User:A12n/todo

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:

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).


 * Languages of Algeria &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Languages of Angola &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Languages of Benin &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Languages of Botswana &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Languages of Burkina Faso &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Languages of Burundi &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Languages of Cameroon &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Languages of Cape Verde &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Languages of the Central African Republic &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Languages of Chad &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Languages of Côte d'Ivoire &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Languages of the Democratic Republic of the Congo &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Languages of the Republic of the Congo &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Languages of Djibouti &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Languages of Egypt (includes small portion of territory in Asia) &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Languages of Eritrea &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Languages of Ethiopia &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Languages of Equatorial Guinea &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Languages of Gabon &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Languages of The Gambia &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Languages of Ghana &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Languages of Guinea &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Languages of Guinea-Bissau &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Languages of Kenya &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Languages of Lesotho &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Languages of Liberia &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Languages of Libya &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Languages of Madagascar &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Languages of Malawi &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Languages of Mali &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Languages of Mauritania &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Languages of Morocco &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue,
 * Languages of Mozambique &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Languages of Namibia &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Languages of Niger &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Languages of Nigeria &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Languages of Rwanda &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Languages of São Tomé and Príncipe &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Languages of Senegal &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Languages of Sierra Leone &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Languages of Somalia (Somaliland &mdash; Puntland &mdash; Southwestern Somalia) &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Languages of South Africa &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Languages of Sudan &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Languages of Swaziland &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Languages of Tanzania &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Useful links: CBOLD Tanzanian Language Survey, The Languages of Tanzania (Maho & Sands)
 * Languages of Togo &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Languages of Tunisia &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Languages of Uganda &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Languages of Western Sahara &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue
 * Languages of Zambia &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n
 * Useful link: Languages of Zambia
 * Languages of Zimbabwe &mdash; (cat) &mdash; Ethnologue, PanAfriL10n

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?)