Ep 32: Michael Karani on Arusa Ideophone Documentation & Description

This month's episode is with Michael Karani from the University of Dar es Salaam. Michael teaches linguistics and communication studies at Dar es Salaam. He holds a BA and an MA in Linguistics from the University of Dar es Salaam and a PhD in African Languages from Stellenbosch University. Michael conducted fieldwork for his native language, Arusa, which is a Maasai dialect spoken in Arusha, northern Tanzania, where he studied the Arusa verb system during his MA studies. For his PhD research he investigated verb morphology and argument structure in the Parakuyo dialect, another Maasai dialect spoken in northern and coastal areas in Tanzania.

In this episode, we discuss Micheal's current research with Dr Alexander Andrason (Stellenbosch University) on Arusa ‘expressive grammar’, particularly ideophones, interjections and gestures.

Things mentioned in this episode:

• Maasai language
• Swahili
• The Arusa Verb System by Micheal Karani (2013)
• Micheal on Academia, Google Scholar & ResearchGate
• Ep 20: Andrew Harvey & Richard Griscom on Teamwork in the Field
• Field Notes Patreon