Reframing Language Diversity in West Africa: Lessons from Bandiagara
Résumé
The linguistic landscape of the Bandiagara Region in Mali challenges long-held assumptions in historical linguistics. At the center of this complexity lies Bangime, a language isolate that defies classification and reveals a deeper story of population history, multilingualism, and cultural resilience. In this talk, I present findings from the ERC-funded BANG project, which integrates comparative linguistics, ethnography, and (forthcoming) genomic research to explore how interdisciplinary data can reframe our understanding of migration, contact, and identity in the region. I argue that standard comparative methods developed in Indo-European contexts fall short in accounting for the linguistic convergence and divergence layers observable in West Africa. This calls for new frameworks, including that which we call the "Concept and Context" approach, which accommodates the region’s dynamic sociolinguistic realities. The talk highlights methodological innovation and the importance of working collaboratively across the disciplines to better represent those whose histories are too often obscured or misrepresented in scientific discourse.
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