Bird Names in the Languages of Africa
Making birding and bird conservation local
Bird Names in African Languages
I started my research with the goal to create a database with bird names in the various African languages of Southern Africa. This database is based on literature research and more recently also field work. The database has been developed over the last few years. It is still not complete as this is an ongoing process, and it is updated as new resources are analysed.
As of June 2021, there were 13 160 data entries in the database. 2 627 new data entries and 5 more languages were added to the database since the previous report. This includes South African Sign Language.
More information
The Database
The database has a specific structure. With each entry the following is recorded:
1. The name in the specific language
2. The name in the language found in source (mainly English, Afrikaans or German)
3. The source name
4. The family of birds to which the name belongs
5. The scientific name if it is found in source.
The total number of entries means the actual number of names in database. A name can be repeated several times in the database from different sources and each time it will be counted as an individual entry. The number of names therefor does not equal the number of bird species.
At this moment, the database contains entries from 25 languages spoken in Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Not all these languages are official at national or regional level.
Publications
You can download copies of my publications here.
REPORT
A yearly report is published normally in June or July.
PUBLISHED ARTICLES
I have published the following articles with information from the database:
Meyer, IJ. 2020. Bird names in the African languages of southern Africa. The Lark 32, November/December 2020. pp. 45 - 48. Download
Meyer, IJ. 2021. Bird names in the languages of Namibia. Lanioturdus Vol 54 No. 1. pp. 22 - 25. Download
Meyer, IJ. 2021. Bird names in Venda (Tshivenḓa). The Lark 34, March/April 2021. pp. 53 - 59. Download
Meyer, IJ. 2021. Bird names in Ndebele (isiNdebele). The Lark 35, May/June 2021. pp. 57 - 61. Download
Meyer, IJ. 2021. The standardisation of bird names in Northern Sotho (Sesotho sa Leboa / Sepedi). The Lark 36, July/August 2021. pp. 69 - 80. Download
Download the publications or contact me for copies.
About me
I grew up in South Africa and have always been fascinated by birds and languages. I speak several languages and hope to learn more. I completed my MSc in Zoology at the University of Johannesburg. My work focussed on birds and pollution. I also completed a MSc in Ecological Marine Management at the University of Antwerp and Free University of Brussels (VUB). I then completed my Doctorate in Science at the University of Antwerp again focussing on birds and pollution. After a post-doc at CSIC in Spain, I completed my Master of Education at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. I taught high school Science and Biology in Spain and South Africa.