Dr Dmitry Bondarev
Overview
Department of the Languages and Cultures of Africa
Research Assistant
- Name:
- Dr Dmitry Bondarev
- Email address:
- db5@soas.ac.uk
- Telephone:
- 020 7898 4383
Biography
Dmitry Bondarev’s research interests cover African linguistics (structure of Saharan languages with a focus on Kanuri/Kanembu) and history of writing in Arabic based scripts (Ajami) in Africa. In 2003 he started analysing Old Kanembu – an archaic (and virtually unknown) variety of Kanuri. During his fieldwork trips to north-east Nigeria and south-east Niger in 2005-2010 he worked on Kanuri and Kanembu dialects including an offspring of Old Kanembu (Tarjumo) used by Islamic scholars for Qur’anic studies. As a lead researcher, he is involved in the Early Nigerian Qur’anic manuscripts project and in a DFG/AHRC funded international project on Old Kanembu with colleagues at Asien-Afrika-Institut, University of Hamburg. He is affiliated to AAI research group Manuscript Cultures in Asia and Africa.
Teaching
Research
Saharan historical linguistics; dialect studies of Kanuri and Kanembu; West African languages in Arabic script (Ajami); Old Kanembu in Bornu manuscripts; palaeography and codicology of West African manuscripts.
Early Nigerian Qur'anic Manuscripts Project (Lead researcher)
Joint SOAS/AHRC (UK) & AAI/DFG (Germany) Project "Old Kanembu in West African Qur’anic Manuscripts" (UK lead researcher)
Encyclopaedia of Manuscript Cultures in Asia and Africa (Regional editor)
Publications
Book Chapters
Bondarev , Dmitry (2010) 'Complex clauses in Old Kanembu/LG.' In: Cyffer, Norbert and Ziegelmeyer, Georg, (eds.), Aspects of Co- and Subordination: Case Studies from African, Slavonic, and Turkic Languages. Cologne: Rüdiger Köpper Verlag, pp. 213-250.
Bondarev , Dmitry (2010) 'Multiglossia in West African manuscripts: The case of Borno, Nigeria.' In: Sobisch, Jan-Ulrich and Quenzer, Jörg B. and Bondarev , Dmitry, (eds.), Manuscript Cultures: Mapping the Field. De Gruyter . (Studies in Manuscript Cultures) (In Press)
Articles
Bondarev , Dmitry (2006) 'The language of the glosses in the Bornu quranic manuscripts.' Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies . pp. 113-140.
Bondarev, Dmitry (2006) 'An archaic form of Kanuri/Kanembu: a translation tool for Qur'anic Studies.' Journal of Qur'anic Studies . pp. 142-153.
Bondarev, Dmitry (2005) 'In search of the Saharan inflectional verbal paradigms in Old Kanembu.' Afrika und Übersee Special volume: Johannes Lukas (1901-1980) ‑ 25th anniversary of his death, 88 . pp. 35-51.
