dc.contributor.author	Kluge, Angela
dc.date.accessioned	2008-06-17T01:34:52Z
dc.date.available	2008-06-17T01:34:52Z
dc.date.issued	2007-12-17
dc.description.abstract	For large language continua, such as Gbe of West Africa, a major challenge stakeholders concerned with language planning issues are facing is the question of the extensibility of written materials. To adequately inform language development program decisions in terms of literature extensibility, ideally, in-depth sociolinguistic studies would be conducted in all of the varieties involved, an undertaking that proves rather unfeasible for large continua.This paper proposes that when applying a multifaceted approach to linguistic data interpretation, such in-depth sociolinguistic studies may be unnecessary. This paper compares the findings of synchronic analyses of lexical and grammatical features elicited among 49 Gbe varieties to the outcomes of more recent Rapid Appraisal sociolinguistic surveys, and the findings of two diachronic studies. In considering the different approaches as complementing rather than contradicting each other, the proposed multifaceted approach exemplifies how different outcomes from various studies may be used to inform focused in-depth sociolinguistic research. Such research would in turn directly influence language program development decisions as to the extensibility of already existing literature to the remaining speech communities of the continuum.
dc.description.sponsorship	National Foreign Language Resource Center
dc.identifier.citation	Kluge, Angela. 2007. The Gbe language continuum of West Africa: A synchronic typological approach to prioritizing in-depth sociolinguistic research on literature extensibility. Language Documentation & Conservation 1(2): 182–215.
dc.identifier.issn	1934-5275
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10125/1714
dc.language.iso	eng
dc.publisher	University of Hawai'i Press
dc.subject	Gbe
dc.subject	West Africa
dc.subject	literature extensibility
dc.subject	synchronic typological approach
dc.subject	Rapid Appraisal sociolinguistic surveys
dc.subject	diachronic studies
dc.title	The Gbe Language Continuum of West Africa: A Synchronic Typological Approach to Prioritizing In-depth Sociolinguistic Research on Literature Extensibility
dc.type	Article
dc.type.dcmi	Text
prism.endingpage	239
prism.number	2
prism.publicationname	Language Documentation & Conservation
prism.startingpage	216
prism.volume	1

The Gbe Language Continuum of West Africa: A Synchronic Typological Approach to Prioritizing In-depth Sociolinguistic Research on Literature Extensibility

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