ELAP PhD graduate - Dr Stuart McGill

In September 2009 Stuart McGill became the fifth student to achieve the PhD in Field Linguistics in the Endangered Languages Academic Programme.

Before arriving at SOAS, Stuart's linguistic background consisted of nine months with SIL studying the Ghanaian language Sisaala-Paasaal, followed by an MA in Linguistics at the University of Reading.

Stuart's PhD thesis focuses on agreement in Cicipu, a Kainji language spoken in northwest Nigeria, and shows how discourse topicality influences speakers' choice between the two paradigms of gender and person agreement. Since Cicipu is previously undescribed, the dissertation includes a sketch phonology and grammar. During his studies Stuart spent nine months in Acipuland, where he recorded, transcribed, and translated a number of Cicipu texts.

Stuart has just started a two year post-doctoral fellowship at SOAS, also funded by ELAP. This will allow him to conduct further fieldwork on Cicipu and other Kainji languages, as well as publishing a number of articles and working with Cicipu speakers Markus Yabani and Mohammed Musa to produce audio and written materials for use in the language community.

Congratulations Stuart!