South Africa has eleven official languages. However, not all have received similar amounts of attention. In particular, for many of the languages, only a limited number of digital language resources (data sets and computational tools) exist. This scarcity hinders (computational) research in the fields of humanities and social sciences for these languages. Additionally, using existing computational linguistics tools in a practical setting requires expert knowledge on the usage of these tools. In South Africa, only a small number of people currently have this expertise, further limiting the type of research that relies on computational linguistic tools. The South African Centre for Digital Language Resources (SADiLaR) aims to enable and enhance research in the area of language technology by focusing on the development, management, and distribution of digital language resources for all South African languages. Additionally, it aims to build research capacity, specifically in the field of digital humanities. This requires several challenges to be resolved that we cluster under resources, training, and community building. SADiLaR hosts a repository of existing digital language resources and supports the development of new resources. Additionally, it provides training on the use of these resources, specifically for (but not limited to) researchers in the fields of humanities and social sciences. Through this training, SADiLaR tries to build a community of practice to boost information sharing in the area of digital humanities.

This article investigates the applicability and significance of the motif-index as a means to identify sociocultural themes in two selected Northern Sotho fables. The focus of this article is on how these motifs reflect on beliefs, customs and practices that exist within the Northern Sotho society as revealed in fables. Themes from the two fables are expounded and contextualised using Stith Thompson’s motif-index alongside Christian Themba Msimang’s views, according to which good deeds are encouraged over those that are considered unacceptable in the society. The article attains this through an analysis that focuses on, among others, literary aspects such as motifs, morals and sociocultural contexts. In conclusion, the article ascertains that the motif-index theory is applicable to explore themes in Northern Sotho fables.

No abstract