Tima
One of the central aims of the documentation project for the Tima language is to provide a practical multi-media dictionary with some 2000 entries plus derived forms. To this end, Tima words and sentences will be translated into the national language Arabic and into English. Moreover, as many entries as possible will be linked to sound files in order to display the proper pronunciation of these words. In addition, photographs from the environment and the material culture will illustrate the daily life of the Tima people in the Nuba mountains.
Another important aim is to cover a wide range of local genre types, such as narrative as well as procedural discourse, dialogues and songs. The collected data will enable Mrs. Abeer Bashir and Mrs. Suzan Alamin to analyse the phonetic/phonological system of the language on the one side and its morphological structure on the other side as part of their doctoral dissertation projects. Since the texts will not only be audio-taped but also video-taped, the same data will also provide a basis for an examination of non-verbal aspects of communication among the Tima.
Dr. Abdel Rahim Mugaddam is responsible for the sociolinguistic aspects of the project. He will investigate the degree of multilingualism in the Tima community; more specifically, he will clarify in which domains Tima is preferred to Arabic or other languages.
