User:A12n/todo

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The thought of starting a to-do page on Wikipedia is somewhat staggering. As if there aren't enough other things in life and work that merit attention - and priority - without committing more time to this medium. Nevertheless here are a few:

African languages

Attention to specific articles

I've been particularly interested in pages on the Fula language (Fulfulde, Pulaar, Pular) and the Manding languages (Bambara, Maninka, etc.). For Fula I'm also part of the WikiProject on Fula.

Languages of (African country)

Here I adapt (mostly copy) the list from Mark Dingemanse's to-do:

Most of Africa is multilingual - the countries where one language predominates are few, and even there, there is the same overlay of a former colonial language as everywhere else on the continent. This merits more attention. The neat primary-color "Anglophone or Francophone or Lusophone" (not to forget one Hispanophone) painting of the African linguistic map hides an immense linguistic heritage and diversity. At the same time, the "Tower of Babel" image of Africa - the continent suffers from extreme opposite images in many ways - hides both the interinteligibility of many tongues we list separately and the skill of Africans in learning and adapting language(s) to their needs. To treat African realities as if language were an insignificant factor (sibling to the notion that African languages & linguistics are the domain of study reserved for a small and unusual group of linguists and anthropologists) does a disservice, and indeed an injustice, to Africa and Africans. I'm amazed how often I can leaf through a new treatise on Africa - history, struggles with development, whatever - and find that language is barely mentioned if at all (the toc's and indexes often have nothing).

Anyway, it is IMHO a matter both of principle and of practical importance to expand awareness of the languages in Africa and link that to other factors. Longwinded way of saying that attention to completing the set of articles listed below, and enriching the content in each, can be one small way of moving in a more positive direction. BTW, I also agree with what Mark says in his preface to this list on his page (linked above).

Other

  • Adobe & Mudbrick - how can I say? The difference here is something like that between tomayto and tomahto - it's who's doing the talking. There are lots of kinds and varieties of tomato, but the different pronunciation doesn't tell us anything about those. Similarly, there are differences in ways of building with earthen bricks, in the quality of the earth used and what is added to it, etc. The two Wikipedia articles need to be merged, remixed, and put into a more practical framework.
  • Development communication has been much improved recently (by late 2007), but needs more info from African perspectives, and probably also from the viewpoint of languages.
  • More (when is there time to make to do lists of things you don't have time to do?)
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