Sheena Shah
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I'm a linguist based at the University of Hamburg in Germany, where I lead the Botswana project within the DFG Research Unit CODILAC. I'm also a Research Fellow at the University of the Free State in South Africa.

My research interests include language documentation, description and revitalisation, language maintenance and shift, language policy, language contact, and language and education. My work focuses on linguistic diversity and minorities. I work predominantly with multilingual individuals and communities, who speak heritage, minority and/or endangered languages.

I have a long-standing interest in research in southern Africa and have conducted linguistic fieldwork on a number of African languages, including N/uu (South Africa), siPhuthi (Lesotho), !Xun (Namibia) and ǂHoan (Botswana), and on German in Namibia and South Africa. I have also worked on my mother tongue, Gujarati, as spoken by diaspora communities living in England, Singapore and South Africa. 

News

1 April 2025
Our DFG Research Unit CODILAC has officially launched! Over the next four years, we’ll examine the role of English in seven multilingual regions around the world. Click here to read more about CODILAC. 

12 October 2024
Three new DocuAfrica films have been launched! Click here to view them.

11 April 2024
Hot off the press: Our book on the South African German variety, Kroondal German, is out! It is open access and free to download here. Supporting sound files can be accessed here.





COVID-19 awareness materials now available in siPhuthi! 

For more details, click here.

#HlaleKhaya - #StayHome

#Hlala_U_Phephiye - #StaySafe



Picture
... AND IN OTHER NEWS: The President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, met with Katrina Esau during the National Heritage Day celebration held in Upington on 24 September 2019 and received a copy of our N/uu reader. 

Check out our gallery to see who else enjoyed our N/uu reader!

Left: Photo courtesy of the Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB). ​
  • Home
  • Research
    • Overview
    • Kroondal German >
      • Kroondal German Data
    • N/uu >
      • Click and Hear
      • Gallery
    • SiPhuthi >
      • COVID-19
  • Publications
  • Teaching
  • DocuAfrica
  • In the press
  • News
  • CV
  • Contact