology, reveal gene expression in poorly characterized cell populations and enable the direct and controlled comparison of gene expression in cell types that are shared between tissues, such as T lymphocytes and endothelial cells from different anatomical locations. Two distinct technical approaches were used for most organs: one approach, microfluidic droplet-based 3'-end counting, enabled the survey of thousands of cells at relatively low coverage, whereas the other, full-length transcript analysis based on fluorescence-activated cell sorting, enabled the characterization of cell types with high sensitivity and coverage. The cumulative data provide the foundation for an atlas of transcriptomic cell biology