Thesis (MScEng (Electrical and Electronic Engineering))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The importance of Language Identification for African languages is seeing a dramatic increase due to the development of telecommunication infrastructure and, as a result, an increase in volumes of data and speech traffic in public networks. By automatically processing the raw speech data the vital assistance given to people in distress can be speeded up, by referring their calls to a person knowledgeable in that language. To this effect a speech corpus was developed and various algorithms were implemented and tested on raw telephone speech data. These algorithms entailed data preparation, signal processing, and statistical analysis aimed at discriminating between languages. The statistical model of Gaussian Mixture Models (GMMs) were chosen for this research due to their ability to represent an entire language with a single stochastic model that does not require phonetic transcription. Language Identification for African languages using GMMs is feasible, although there are some few challenges like proper classification and accurate study into the relationship of langauges that need to be overcome. Other methods that make use of phonetically transcribed data need to be explored and tested with the new corpus for the research to be more rigorous. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die belang van die Taal identifiseer vir Afrika-tale is sien ’n dramatiese toename te danke aan die ontwikkeling van telekommunikasie-infrastruktuur en as gevolg ’n toename in volumes van data en spraak verkeer in die openbaar netwerke.Deur outomaties verwerking van die ruwe toespraak gegee die noodsaaklike hulp verleen aan mense in nood kan word vinniger-up ”, deur te verwys hul oproepe na ’n persoon ingelichte in daardie taal. Tot hierdie effek van ’n toespraak corpus het ontwikkel en die verskillende algoritmes is gemplementeer en getoets op die ruwe telefoon toespraak gegee.Hierdie algoritmes behels die data voorbereiding, seinverwerking, en statistiese analise wat gerig is op onderskei tussen tale.Die statistiese model van Gauss Mengsel Modelle (GGM) was gekies is vir hierdie navorsing as gevolg van hul vermo te verteenwoordig ’n hele taal met’ n enkele stogastiese model wat nodig nie fonetiese tanscription nie. Taal identifiseer vir die Afrikatale gebruik GGM haalbaar is, alhoewel daar enkele paar uitdagings soos behoorlike klassifikasie en akkurate ondersoek na die verhouding van TALE wat moet oorkom moet word.Ander metodes wat gebruik maak van foneties getranskribeerde data nodig om ondersoek te word en getoets word met die nuwe corpus vir die ondersoek te word strenger.

The study sought to explore possibilities of using indigenous African languages of Zimbabwe as official media of instruction in the education system. The aim was to find out the extent to which indigenous African languages could be used as languages of instruction in primary, secondary and tertiary levels of the education system. The other objective of the study was to examine the attitudes of Zimbabweans towards the use of the mother tongue as medium of instruction in schools. A total of 1000 participants took part in this study, which included 200 teachers, 300 parents/guardians and 500 learners. Questionnaires and interviews were the main techniques used to collect data and the processing of the collected data was both qualitative and quantitative. Information collected from the questionnaires was mainly presented in tables and information from interviews was presented qualitatively in words. The study revealed that Zimbabwe inherited from colonial Rhodesia a language policy that marginalizes the use of indigenous African languages in the education system. English continues to be the prestige-laden language enjoying high status while indigenous languages enjoy relatively low status. Study findings clearly show that the majority of the participants prefer English to be the medium of instruction in both secondary and tertiary education because it is a language that gives power and prestige. The study concludes that Zimbabwe can never regain its dignity and cultural identity unless the education system is African oriented. The continued use of English as medium of instruction means that no scientific ideas can be formulated using African languages in the present schooling system leading to perpetual scientific bankruptcy. The study finally recommends the need for a linguistic revolution and calls for a change in the country’s language policy so as to avoid the exclusion of the majority from public and national developmental discourse. / African Languages / D.Litt et Phil. (African Languages)

M.A. (African Languages) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

In the context of rapid urbanization, globalization, market liberalization, and growing flexibility of labor in the post-Fordist era, urban environments have seen economic opportunities and employment in the formal sector become increasingly less available to the vast majority of urban dwellers in both high-income and low-income countries. The intersectional forces of globalization, and neoliberalization have contributed to the ever-growing role of informal economic opportunities in providing the necessary income to fulfill household needs for individuals throughout the world and have also influenced social, cultural, and spatial organization of informal sector workers. Using a case study and ethnographic information from several regions of southern Ghana, this research examines the way in which informal sector food vendors in Ghana are imbedded in larger global food networks as well as how globalization is experienced by vendors at the ground level.

Desde os primeiros trabalhos lingüísticos efetuados sobre o quimbundo, língua banta H20 na classificação de Guthrie (1948), nota-se uma ausência de informações detalhadas e confiáveis a respeito de elementos sua estrutura prosódica e de sua fonologia como um todo. Essa lacuna me instigou a realizar, seguindo o quadro de pesquisas sobre as línguas africanas estabelecido pelo Departamento de Lingüística da Universidade de São Paulo, um estudo descritivo da fonologia segmental e supra-segmental do quimbundo, cujos resultados se organizam nesta tese de doutorado. O presente trabalho, tomando como base de investigação quatro variedades regionais representadas por cinco falantes nativos do quimbundo, abrange, no bojo da descrição lingüística, fenômenos verificáveis na estrutura segmental e prosódica da língua, tais como a harmonia vocálica, alterações de natureza fonética na configuração da estrutura silábica, casos de mudança de timbre vocálico, apagamento de segmentos, direção e extensão do espraiamento de traços consonantais e de tons fonológicos. Finalmente, a observação e a análise do fenômeno de sândi ao nível dos suprasegmentos permitem afirmar que o quimbundo utiliza variações de altura com valor distintivo apenas numa perspectiva paradigmática, o que comprova, portanto, seu estatuto de língua tonal. Acredito que a descrição aqui realizada é uma forma de lançar visibilidade ao quimbundo nas pesquisas sobre as línguas africanas e de atualizar as perspectivas de estudo da língua dentro das teorias lingüísticas. / From the first linguistic works on Kimbundu, a Bantu language coded as H20 according to Guthries zone classification (1948), there has been a lack of detailed and reliable information about the elements comprising its prosodic structure, and its phonology altogether. This gap has instigated my conducting a detailed description of both segmental and prosodic phonology of Kimbundu within the research framework for African languages set forth by the Linguistics Department of the University of São Paulo, and whose results make up this Ph.D. dissertation. Based on four regiolects represented by five native Kimbundu speakers, this descriptive study covers phenomena which can be found in the segmental and prosodic structure of this language, such as vowel harmony, phonetic alternations in the setup of the syllable structure, vowel quality changes, segment deletion, and the direction and range of consonantal feature and phonological tone spreading. Finally, the study of prosodic sandhi corroborates that Kimbundu makes use of different distinctive pitches only on a paradigmatic perspective, which proves true the claim that this is a tonal language. I strongly believe that this description work can be used to shed light upon Kimbundu on further research on African languages, in addition to updating the prospect studies of this language within linguistic theories.

Este trabalho propõe a análise da morfologia verbal do lembaama, que é uma língua do subgrupo banto (da floresta), B.62 (Guthrie, 1971), do grupo Benuê-Congo, do tronco Nigero-congolês. Como esta língua não apresenta nenhum estudo deste gênero, espera-se que esta primeira análise possibilite estudos posteriores neste e em outros campos linguísticos. A análise morfológica dos verbos revelou, primeiramente, que a estrutura verbal dessa língua é composta dos seguintes elementos: sujeito, índice do sujeito, negação1, marca de Tempo, raiz do verbo, extensão, vogal final ou marca de Aspecto, objeto(s) ou índice do objeto, negação2 que se seguem numa ordem fixa na oração. Constatamos que o índice do objeto, que é geralmente anteposto à raiz do verbo na maioria das línguas bantas, é posposto ao verbo em lembaama. A negação, por sua vez, é representada pelo morfema descontínuo composto por dois elementos: ka- (negação1) e -ní (negação2). Sendo que na estrutura verbal, ka- aparece depois do índice do sujeito (à esquerda da raiz do verbo) e -ni aparece depois do índice do objeto (à direita da raiz do verbo), é o último elemento da estrutura do verbo. Ao estudar a derivação verbal em lembaama, constatamos que a estrutura das extensões desta língua difere daquela encontrada nas outras línguas bantas pelo fato do lembaama ter acrescentado à estrutura -VC- preexistente no protobanto, estruturas do tipo -C-, -CV- e -CVC-. A extensão mais comum e mais fácil de ser reconhecida nessa língua é aquela que marca o habitual, tanto no presente (-ag-) como no passado (-ig-). O estudo dos sufixos derivativos do lembaama revelou também a existência de uma correlação entre o valor gramatical e o valor semântico das extensões. Vimos que seres humanos e animados são envolvidos em orações que apresentam uma transitividade alta. O estudo da transitividade mostrou-se, ainda, como uma noção fundamental nessa língua porque distingue ações e estados, por exemplo. Quanto à análise das categorias Tempo, Aspecto e Modo (TAM), essa língua evidenciou três tempos: um presente que não tem marcas e que se confunde com o presente pontual, o progressivo e o futuro. Dois futuros: um mais próximo, sem marcas, que se confunde com o presente pontual e o progressivo; outro, mais distante, marcado pelo verbo auxiliar odze \"ir\". Três passados: um recente, marcado pelo morfema mí- de tom alto e anteposto ao radical do verbo; um distante, marcado pelo morfema máá- de tom alto e anteposto ao radical do verbo; um remoto, expresso pela junção do verbo auxiliar -ki \"estar\" e o morfema do passado mí-. Assim, contrariamente aos morfemas de Aspectos, os morfemas de Tempo são sempre antepostos ao radical do verbo. É o caso dos dois morfemas que marcam os passados recente e distante. Há dois aspectos: o perfectivo, marcado pela vogal final -í; o imperfectivo, sem marca específica. A análise dos tempos e dos aspectos revelou que o Aspecto é mais fundamental em lembaama. O estudo dos modos permitiu identificar três: o imperativo, o condicional e o indicativo. / This work proposes an analysis of the verbal morphology of Lembaama (B62) according to Guthrie (1971). Officially called Obamba in Gabon, Lembaama is a Bantu language of the forest, from the Benue-Congo group and Niger-Congo phylum. As far as we know, this language has yet to receive a detailed study. It should be noted that Lembaama shows some interesting features. Indeed, the verbal morphology analysis shows that a single inflected verb contains the following elements: subject, subject marker, negative1, Tense marker, root, extension, Final Vowel or Aspect marker, negative2 occurring in a fix order in a sentence. The object marker comes after the root. Negation consists of a discontinuous morpheme: kaní. Ka- is placed before the root (by the left) and -ní occurs after the root (by the right) being the last element of this structure. The verbal derivation study reveals the following structure of Lembaama extensions: -C-, -CV-, -VC- and -CVC-.The habitual marker -ag- being the commonest extension. This study also highlights the existence of a correlation between the grammatical value and the semantic value of extensions. Hence, human and animate beings are evoked in clauses with higher transitivity than things. Therefore, transitivity is fundamental in Lembaama, as it can distinguish actions from states, for example. Tense, Aspect and Mood study defines three Tenses. First, there is a present that, because it is used without tense marker, can be merged with near future or with progressive. Then, we note two future tenses: a near future (F1) occurring without mark and a distant future (F2) marked by the auxiliary verb odze go. Finally, we count three past tenses: a recent (P1) marked by mí- with a high tone; a distant (P2) marked by máá- with a high tone too, and a remote past (P3) marked by kí be, an auxiliary verb with high tone and mí-, the recent past marker, both coming before the root (by the left). Thus, Tense marker morphemes are always placed before the root (by the left) and Aspect markers occur after the root (by the right). This analysis highlighted two Aspects: a perfective marked by the Final Vowel -í; an imperfective without a specific mark. Tense and Aspect analysis allows to conclude that Aspect is more fundamental than Tense in this language. Concerning Mood, the analysis revealed three: imperative, conditional and indicative.

Este trabalho propõe a análise da morfologia verbal do lembaama, que é uma língua do subgrupo banto (da floresta), B.62 (Guthrie, 1971), do grupo Benuê-Congo, do tronco Nigero-congolês. Como esta língua não apresenta nenhum estudo deste gênero, espera-se que esta primeira análise possibilite estudos posteriores neste e em outros campos linguísticos. A análise morfológica dos verbos revelou, primeiramente, que a estrutura verbal dessa língua é composta dos seguintes elementos: sujeito, índice do sujeito, negação1, marca de Tempo, raiz do verbo, extensão, vogal final ou marca de Aspecto, objeto(s) ou índice do objeto, negação2 que se seguem numa ordem fixa na oração. Constatamos que o índice do objeto, que é geralmente anteposto à raiz do verbo na maioria das línguas bantas, é posposto ao verbo em lembaama. A negação, por sua vez, é representada pelo morfema descontínuo composto por dois elementos: ka- (negação1) e -ní (negação2). Sendo que na estrutura verbal, ka- aparece depois do índice do sujeito (à esquerda da raiz do verbo) e -ni aparece depois do índice do objeto (à direita da raiz do verbo), é o último elemento da estrutura do verbo. Ao estudar a derivação verbal em lembaama, constatamos que a estrutura das extensões desta língua difere daquela encontrada nas outras línguas bantas pelo fato do lembaama ter acrescentado à estrutura -VC- preexistente no protobanto, estruturas do tipo -C-, -CV- e -CVC-. A extensão mais comum e mais fácil de ser reconhecida nessa língua é aquela que marca o habitual, tanto no presente (-ag-) como no passado (-ig-). O estudo dos sufixos derivativos do lembaama revelou também a existência de uma correlação entre o valor gramatical e o valor semântico das extensões. Vimos que seres humanos e animados são envolvidos em orações que apresentam uma transitividade alta. O estudo da transitividade mostrou-se, ainda, como uma noção fundamental nessa língua porque distingue ações e estados, por exemplo. Quanto à análise das categorias Tempo, Aspecto e Modo (TAM), essa língua evidenciou três tempos: um presente que não tem marcas e que se confunde com o presente pontual, o progressivo e o futuro. Dois futuros: um mais próximo, sem marcas, que se confunde com o presente pontual e o progressivo; outro, mais distante, marcado pelo verbo auxiliar odze \"ir\". Três passados: um recente, marcado pelo morfema mí- de tom alto e anteposto ao radical do verbo; um distante, marcado pelo morfema máá- de tom alto e anteposto ao radical do verbo; um remoto, expresso pela junção do verbo auxiliar -ki \"estar\" e o morfema do passado mí-. Assim, contrariamente aos morfemas de Aspectos, os morfemas de Tempo são sempre antepostos ao radical do verbo. É o caso dos dois morfemas que marcam os passados recente e distante. Há dois aspectos: o perfectivo, marcado pela vogal final -í; o imperfectivo, sem marca específica. A análise dos tempos e dos aspectos revelou que o Aspecto é mais fundamental em lembaama. O estudo dos modos permitiu identificar três: o imperativo, o condicional e o indicativo. / This work proposes an analysis of the verbal morphology of Lembaama (B62) according to Guthrie (1971). Officially called Obamba in Gabon, Lembaama is a Bantu language of the forest, from the Benue-Congo group and Niger-Congo phylum. As far as we know, this language has yet to receive a detailed study. It should be noted that Lembaama shows some interesting features. Indeed, the verbal morphology analysis shows that a single inflected verb contains the following elements: subject, subject marker, negative1, Tense marker, root, extension, Final Vowel or Aspect marker, negative2 occurring in a fix order in a sentence. The object marker comes after the root. Negation consists of a discontinuous morpheme: kaní. Ka- is placed before the root (by the left) and -ní occurs after the root (by the right) being the last element of this structure. The verbal derivation study reveals the following structure of Lembaama extensions: -C-, -CV-, -VC- and -CVC-.The habitual marker -ag- being the commonest extension. This study also highlights the existence of a correlation between the grammatical value and the semantic value of extensions. Hence, human and animate beings are evoked in clauses with higher transitivity than things. Therefore, transitivity is fundamental in Lembaama, as it can distinguish actions from states, for example. Tense, Aspect and Mood study defines three Tenses. First, there is a present that, because it is used without tense marker, can be merged with near future or with progressive. Then, we note two future tenses: a near future (F1) occurring without mark and a distant future (F2) marked by the auxiliary verb odze go. Finally, we count three past tenses: a recent (P1) marked by mí- with a high tone; a distant (P2) marked by máá- with a high tone too, and a remote past (P3) marked by kí be, an auxiliary verb with high tone and mí-, the recent past marker, both coming before the root (by the left). Thus, Tense marker morphemes are always placed before the root (by the left) and Aspect markers occur after the root (by the right). This analysis highlighted two Aspects: a perfective marked by the Final Vowel -í; an imperfective without a specific mark. Tense and Aspect analysis allows to conclude that Aspect is more fundamental than Tense in this language. Concerning Mood, the analysis revealed three: imperative, conditional and indicative.

Thesis (Ph.D. (Language Education)) --University of Limpopo, 2018. / Refer to document

Low-income immigrants in the United States experience declining health with increasing length of stay in the country. Their declining health over time has been associated with increased smoking, obesity prevalence, and higher risk for developing diabetes and heart disease. How immigrants perceive their body weight and size, influenced by social interaction, culture, gender, and acculturation is also significant to healthy weight maintenance. Not knowing one's healthy weight could result in body weight misperception and resistance to attaining a healthy weight. The aim of this qualitative study, based on the social constructivist framework, was to understand Nigerian women immigrants' (NWI's) body weight self-perceptions (BWSPs), their experiences with weight changes after immigration, and what it meant to them within their historical, immigration, and cultural contexts. Data were collected from audio recorded interviews of 8 purposefully selected NWIs living in Middle Tennessee. After a process of content analysis of transcribed interviews using NVivo, participants' BWSPs were described and interpreted using hermeneutic phenomenology. The key findings of this research were that participants perceived themselves overweight compared to when they had just immigrated to the United States; believed that age, marriage, change in environment and food contributed to their weight gain; and were not accepting of their weight gain, which led them to eating healthier and moving more in order to lose weight. Findings from this research have social change implications for reducing health disparities by disseminating timely health information accessible to immigrants to educate them about nutrition and physical activity behaviors for healthy weight maintenance.

Leadership on the African continent has been a focus of scholars as African nations have incredible human and natural resources but seem to be bereft of the leaders necessary to capitalize on its opportunities. Researchers acknowledge that the barrier to progress in the developing world is not the deficiency of money or natural resources, but suggested it to be the lack of leadership. Researchers have demonstrated reasons for this deficiency including the effects of the colonial system upon people and civil service systems, but have yet been able to establish a promising path to economic and social progress. Leaders in Kenya provided promising solutions in the national strategic plan, Kenya Vision 2030, to move it to a first world economy within 25 years. One of the foundations of the plan was public service reform with a flagship project to establish the Kenya School of Government to develop transformative leadership training and fill the leadership gap. The purpose of this study was to investigate, understand, and describe the process and progress of this strategic goal of Kenya's public service reform. The transformational leadership theory approach of Burns (1978) was used as the locus point for the study. Using a qualitative case study method, interview data were gathered from persons in Kenya who were integrally involved in the design and development of this strategic goal. The result of the analysis was that development of training for transformative leadership was an intentional goal which was seen as critical for national success. I described how the strategy was begun and implemented. Kenya and other developing countries may benefit from the results of this study as it provides a possible roadmap of leadership training for national progress.