New Roles for African Languages with the New Electronic Media - Kölner UniversitätsPublikationsServer

Pasch, Helma (2005). New Roles for African Languages with the New Electronic Media. In: UNSPECIFIED. Paper. Open Access

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Abstract

Mass communication is not new in Africa. Until the mid-20th century aural surrogate languages were used to convey messages which would immediately reach many listeners and which could even be transmitted when the telephone line was interrupted, in particular in Western and Central Africa. The comprehension of these languages depended on the mastership of the spoken language and basically all speakers could understand messages transferred by drum, gong or whistle. With the introduction of writing and printed literature a division emerged according to which certain types of written/printed information were restricted to non-African languages or available also in African languages. While basically all types of literature can be printed or imported in English or French, the production (or import) of literature in African languages is basically restricted to religious texts and to fiction, but hardly any non-fiction. Letter-writing to family members overseas was for a long time the only type of written communication carried out � if at all � in African languages. The new media bring the chances of significant changes in the choice of languages for written information. While making books is expensive, the production of websites is fairly cheap. This offers the chance to produce written texts in African languages which formerly could not be published for economy reasons.

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Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

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Abstract

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Massenkommunikation ist kein neues Phönomen in Afrika. Bis zum 20. Jahrhundert dienten u.a. Trommelsprachen zu diesem Zweck. Sie basierten auf den Strukturen der mündlich gesprochenen lokalen Sprachen. Mit der Einführung von Schrift und gedruckten Medien erfolgte eine Teilung der Sprachen, in denen gedruckte Texte veröffentlicht wurden, und solchen, auf die das nicht zutraf. Wichtige Informationen wurden vorwiegend in den europäischen Sprachen veröffentlicht. Mit dem Zugang zum Internet können aufgrund der geringen Kosten nun auch afrikanische Sprachen als Medien genutzt werden.

German

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