The Executive Secretary of ACALAN, Dr. Lang Fafa Dampha has presented the terms of reference for the ongoing linguistic atlas project.

He made the presentation at the just concluded meeting of ACALAN with CERTODOLA and CICIBA on the Linguistic Atlas project, held in Cameroon in December 2018.

The Linguistic Atlas project is one of ACALAN’s core projects whose objective is to determine the precise number of African languages, their interrelations and dialectical differences. The project is also expected to determine the number of speakers of each African language, their distribution, status, and the availability of language policies in the African Union each African Union Member State among other things.

Universities and other institutions of higher learning are expected to play a major role in research for the project while the Member States will be involved through ACALAN’s National Structures and the civil society.

Training will also be offered to people involved in the project if the need arises to build capacity to ensure continuity of the project.

The first phase of the project will involve countries and regions where linguistic atlases exist, while the second phase will involve countries with low population density and fewer languages and then larger countries with no atlas.