Kay Williamson
Encyclopedia
Kay Williamson born Ruth Margaret Williamson was a linguist
who specialised in the study of African languages, particularly those of the Niger Delta
in Nigeria
, where she lived for nearly fifty years. Her many publications include a grammar and dictionary of the Ijo
language, a dictionary of Igbo
and numerous articles on diverse topics. She is also notable for proposing the Pan-Nigerian Alphabet
.
Her unpublished work is being edited by Roger Blench
.
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
who specialised in the study of African languages, particularly those of the Niger Delta
Niger Delta
The Niger Delta, the delta of the Niger River in Nigeria, is a densely populated region sometimes called the Oil Rivers because it was once a major producer of palm oil...
in Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
, where she lived for nearly fifty years. Her many publications include a grammar and dictionary of the Ijo
Ijo languages
Ijaw, also spelled Ịjọ, is the main subgroup of the Ijoid group of Niger–Congo languages. Ijaw languages are spoken in southern Nigeria by the Ijaw people....
language, a dictionary of Igbo
Igbo language
Igbo , or Igbo proper, is a native language of the Igbo people, an ethnic group primarily located in southeastern Nigeria. There are approximately 20 million speakers that are mostly in Nigeria and are primarily of Igbo descent. Igbo is a national language of Nigeria. It is written in the Latin...
and numerous articles on diverse topics. She is also notable for proposing the Pan-Nigerian Alphabet
Pan-Nigerian alphabet
The Pan-Nigerian alphabet is a set of 33 Latin letters standardized by the National Language Centre of Nigeria in the 1980s. It is intended to be sufficient to write all the languages of Nigeria without using digraphs.-History:...
.
Her unpublished work is being edited by Roger Blench
Roger Blench
Roger Blench is a British linguist, ethnomusicologist and development anthropologist. He has an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and remains based in Cambridge, England...
.
Major publications
- Williamson, Kay. 1965 (2nd ed. 1969). A grammar of the Kolokuma dialect of Ịjọ. (West African Language Monographs, 2.) London: C.U.P.
- Williamson, Kay, and Kiyoshi Shimizu (edd.). 1968. Benue-Congo comparative wordlist: Volume I. Ibadan: West African Linguistic Society.
- Williamson, Kay (ed.) 1972. Igbo-English dictionary. Benin: Ethiope Publishing Corporation.
- Williamson, Kay (ed.). 1973. Benue-Congo comparative wordlist: Volume II. Ibadan: West African Linguistic Society.
- Williamson, Kay (ed.) 1983. Orthographies of Nigerian languages: Manual II. Lagos: National Language Centre, Federal Ministry of Education.
- Williamson, Kay, and A. O. Timitimi (edd.). 1983. Short Ịzọn-English dictionary. (Delta Series No. 3.) Port Harcourt: University of Port Harcourt Press. ISBN 9782321095, 9789782321091
- Williamson, Kay. 1984. Practical orthography in Nigeria. Ibadan: Heinemann Educational Books Ltd.
- Williamson, Kay. 1971. The Benue-Congo languages and Ịjọ. In: Current Trends in Linguistics, Vol. 7, series ed. by T. A. Sebeok, 245-306.
- Williamson, Kay. 1979. Small languages in primary education: the Rivers Readers Project as a case history. African Languages/Langues Africaines 5:2.95-l05.
- Williamson, Kay. 1989. Niger-Congo Overview. In: The Niger-Congo languages, ed. by John Bendor-Samuel, 3-45. University Press of America.
- Williamson, Kay. 1989. Benue-Congo Overview. In: The Niger-Congo languages, ed. by John Bendor-Samuel, 246-274. University Press of America.
- Williamson, Kay, and Roger Blench. 2000. Niger-Congo. In: African languages: an introduction, ed. B. Heine and D. Nurse, Chapter 2, 11-42. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.