Research interests

• Descriptive, synchronic, and diachronic linguistics
• Bangime and Dogon languages
• Jóola languages
• Theoretical phonology
• Phylogenetics
• Cross-disciplinary comparative methods

Education

• 2006–2013: PH.D. AFRICAN LINGUISTICS, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana
• 1992–1996: B.A. PSYCHOLOGY, Warren Wilson College, Asheville, North Carolina

Academic career

• November 1, 2022 - Present: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR for European Research Council funded project BANG: Investigating the Origins of a Linguistic and Genetic Isolate, LLACAN, Villejuif, France
• November 1, 2021 - October 28 2022: INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE LINGUIST, The Language Conservancy (TLC), Bloomington, IN, USA
• September 4, 2018 - December 31, 2020: POST-DOCTORAL RESEARCH FELLOW, LLACAN, Villejuif, France
• October 2017 – September 2018 : VISITING RESEARCH FELLOW, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History Jena, Germany
• November 2016 – January 2017 : TARGET LANGUAGE TRANSLATION AND INTERLINEAR GLOSS REVIEWER, National Foreign Language Center, University of Maryland College Park, Maryland
• March 2014 – March 2017 : CROSSROADS POST-DOCTORAL RESEARCH FELLOW, SOAS, University of London, London, United Kingdom
• May 2008 – December 2013 : LINGUISTIC FIELD RESEARCHER, Dogon and Bangime Linguistics, NSF 1263150 Burkina Faso and Mali
• August 2007 – May 2008 : GRADUATE ASSISTANT, Title VI grant, African Studies Department, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana
• August 2005 – August 2006 : TEAM LEADER, AmeriCorps*Vista Ellettsville, Indiana
• July 2003 : AFRICA TRIP LEADER, Operation Crossroads Africa Thiès, Senegal
• January 1998 – July 2001 : NATURAL RESOURCES MANAGEMENT VOLUNTEER, Peace Corps Koira Beiri, Mali
• March – May 1994 : SOIL EROSION PREVENTION PROJECT CO-SUPERVISOR, Warren Wilson College Bamenda, Cameroon

Conference Papers

Phonology

• Hantgan-Sonko, A. (August 28–30, 2017) Jóola Mora Preservation Patterns. CALL47. Leiden University.
• Hantgan, A. (March 30–April 2, 2017). Implications of Absolute Neutralisation on Harmonic Serialism: AJóola Case Study. ACAL48. Indiana University.
• Hantgan-Sonko, A., Sagna, S., & Davis, S. (May 26–28, 2016). Mora Preservation in Gújjolaay Eegimaa Reduplication. MFM24. University of Manchester.

Plurilingualism

• Cobbinah, A., Hantgan, A., Lüpke, F., & Watson, R. (December 2, 2016). The Diversity of Diverse. Zooming in on Multilingual Regional Systems in the Upper Guinea Coast of West Africa. Pre-conference session on small-scale multilingualism, LDLT5. SOAS.
• Hantgan, A. (April 08, 2016). Choices in Language Accommodation at the Crossroads: Convergence, Divergence, and Mixing. Language Indexicality, Belonging. Linguistic Anthropology Conference. University of Oxford.
• Cobbinah, A., Goodchild, S., Hantgan, A. & Watson, R. (8–9 September, 2015). Language Contact and Identity in Lower Casamance. African Multilingualism: Motivations, Modalities, Movement and Meaning. The British Academy, London.

Corpus design

• Hantgan, A. (September 15–17, 2016). Methodological Approaches to Annotated Multilingual Corpus Design. PLM46. Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan.
• Hantgan, A. (June 6–9, 2016). Crossroads Corpus and Sample Design. KPAAM CAM and Crossroads workshop. SOAS.

Language documentation

• Hantgan, A. (June 14–18, 2017). Why Bangime is Not a Language Isolate: An Alternative Explanation for the Emergence of a Divergent Language. Bad Münster am Stein-Ebernburg, Germany.
• Hantgan, A. (August 22, 2016). Introduction to Bangime and its Speakers. Mini Africa Symposium. Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany.

Publications

Monograph

• Heath, J. and Hantgan-Sonko, A. 2017. Grammar of Bangime: Language isolate of Mali. (Mouton Grammar Library) Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. 627pp.

Publications with peer review process

• Hantgan, A. and List, J. M. (in press 2018) Bangime: Secret Language, Language Isolate, or Language Island? to appear in a Language Islands in Africa thematic issue of the Journal of Language Contact.
• Hantgan, A. (2018). Language endangerment in Southwestern Burkina: A tale of two Tiefos. In: African linguistics on the prairie, Ed. Kandybowicz, J., Major, T., and Torrence, H. Berlin: Language Science Press, 3-19.
• Hantgan-Sonko, A. (2017). Crossroads corpus creation: Design and case study. Yearbook of the Poznan Linguistic Meeting. 3,1.
• Hantgan-Sonko, A. (2017). A weight-based analysis of Jola Eegimaa lenition. In: Festschrift for Paul Newman’s 80th Birthday: Essays in Honor of Paul Newman. African Linguistics in the 21st Century. Series: Grammatical Analyses of African Languages Volume 55.
• Hantgan-Sonko, A. (2017): Review of Syllable Weight in African Languages, Ed. Newman, P. (Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 338). Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
• Hantgan, A. (2017). Choices in Language Accommodation at the crossroads: Convergence, divergence, and mixing. The Journal of the Anthropological Society of Oxford. IX, 1. 102-118.
• Cobbinah, A., Hantgan, A. and Lüpke, F., and Watson, R. Carrefour des langues, carrefour des paradigmes. (2017). In: Espaces, mobilitès et éducation plurilingues: Éclairages d'Afrique ou d'ailleurs, Ed. Auzanneau, M. Edition des Archives Contemporaines. Paris, 79-97.
• Hantgan, A. (2015). How foreign is accent? Expressions of peace in Casamance. Voices from around the world. Special issue on multilingualism in the Global South. 3. Global South Studies Center, University of Cologne. http://voices.uni-koeln.de/2015-3/howforeignisaccent
• Hantgan, A. and Davis, S. (2012). Bondu Vowel Harmony: A Descriptive Analysis with Theoretical Implications. Studies in African Linguistics, 41(2).
• Hantgan, A. (2010). Does Tone Polarity Exist? Evidence from Plural Formation among Bangime Nouns. IULC Working Papers in Linguistics: African Linguistics Across the Discipline, 10(3), 70-83.

Submitted publications with peer review process

• Hantgan-Sonko, A., Sagna, S., and Davis, S. (submitted August 14, 2017 to Journal of African Languages and Linguistics). Moraic preservation and equivalence in Gújjolaay Eegimaa Perfective Reduplication.

Publications without peer review process

• Heath, J., Ouattara, A., and Hantgan, A. (2017). Short grammar of Tiefo-N of Nyafogo (Gur, Burkina Faso).

Data Deposit

• Hantgan, A. (2015). Bangime language documentation and description. London: SOAS, Endangered Languages Archive. URL: http://elar.soas.ac.uk/deposit/0399

Encyclopedia Articles

• Hantgan, A. (2007–2010). People. Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, The Gambia, Benin and Togo. In ABC-CLIO World Geography Database. Santa Barbara.

Doctoral dissertation

• Hantgan, A. (2013). Aspects of Bangime Phonology, Morphology, and Morpho-syntax. Indiana University.