Jun.-Prof. Dr. Nico Nassenstein
Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
Nico Nassenstein is junior professor of African Linguistics and obtained his PhD from the University of Cologne. He works in the fields of Anthropological Linguistics and Sociolinguistics and focuses on languages from Central and East Africa. He is interested in language contact and change, cross-register variation and emerging speech styles. In the scope of the project, he researches the impact of Nigerian media (in various languages) on media users‘ linguistic practices in the Congolese capital Kinshasa (mostly speakers of Lingala).
Nico Nassenstein primarily contributes to the work in Working Area C: Archives and Cultural Heritage, in Working Area D: Regional and Transregional Circulation(s) and in Project 2.3 on Appropriation and Diffusion of Nigerian Media and Media Production In Kinshasa (DR Congo) in The Context of Linguistic and Socio-Cultural Change.
My CEDITRAA story
“Linguistic change around the world is triggered by diverse developments, and individual speakers constantly adapt, enrich and play with the languages in their linguistic repertoires – also because they access and consume media content held in other languages. It is especially the dynamics and connections between the two big “players” in the media industry and highly multilingual countries, Nigeria – known for its movie industry – and Congo – often mentioned in terms of music –, that I am interested in. In the context of CEDITRAA, together with colleagues from other disciplines with exciting research foci, I am able to approach these topics from broader and more diverse angles. What a profitable project this is!”