iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Jenneke van der Wal @jennekevanderwal.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Zo exciting! Onze Stemmen van Afrika scheurkalender is in de voorverkoop - volg de link en bestel ‘m alvast! www.universityshopleiden.nl/nl/boeken/57...

universityshopleiden.nl

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Hilde Gunnink @hildegunnink.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

I'm so glad Bonny Sands' 'Click Consonants' book starts with this. Now I can cite it as scientific fact.

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Lameen Souag @lameensouag.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

A nice sketch of Hadza, a isolated language with clicks spoken in northern Tanzania journals.flvc.org/sal/article/...

journals.flvc.org

A sketch of Hadza grammar | Studies in African Linguistics

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Jenneke van der Wal @jennekevanderwal.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Voorproefje van wat er over een maand komt: de Stemmen van Afrika scheurkalender! We zijn druk bezig met de laatste dagen nakijken, maar wat wordt ‘ie tof! Nog even geduld en je kan ‘m bestellen voor al je vrienden 🤩

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Hilde Gunnink @hildegunnink.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

This includes my project on the lost languages of Southern Africa! Thanks to @erc.europa.eu for the funding, and to @fwovlaanderen.bsky.social for almost 8 (!) years of postdoctoral funding that made this project possible. Very excited to get started!

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Hilde Gunnink @hildegunnink.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

This one should go on my academic cv honestly

Certificate reading "Reading award/ Leestoekennig / Umvuzo Wokufunda" awarded to Hilde Gunnink in July 1997

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Hilde Gunnink @hildegunnink.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Someone should do this for linguists! Or maybe they already have?

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Hilde Gunnink @hildegunnink.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Bij de anti-immigrantenprotesten in Zuid-Afrika, op 30 juni, bleef de gevreesde geweldsgolf uit, maar de vreemdelingenhaat is nooit ver. Gek eigenlijk, want bijna iedereen die in Zuid-Afrika woont is daar door migraties uit de laatste 1000 jaar terecht gekomen: stemmenvanafrika.nl/anti-migrati...

stemmenvanafrika.nl

Anti-migratie protesten in Zuid-Afrika: Maar is iedereen niet een migrant? – Stemmen van Afrika

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Hilde Gunnink @hildegunnink.bsky.social · 19/06/2026

Linguistic fieldwork in South Africa, day 1 Investigating possible tonal depression in South African English. Preliminary results: yes, mostly in native speakers of Nguni languages. Native speakers of isiZulu realize the tonal depression as a rising tone, speakers of isiXhosa as a low tone.

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Hilde Gunnink @hildegunnink.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

If students get to use AI in writing their thesis, do I get to use AI in evaluating it? 🤔

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Hilde Gunnink @hildegunnink.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

9 papers on auxiliary verb constructions in Bantu languages! Special issue of the Nordic Journal of African studies, edited by Rasmus Bernander, Eva-Marie Bloom Ström, Thera Marie Crane, Ponsiano Kanijo and myself. njas.fi/njas/issue/v...

njas.fi

Vol. 35 No. 1 (2026): NJAS Special Issue: Auxiliary Verb Constructions in Bantu Languages | Nordic Journal of African Studies

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Jenneke van der Wal @jennekevanderwal.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

De Mol moest deze aflevering zinnen uit het Swahili vertalen - daar heeft Stemmen van Afrika natuurlijk wel iets over te zeggen! En hoe zit het precies met de Kilimanjaro? #widm #widm2026 stemmenvanafrika.nl/wie-is-de-mo...

stemmenvanafrika.nl

Wie is de mol en wat spreekt’ie in Tanzania (deel 4) – Stemmen van Afrika

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Jenneke van der Wal @jennekevanderwal.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

Ophef over de openingszin van The Lion King, met zelfs een rechtszaak over de vertaling, kopte de NOS. Maar hoe zit het nu met die zin, gaat het over een leeuw of een koning? (Of allebei?) @hildegunnink.bsky.social legt het uit!

stemmenvanafrika.nl

Een leeuw of een koning? Controverse over het openingslied van The Lion King – Stemmen van Afrika

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Hilde Gunnink @hildegunnink.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

I've never understood the term "monitor lizard". What is he monitoring?

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Jenneke van der Wal @jennekevanderwal.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

Wie is de mol 2026 is geland in Tanzania! En nog wel in het taalkundig meest interessante gebied, bij het Manyarameer! Lees hier wat er zo speciaal is: #widm #widm2026

stemmenvanafrika.nl

Wie is de mol en wat spreekt’ie in Tanzania? (deel 1) – Stemmen van Afrika

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Hilde Gunnink @hildegunnink.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

Ah yes, the three things one is most likely to twirl

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Hilde Gunnink @hildegunnink.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

Glad to learn there is a Great Zimbabwe University, sad to learn their motto is not "Make Zimbabwe Great Again"

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Hilde Gunnink @hildegunnink.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

This ethical clearance for linguistic fieldwork is giving me a headache. How is this ethical. People are being harmed in the context of this research

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Hilde Gunnink @hildegunnink.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

"Wil je macaroni?" "Nee, maca-NIET-roni!"

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Hilde Gunnink @hildegunnink.bsky.social · 31/01/2026

He @volkskrant.nl, promovendi hebben ook namen, zelfs als het vrouwen zijn

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Hilde Gunnink @hildegunnink.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

I'll be talking in this HAAM-Radio webinar on "Advances in reconstructing past demography, interactions, and social organisation in Africa", 28 January 2026, 15:00 CET. Register for the Zoom link if you want to hear the latest on African population history: haam-community.github.io/events/2025/...

haam-community.github.io

HAAM-Radio #5 - January 2026: Advances in reconstructing past demography, interactions, and social organisation in Africa. · HAAM Community

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Hilde Gunnink @hildegunnink.bsky.social · 23/12/2025

Vijfjarige, op weg naar de supermarkt: "Six-seven!" Random boomer: "Hé, hij kan in het Engels tellen!"

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Hilde Gunnink @hildegunnink.bsky.social · 21/12/2025

I've been reading this to my five year old with an alveolar click for three nights now. So far he's replacing it with a velar stop but I will persevere

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Hilde Gunnink @hildegunnink.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

Trying to type !Xoon/Taa in Excel is really breaking my keyboard, my Excel file, and my will to live.

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Hilde Gunnink @hildegunnink.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

The semester is done! The students in the linguistic fieldwork class were ready for a party, it seems

Notes from a linguistic fieldwork class on isiZulu
iphi ibhiya 'where is the beer?'
uphi utshwala 'where is the alcohol?'
kuphi ukudla 'where is the food?'

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Jenneke van der Wal @jennekevanderwal.bsky.social · 03/10/2025

CALL FOR COLLABORATORS The MapLE project is looking for 5 collaborators working on African languages, to collect and analyse data on the speaker’s and addressee’s knowledge in grammar. Will you join our project? See the website for details: epistemicity.net/call-collabo...

epistemicity.net

Call collaborators

Call for collaborators MapLE project The NWO Vici project ‘Mapping Linguistic Epistemicity’ (MapLE) invites 5 collaborators to help with data collection and analysis. Come join the MapLE team! Desc…

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Reposted by Hilde Gunnink

Nordic Journal of African Studies @njas.fi · 26/09/2025

✨New issue alert (Vol 34, No 3)!✨ As always, NJAS is fully free and #OpenAccess. Check it out now! ⬇️⬇️⬇️ njas.fi/njas/issue/v...

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Reposted by Hilde Gunnink

Elisabeth J. Kerr @elisabethjkerr.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

Come join us in Ghent next year for #Bantu11! The first cfp is out, with workshop proposals due October 15th (the next deadline will be December 1st for abstract submissions, which can be to a workshop or the general session) www.bantugent.ugent.be/bantu11/

bantugent.ugent.be

Bantu 11 Conference – BantUGent – UGent Centre for Bantu Studies

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Hilde Gunnink @hildegunnink.bsky.social · 14/09/2025

"She was living in her Updown world"

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Hilde Gunnink @hildegunnink.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

Click insertions in the wild (thread)

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Hilde Gunnink @hildegunnink.bsky.social · 29/08/2025

Share your favourite words, etymologies, idioms, proverbs and riddles in African languages! stemmenvanafrika.nl/contact/

stemmenvanafrika.nl

Contact – Stemmen van Afrika

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Hilde Gunnink @hildegunnink.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

Who invented wine glasses? Who designed the most instable type of glass and said right, let's put the stuff that make you clumsy in it

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Hilde Gunnink @hildegunnink.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

Subtle (and not so subtle) racism in old (and not so old) publications on South African languages: a thread

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Hilde Gunnink @hildegunnink.bsky.social · 29/07/2025

Why is it always "my collaborators don't speak English" and never "I don't speak isiZulu"? (from Corrigan et al. 2011, "Ethnobotanical plant uses in the KwaNibela Peninsula, St Lucia, South Africa", South African Journal of Botany 77: 346-359)

Translators were used to communicate with the experts, who were not familiar with the English language.

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Hilde Gunnink @hildegunnink.bsky.social · 25/07/2025

Auer (1977: 459) reconstructs the word *ngamote 'room' to Proto-Sotho, whose perfect regularity clearly proves that Afrikaans contact predated the break-up of Proto-Sotho. 🙃

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Hilde Gunnink @hildegunnink.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

Metalinguistic data only it's data about which linguists hate each other, which linguists are married to each other, etc.

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Hilde Gunnink @hildegunnink.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

No Turnitin, the student did not "swap letters with similar characters from another alphabet". They're called phonetic symbols

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Hilde Gunnink @hildegunnink.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

How many South African place names are relics from languages that are no longer spoken there? Well, since 15% of recorded place names don't have an etymology in a known South African language, my guess is close to 15%.

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Hilde Gunnink @hildegunnink.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

I just read and graded a thesis in less time than it took Turnitin to check it for plagiarism, but please, do tell me about how AI will make humans obsolete.

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Hilde Gunnink @hildegunnink.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

I have two review speeds: right away and never.

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Hilde Gunnink @hildegunnink.bsky.social · 13/06/2025

Came across three versions of a Xhosa children's song played while counting the fingers in the Greater Xhosa Dictionary. Version three is a bit disturbing:

NguNini lo; This is Nini;
NguNtlang' ozibhene lo; This is the dispersed tribe;
Ntlambo-mathanjana; Valley of bones;
Gcunise le nkankanka; Heaps of bones the result of spearing;
Mnt' omkhulu lo. The grown-up person this.

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Hilde Gunnink @hildegunnink.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

New data! The origin of Sesotho click words: osf.io/txp87/files/...

osf.io

OSF

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Hilde Gunnink @hildegunnink.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

Why does every noun change into an adjective-modified noun phrase? "Urban spaces" instead of "cities", "female bodies" instead of "women", "linguistic codes" instead of "languages"...

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