Kenneth S. Olson

Current Research

• Rare speech sounds: The labiodental flap, the interdental approximant, the plain voiced linguolabial plosive, and bilabial trills.
• Language documentation: Digital wordlists: Digitally archiving and presenting wordlists that include audio recordings.
• The Mono language: A language spoken in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
• Niger-Congo classification: The largest language family in the world.

Rare speech sounds

Kenneth Olson conducts research on rare speech sounds around the world. These include the labiodental flap, found predominantly in central Africa, the interdental approximant, found in the Philippines and Western Australia, the plain voiced linguolabial plosive, found in Guinea-Bissau, and bilabial trills, found mostly in central Africa, Papua New Guinea, and Vanuatu.

References on rare speech sounds

• Harley, Matthew. 2012. Unusual sounds in Nigerian languages. In Roger Blench & Stuart McGill (eds.), Advances in minority language research in Nigeria, Volume 1, 39–66. (Kay Williamson Educational Foundation – African Languages Monographs 5.) Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.
• Keating, Christine A. 2007. A cross-linguistic overview of bilabial trills. Dallas, TX: Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics M.A. thesis.
• Mielke, Jeff, Kenneth S. Olson, Adam Baker & Diana Archangeli. 2011. Articulation of the Kagayanen interdental approximant: An ultrasound study. Journal of Phonetics 39(3). 403–412. DOI.
• Olson, Kenneth S. 2010. Bilabial trill genesis and language contact in DRC and Sudan. Paper presented at the 41st Annual Conference on African Linguistics, 6–8 May 2010, Toronto.
• Olson, Kenneth S. & Christine A. Keating. 2010. Crosslinguistic insights on bilabial trill genesis. Paper presented at the 84th Linguistic Society of America annual meeting, 7–10 January 2010, Baltimore, Maryland.
• Olson, Kenneth S., Jeff Mielke, Josephine Sanicas-Daguman, Carol Jean Pebley & Hugh J. Paterson III. 2010. The phonetic status of the (inter)dental approximant. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 40(2). 199–215.
DOI.
• Olson, Kenneth S., D. William Reiman, Fernando Sabio & Filipe Alberto da Silva. 2009. The voiced linguolabial plosive in Kajoko. Chicago Linguistic Society (CLS) 45(1). 519–530.

Language documentation: Digital wordlists

Kenneth Olson conducts research on best practices for the documentation of wordlists that include audio recordings, including issues of archiving and present-day access. To date, he has co-published five wordlists in online open-access linguistics journals (see below). The methodology employed in creating these wordlists is discussed in Simons, Olson & Frank (2007).

Key publications on digital wordlists

• Olson, Kenneth S., Emy T. Ballenas & Nilo M. Borromeo. 2009. Buhi’non (Bikol) digital wordlist: Presentation form. Language Documentation & Conservation 3(2). 213–225. URI.
• Olson, Kenneth S., Glenn Machlan & Nelson Amangao. 2008. Minangali (Kalinga) digital wordlist: Presentation form. Language Documentation & Conservation 2(1). 141–156. URI.
• Olson, Kenneth S. & Mbakuwuse Tshangbaita. 2009. Mono digital wordlist: Presentation form. Linguistic Discovery 7(1). 131–141. URL.
• Olson, Kenneth S. & Jacques Vermond Mbomate. 2007. Ngbugu digital wordlist: Presentation form. Linguistic Discovery 5(1). 40–47. URL.
• Olson, Kenneth S., Brian E. Schrag, Barbara Schrag, Ama Geangozo Mbanza, Kilio Tembenekuzu, Roger E. Olson, Marjorie Liedtke, Judy Kuntz & Lars Huttar. 2010. Mono 2000-item digital wordlist: Presentation form. SIL Language and Culture Documentation and Description 6. URL.
• Simons, Gary F., Kenneth S. Olson & Paul Frank. 2007. Ngbugu digital wordlist: A test case for best practices in archiving and presenting language documentation. Linguistic Discovery 5(1). 28–39. URL.

The Mono language

Kenneth Olson conducts research on the Mono language of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Mono is a Banda language, part of the larger Ubangian language group. The ISO 639–3 code (aka “Ethnologue code”) for Mono is mnh.

Olson’s book, The Phonology of Mono, describes the sound system of Mono. It can be ordered from the SIL International Academic Bookstore. To order, click here. A CD containing the audio recordings that accompany the book may be ordered by contacting the author directly.

For a listing of libraries that have The Phonology of Mono, check out the Worldcat entry for the book.

Key publications on Mono

• Kamanda-Kola, Roger. 2003. Phonologie et morpho-syntaxe du mono: Langue oubanguienne du Congo R.D. (LINCOM Studies in African Linguistics 60). Munich: LINCOM EUROPA.
  • This is a published version of his 1998 dissertation from the Université Libre de Bruxelles: Étude descriptive du mono: Langue oubanguienne du Congo (ex-Zaïre).
• Olson, Kenneth S. 1996. On the comparison and classification of Banda dialects. Chicago Linguistic Society (CLS) 32(1). 267–283.
• Olson, Kenneth S. 2004. Illustrations of the IPA: Mono. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 34(2). 233–238. DOI.
• Olson, Kenneth S. 2005. The phonology of Mono (SIL International and the University of Texas at Arlington Publications in Linguistics 140). Dallas: SIL & UTA.
  • This is a published version of his 2001 dissertation from the University of Chicago: The phonology and morphology of Mono.
• Olson, Kenneth S. & Brian E. Schrag. 2000. An overview of Mono phonology. In H. Ekkehard Wolff & Orin Gensler (eds.), Proceedings from the 2nd World Congress of African Linguistics, Leipzig 1997, 393–409. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.

Niger-Congo Classification

Kenneth Olson conducts research on the classification of the Niger-Congo language family. Niger-Congo contains an estimated 1,500 languages, i.e. about one-fifth of the world’s languages. The name “Niger-Congo” is from the two major rivers in the region.

The Niger-Congo languages cover most of sub-Saharan Africa. The northern border of the family stretches along a line between Senegal in the west and Kenya in the east. In the extreme southern part of the continent, Niger-Congo languages are intermingled with languages from the Khoisan family. The large Bantu subgroup of Niger-Congo covers most of Africa south of the equator.

Key publications on Niger-Congo

• Bendor-Samuel, John & Rhonda L. Hartell (eds.). 1989. The Niger-Congo languages: A classification and description of Africa’s largest language family. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
• Bennett, Patrick R. & Jan P. Sterk. 1977. South Central Niger-Congo: A reclassification. Studies in African Linguistics 8(3). 241–273.
• Greenberg, Joseph H. 1970 [1963]. The languages of Africa, 3rd edn. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University.
• Olson, Kenneth S. 2006. On Niger-Congo classification. In Howard I. Aronson, Donald L. Dyer, Victor A. Friedman, Daniela S. Hristova & Jerrold M. Sadock (eds.), The Bill question, 153–190. Bloomington, IN: Slavica.
  • Working paper version: Olson, Kenneth S. 2004. An evaluation of Niger-Congo classification. SIL Electronic Working Papers 2004–005. Dallas: SIL. URL.
• Stewart, John M. 1976. Towards Volta-Congo reconstruction (inaugural lecture). Leiden: University Press.
• Stewart, John M. 2002. The potential of Proto-Potou-Akanic-Bantu as a pilot Proto-Niger-Congo, and the reconstructions updated. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 23. 197–224.
• Westermann, Diedrich. 1927. Die westlichen Sudansprachen und ihre Beziehungen zum Bantu. Berlin: de Gruyter.
• Williamson, Kay & Roger Blench. 2000. Niger-Congo. In Bernd Heine & Derek Nurse (eds.), African languages: An introduction, 11–42. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.