Papers by Meikal Mumin
Mumin, Meikal & Dimmendaal, Gerrit J. (2019). "A brief sketch of Chimiini with special focus on contact-induced phenomena". In Swahili Studies 26 (Special Issue: Variation in Swahili, ed. by Daisuke Shinagawa & Nico Nassenstein): 89-121., 2019
Chimiini is an Eastern Bantu language which until recently was spoken exclusively by inhabitants ... more Chimiini is an Eastern Bantu language which until recently was spoken exclusively by inhabitants of Brava, a coastal town of Southern Somalia (hence its alternative name, Bravanese). As illustrated in this paper, it shows traces of contact with northern varieties of Swahili such as Amu, Siu, Pate, and Mvita, to which it is closely related, and also of contact with the Cushitic languages Somali, Tunni, to Bajuni, as well as the Semitic language Arabic, and Italian and English. As further shown below, variation within Chimiini also reflects emblematic features of specific clans and lineages within the speech community. In addition, differences from earlier accounts of this language concerning the interpretation of its phonological and morphosyntactic structure are discussed in this paper.
Enabling multilingual domain names: addressing the challenges of the Arabic script top- level domains
Hussain, Sarmad et al. (2016). "Enabling multilingual domain names: addressing the challenges of the Arabic script top- level domains". Journal of Cyber Policy 1.1:107–129.
Domain names are a key to accessing content online. Even though much of the content is multilingu... more Domain names are a key to accessing content online. Even though much of the content is multilingual now, the domain names are still mostly limited to Latin characters. The paper focuses on the top-level domains, as a part of the Domain Name System (DNS), and explains the community-driven effort to make these multilingual using the internationalized domain name framework. The case of Arabic script is presented, highlighting the challenges faced for the script community in developing specific rules and recommendations to ensure the validity and uniqueness of labels for the DNS Root zone. The paper highlights the tension between enabling broadest expression with the domain names to facilitate the linguistic community while simultaneously adhering to the conservative procedure set out by the technical community to ensure the security and stability of the Root zone. The paper finally presents the details and evaluation of the proposed solution for the top-level domain names in Arabic script, addressing the end-user needs while minimizing the end-user confusion.
Books by Meikal Mumin
The Arabic script in Africa contains sixteen papers on the past and present use of Arabic script ... more The Arabic script in Africa contains sixteen papers on the past and present use of Arabic script to write African languages. These writing traditions, which are sometimes collectively referred to as Ajami, are discussed for single or multiple languages, with examples from all major linguistic phyla of Africa but one (Khoisan), and from all geographic areas of Africa (North, West, Central, East, and South Africa), as well as a paper on the Ajami heritage in the Americas. The papers analyze (ethno-) historical, literary, (socio-) linguistic, and in particular grammatological aspects of these previously understudied writing traditions and exemplify their range and scope, providing new data for the comparative study of writing systems, literacy in Africa, and the history of (Islam in) Africa.
Beiträge zur 1. Kölner Afrikawissenschaftlichen Nachwuchstagung (KANT I)
Reviews by Meikal Mumin
Voices of Africa’s Pasts, edited by Viera Pawliková-Vilhanvová and Seyni Moumouni
Technical documents by Meikal Mumin
The Latin script community formed the Latin Script Generation Panel (GP), which has developed a p... more The Latin script community formed the Latin Script Generation Panel (GP), which has developed a proposal for the Latin Script Root Zone Label Generation Rules (LGR).
Root Zone Label Generation Rules (RZ-LGR) are developed to define a conservative mechanism to determine valid Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) top-level domains (TLDs) and their variant labels.
The successful development of Label Generation Rules depends on having community-based Generation Panels for each script that will be used in the root zone. Generation Panel members are representatives from each of the communities that use a particular script or writing system and their role is to identify the valid characters, variants, and Whole Label Evaluation (WLE) rules for the given script or writing system. Each Generation Panel starts by considering the code points for the relevant script that are present in the Maximal Starting Repertoire (MSR) and based on these, develops a Label Generation Rules proposal to be used to generate TLD labels for that script. In doing so, they may need to coordinate efforts with other Generation Panels whenever their respective scripts are closely related. These proposals are then reviewed by the community through a Public Comment proceeding and then by an expert Integration Panel for approval and integration into the Label Generation Rules for the Root Zone (RZ-LGR). The details are defined in the LGR procedure.
The Arabic script community has formed the Task Force on Arabic Script IDNs (TF-AIDN), also actin... more The Arabic script community has formed the Task Force on Arabic Script IDNs (TF-AIDN), also acting as the Arabic script Generation Panel (GP), which in turn has developed a Proposal for the Arabic Script Root Zone Label Generation Rules (Proposal [XML, 29 KB] and Proposal Documentation [PDF, 2.35 MB]). As per the LGR Procedure [PDF, 772 KB], this proposal is being posted for public comments to allow those who have not participated in the Arabic script GP to make their views known to the Generation Panel so it can finalize the proposal for integration into the Label Generation Rules for the Root Zone.
This is a working document which captures the high level principles for inclusion, exclusion and ... more This is a working document which captures the high level principles for inclusion, exclusion and deferral of decisions regarding code points for Arabic Script as part of the Label Generation Rule-set (LGR) for the Root zone. The principles are high-level guidelines, which may evolve as additional analysis is undertaken during the course of the work.
Task Force on Arabic IDNs [TF-AIDN] (13 January 2014). "Proposal for Generation Panel for Arabic Script Label Generation Ruleset for the Root Zone". Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Announcements. Available online at https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2-2014-02-14-en, Jan 14, 2014
Formal Proposal for the Generation Panel for Arabic Script Label Generation Ruleset for the Root ... more Formal Proposal for the Generation Panel for Arabic Script Label Generation Ruleset for the Root Zone submitted to ICANN on 13 January 2014 by Task Force on Arabic IDNs (TF-AIDN) in response to the Call to form Generation Panels.
Reviews of my publications by Meikal Mumin
Hofheinz, Albrecht (2018). "Review of Meikal Mumin and Kees Versteegh (eds.). The Arabic Script in Africa: Studies in the Use of a Writing System. Studies in Semitic Languages and Linguistics 71. Leiden: Brill, 2014. xx, 400 pp. €142.00, hardback; €137.00, e-book.." Islamic Africa 9.1: 118-122
Islamic Africa, 2018
Catherine Miller (2016). "Review of Mumin Meikal, Kees Versteegh, The arabic script in Africa. Studies in the use of a writing system. Leiden-Boston, Brill (Studies in Semitic Languages and Linguistics Vol 71), 2014, 400 p."
Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée, 2016
Ould Cheikh, Abdel Wedoud (2016). "Review of Meikal Mumin & Kees Versteegh, The Arabic Script in Africa Studies in the use of a writing system, Leiden/Brill, 2014, 400 p., index". Studia Islamica, 111.2: 308-316
Studia Islamica, 2016
Sanni, Amidu Olalekan (2015). "Review of Meikal Mumin and Kees Versteegh (eds), The Arabic Script in Africa. Studies in the Use of a Writing System (Studies in Semitic Languages and Linguistics 71), Leiden, Brill, 2014". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 78.3: 669-671
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 2015
Roberts, David (2014). "Review of Meikal Mumin and Kees Versteegh (eds), The Arabic script in Africa: Studies in the use of a writing system (Studies in Semitic languages and linguistics, 71). Leiden: Brill, 2014. pp. 400." Written Language & Literacy 17.2: 308 –314
Written Language & Literacy, 2014
Talks & papers (at academic venues) by Meikal Mumin
Our paper deals with the Somali particles soo and sii that are regarded as deictic elements since... more Our paper deals with the Somali particles soo and sii that are regarded as deictic elements since their basic function is to express a spatial orientation of a verbal action either towards (soo) or away from (sii) a deictic center, most typically the speaker. Depending on verb semantics as well as situational contexts, these particles may imply that the performer of an action is moving. In a somewhat unexpected way, however, the particle sii may also indicate that the action is performed during the (temporary) absence of another individual, i.e. it is not the performer of the action but somebody else who is imagined to be moving. The interplay of verb semantics and situational context opens the floor for a highly creative usage of the two deictic particles, leading to a multitude of senses, or rather possible implications of a given sentence. In our paper, we try to show how the various meanings of the basically ventive/itive particles may be derived from their basic functions by means of context-induced reinterpretation, metaphorical extension as well as analogy.
Chimiini als Sprache Somalias
Chimiini, auch als Chimwiini, Chimbalazi, Af-Baraawe, oder im Englischen als Bravanese bezeichnet... more Chimiini, auch als Chimwiini, Chimbalazi, Af-Baraawe, oder im Englischen als Bravanese bezeichnet, ist eine Bantu-Sprache Somalias. Seit Beginn ihrer bekannten Geschichte wurde Chimiini in der Küstenstadt Brava in Somalia gesprochen. Sprachwissenschaftliche Forschungsarbeiten haben Chimiini als den nördlichsten Dialekt des Swahili klassifiziert (Nurse & Hinnebusch 1993; Kisseberth & Abasheikh 2004; inter alia). Unabhängig von seiner sprachhistorischen Einordnung, zeigt Chimiini aber einige Unterschiede dem Swahili gegenüber. Während manche dieser Merkmale wahrscheinlich auf internen Sprachwandel zurückzuführen sind, scheinen andere durch Kontakt zu Sprachen wie dem Somali oder dem Arabischen entstanden zu sein. Bei einigen Merkmalen lässt sich nur sehr schwer sagen, welche Mechanismen ihrer Entstehung zu Grunde liegen. Nach einer sozio-historischen Einführung in die Sprachgeschichte, wird der Vortrag einige dieser Merkmale darstellen.
Literaturverweise:
Kisseberth, Charles W. and Mohammad I. Abasheikh. 2004. The Chimwiini Lexicon Exemplified (Asian and African lexicon 45). Tokyo: Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA) Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.
Nurse, Derek and Thomas J. Hinnebusch. 1993. Swahili and Sabaki: A Linguistic History (University of California publications in linguistics 121). Berkeley: University of California Press.
Uploads
Papers by Meikal Mumin
Books by Meikal Mumin
Reviews by Meikal Mumin
Technical documents by Meikal Mumin
Root Zone Label Generation Rules (RZ-LGR) are developed to define a conservative mechanism to determine valid Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) top-level domains (TLDs) and their variant labels.
The successful development of Label Generation Rules depends on having community-based Generation Panels for each script that will be used in the root zone. Generation Panel members are representatives from each of the communities that use a particular script or writing system and their role is to identify the valid characters, variants, and Whole Label Evaluation (WLE) rules for the given script or writing system. Each Generation Panel starts by considering the code points for the relevant script that are present in the Maximal Starting Repertoire (MSR) and based on these, develops a Label Generation Rules proposal to be used to generate TLD labels for that script. In doing so, they may need to coordinate efforts with other Generation Panels whenever their respective scripts are closely related. These proposals are then reviewed by the community through a Public Comment proceeding and then by an expert Integration Panel for approval and integration into the Label Generation Rules for the Root Zone (RZ-LGR). The details are defined in the LGR procedure.
Reviews of my publications by Meikal Mumin
Talks & papers (at academic venues) by Meikal Mumin
Literaturverweise:
Kisseberth, Charles W. and Mohammad I. Abasheikh. 2004. The Chimwiini Lexicon Exemplified (Asian and African lexicon 45). Tokyo: Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA) Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.
Nurse, Derek and Thomas J. Hinnebusch. 1993. Swahili and Sabaki: A Linguistic History (University of California publications in linguistics 121). Berkeley: University of California Press.
Root Zone Label Generation Rules (RZ-LGR) are developed to define a conservative mechanism to determine valid Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) top-level domains (TLDs) and their variant labels.
The successful development of Label Generation Rules depends on having community-based Generation Panels for each script that will be used in the root zone. Generation Panel members are representatives from each of the communities that use a particular script or writing system and their role is to identify the valid characters, variants, and Whole Label Evaluation (WLE) rules for the given script or writing system. Each Generation Panel starts by considering the code points for the relevant script that are present in the Maximal Starting Repertoire (MSR) and based on these, develops a Label Generation Rules proposal to be used to generate TLD labels for that script. In doing so, they may need to coordinate efforts with other Generation Panels whenever their respective scripts are closely related. These proposals are then reviewed by the community through a Public Comment proceeding and then by an expert Integration Panel for approval and integration into the Label Generation Rules for the Root Zone (RZ-LGR). The details are defined in the LGR procedure.
Literaturverweise:
Kisseberth, Charles W. and Mohammad I. Abasheikh. 2004. The Chimwiini Lexicon Exemplified (Asian and African lexicon 45). Tokyo: Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA) Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.
Nurse, Derek and Thomas J. Hinnebusch. 1993. Swahili and Sabaki: A Linguistic History (University of California publications in linguistics 121). Berkeley: University of California Press.
Linguistic studies have classified Chimiini as the northern-most dialect of Swahili (Nurse & Hinnebusch 1993; Kisseberth & Abasheikh 2004; inter alia). Irrespective of its genetic classification, Chimiini also shows a number of differences from Swahili, synchronically speaking:
While some of these features have probably developed through internal linguistic change, others seem to have entered the language through contact with further languages of Somalia. For yet other features, it remains difficult to establish which mechanisms produced these features.
In the present talk, I will try to exemplify some of these linguistic and cultural features of today’s language, which render Chimiini a language of Somalia.
References
Kisseberth, Charles W. and Mohammad I. Abasheikh. 2004. The Chimwiini Lexicon Exemplified (Asian and African lexicon 45). Tokyo: Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA) Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.
Nurse, Derek and Thomas J. Hinnebusch. 1993. Swahili and Sabaki: A Linguistic History (University of California publications in linguistics 121). Berkeley: University of California Press.
In the second part of this talk, I will give some impressions from the Arabic script manuscript tradition of the Brava, a coastal town of Somalia where a Bantu language called Chimiini was spoken exclusively. While the Bravanese have had a significant writing tradition, both endo-glossic and exo-glossic, this culture seems to have become moribund after the introduction of a Roman/Latin script based orthography for Somali, the lingua franca of Somalia, and even more so after the flight of a large number of Bravanese following the outbreak of war in Somalia. While our research project focussed on features of language contact in Chimiini , I have come across few manuscripts and have tried to document these together with their use, e.g. within a traditional schooling tradition, a practice which continues also outside of Somalia.
References
Mumin, Meikal & Versteegh, Kees (2014). The Arabic Script in Africa - Studies in the Use of a Writing System. Leiden, Boston: Brill.
Traditional standards of transliterating Arabic script into Latin/Roman script were geared towards (orthographic) standard models of languages: One standardized source language, e.g. (Modern standard) Arabic, and multiple standardized meta-languages, i.e. languages for which Arabic script was transliterated, e.g. English vs. German. Accordingly, certain morpho-phonological processes as well as certain orthographic traditions were taken for granted, and knowledge of such processes is therefore assumed and required for the interpretation of such transliterated texts.
Arabic based script as used in Africa is not orthographically standardized - neither for individual languages or varieties, nor across (groups of) languages. Devising a system of transliteration, which was both readable to non-experts as well as enabling comparative descriptions, required rendering of every unit of the 'graphic stream' in a coherent and ideally (to a human) transparent way, i.e. representing grammatological systems at a supra-orthographical level independent from the contained linguistic systems. Problematic factors included orthographic derivation (creation of new letters based on others), featurality (auto-semantics of derivational processes), calligraphy (graphic vs. orthographic variation), linearity (effects of spatial orientation of writing), and positionality (relative positioning of graph(eme)s within a word-form).
References
Mumin, Meikal & Kees Versteegh (eds.) (forthcoming). The Arabic script in Africa. Studies in the use of a writing system.
For the most part, Chimiini has been classified as a dialect of Kiswahili (Bantu, G.40), such as by Möhlig (1995: 46) or Nurse & Hinnebusch (1993: 513-515). Accordingly, Chimiini would constitute the northernmost variety of Kiswahili. Already Goodman (1967: 278) questioned the status of Chimiini as dialect of Kiswahili though, and stressed that despite such a classification, both varieties are certainly not mutually intelligible. The most recent and comprehensive study on Chimiini similarly classifies it as a dialect of Kiswahili, yet remarking that it's „[…] differences from Kiswahili in phonology […], morphology, and lexicon […] warrant detailed study of all aspects of its structure.“ (Kisseberth & Abasheikh 2004: vii).
On the basis of lexical, morphological, socio-linguistic and ethno-historical data, arising from early stage on-going research, the present paper shall put to discussion some preliminary and tentative suggestions on wether or not Chimiini should be classified a dialect of Kiswahili, or maybe a language in it's own right.
References
Goodman, Morris (1967). "Prosodic Features of Bravanese, a Swahili Dialect". In Journal of African Languages, 6 (3), pp. 278-284.
Kisseberth, Charles Wayne & Abasheikh, Mohammad Imam (2004). The Chimiini Lexicon Exemplified. [Asian and African lexicon, 45]. Tokyo: Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa (ILCAA).
Möhlig, Wilhelm Johann Georg (1995). "Swahili-Dialekte". In Swahili-Handbuch [Afrikawissenschaftliche Lehrbücher, 7], Miehe, Gudrun & Möhlig, Wilhelm Johann Georg (eds), pp. 41-62. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe.
Nurse, Derek & Hinnebusch, Thomas J. (1993). Swahili and Sabaki: A Linguistic History. With the assistance of Gérard Philipson. [University of California publications in linguistics, 121]. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Islam has played a crucial role in the history of the Horn and still plays today, being reason at least in part, for the very existence of States as Eritrea and Somalia, for “it is the heritage of cultural nationalism which, strengthened by Islam, lies behind Somali nationalism today.”(Lewis 1980:16) Another fact, which separates the islamization of the Horn from other islamizations, is that, in contrast to the islamizations of the early Caliphs, it was a slow process and, at first, had nothing in common with the religiously motivated military expansions, the Jihad.
I will try to demonstrate how Islam arrived in the Horn on different routes, how it gradually expanded its influence into the Hinterland over time and how the Islamization can basically be divided into two periods.
References
LEWIS, Ioan Myrddin
1980 - A modern History of Somalia. – Revised Ed. Longman Group LTD.: London/New York.