Computer Archives of Swahili Language and Folklore

It was a joint project of the Department of Asian and African Studies (University of Helsinki) and the Institute of Kiswahili Research (University of Dar-es-Salaam) in 1988-1991. The project was financed by the Academy of Finland, FINNIDA, the Ministry of Education (Finland) and by the University of Dar-es-Salaam. The main aim of the project was to obtain basic linguistic and folkloristic data from Swahili dialects, and bring these data into a form, which makes computerized data processing possible.
The main body of data was recorded on tapes first, so as to make also the computerized morphological and phonological analysis possible. Tapes were transcribed and these transcriptions were transferred into a computerized form, so that further computer processing becomes possible. The material so accumulated has been stored in duplicate form, one in Tanzania and the other in Helsinki. The material forms the Corpus of Swahili Dialects.