Executive, The LAG

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Ghana Journal of Linguistics 2.2: 55-57 (2013)  55   CONFERENCE REPORTS International Conference on Hausa in the Diaspora The 1st international conference on Hausa in the Diaspora was held at the University of Bayreuth, Germany, from 4th to 9th June, 2013. The sessions took place at Bayreuth International Graduate School of African Studies (BIGSAS) and at Iwalewa Haus, under the leadership of Professor Dymitr Ibriszimow, the director of BIGSAS. It was sponsored by Fritz Thyssen Foundation (Germany).  The theme for the meeting was Hausa in the Diaspora. It was a preliminary meeting on how to document the Hausa spoken outside the main Hausa speaking areas (northern Nigeria). The opening address was delivered by Professor Dymitr Ibriszimow and Dr Michael Broß. They emphasised the need to document Hausa in Diaspora. As we all know, Hausa as a language has received a lot of documentation from linguists but very little has been written on the type of Hausa spoken outside Hausa land.  The participants came from Germany, England, Poland, Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso and Ghana. All the presentations centered on the features, distribution and roles of Hausa outside Hausaland. Some of the topics discussed were: sources on the distribution of Hausa in southern Ghana before the 1940s, the role of Hausa language in the Savanna region in Togo, Hausa areas and their role in Benin, Sign language in the Hausa Diaspora, Hausa spoken in Burkina: a sketch of a phonological description, Hausa outside Hausaland proper in Nigeria – variation of linguistic norm, sociolinguistic status and communicative function (the data from Jos, Ilorin, and Ibadan). Two of the presenters came from Ghana, namely: Professor M. E. Kropp Dakubu of University of Ghana and Mohammed Sadat of University of Professional Studies, Accra, but Professor Dakubu was unable to attend and her paper was presented by Mr. Sadat. Hausa sign language was not left out in the presentations.  Participants were made to understand some of the peculiarities of Hausa sign language.  After the presentations on various topics, group discussions by the participants took place on the following topics:  Designing of questionnaires ( either for elicitation of language data or for sociolinguistic research)  Research methods,   Expected and already found features of Diaspora Hausa,   History and the Hausa Diaspora   Language shift Ghana Journal of Linguistics 2.2: 55-56 (2013)  56   Creolisation and pidginisation. The participants were then tasked to work assiduously towards the documentation of Diaspora Hausa. The participants finally had a very good time at the Turkish Restaurant Deniz, Schulstraße. Mohammed Sadat  LINGUISTICS ASSOCIATION OF GHANA, 6TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE The Linguistics Association of Ghana held its 6th annual conference at the Centre for Continuing Education, University of Cape Coast from the 29th to the 31st of July, 2013. The welcome address was given by Prof. Dora Edu-Buandoh, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, UCC. The keynote speech for the conference, which had the theme Language Use in Specific Domains: Realities, Challenges and Prospects was delivered by Professor Kofi Agyekum, the immediate past head of the Linguistics Department at the University of Ghana. His presentation was titled ‘Language and Development: Challenges and Prospects’ In total, there were sixty-five presentations, including the keynote address. The presentations were made in seven parallel sessions. The topics of the presentations spanned the areas of semantics, pragmatics, syntax, phonetics, phonology, morphology, language and literature, language teaching and acquisition, evolution, media and language change, code-switching and bilingualism, language use, and language and discourse.  Eighty-five registered participants were recorded for the conference. The various participants from Ghana came from the University of Cape Coast, University of Ghana, University of Education Winneba, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Central University College, Koforidua Polytechnic, Ashesi University, University of Professional Studies, UMAT, Wisconsin University College and Dominion University College. There were also participants from the University of Lagos and Adenisan Ogunsanya College of Education, Lagos. Other participants came from the University of California, Los Angeles, University of Florida, Indiana University, Bloomington, University of Lome, Togo, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Aston University, UK and the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. Other highlights of the conference were a business/general meeting and an excursion to the Cape Coast and Elmina Castles. The two major LAG activities announced for 2014 are the 4th Annual LAG workshop scheduled for Friday 17th Ghana Journal of Linguistics 2.2: 55-57 (2013)  57  January, 2014 at the University of Education, Winneba, and the 7th Annual LAG Conference, slated for the 28th through 30th of July, 2014.  The LAG Executive   Ghana Journal of Linguistics 2.2: 55-56 (2013)  58   

CONFERENCE REPORTS: International Conference on Hausa in the Diaspora

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CONFERENCE REPORTS: International Conference on Hausa in the Diaspora

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