Hilde Gunnink is a linguist specialized in the languages of Southern Africa. Her research focuses on documenting the synchronic structures of African languages, how these developed and changed over time, and what this can tell us about the human past.

More information about Hilde Gunnink

Fields of interest

• Bantu languages
• Khoisan languages
• Southern Africa
• African historical linguistics
• Prehistoric language contact
• Click languages

Research

The indigenous societies of Southern Africa have a fascinating, but little understood history. Written records in this region only go back a few centuries. Moreover, European colonial impact on indigenous groups has been enormous and often destructive. To get around these limitations, my research makes use of one of the few reliable tools we have to uncover Southern Africa's past: linguistics. I collect and analyse novel language data and integrate them with findings from genetics and archaeology. This sheds new light on how and when different speech communities arose, interacted with each other, and changed over time.

Grants and awards

- Senior postdoctoral project (FWO - Research Foundation Flanders), "Language contact and linguistic reconstruction: (pre)historic Bantu-Khoisan interactions in Southern Africa in a historical linguistic perspective", 2022-2026
- Postdoctoral project (FWO - Research Foundation Flanders), "Language contact between migrating Bantu speakers and resident Khoisan speakers in southern Africa", 2018-2022

Curriculum Vitae

Education
2018: Ghent University, PhD in African languages and cultures
Dissertation title: "A grammar of Fwe. A Bantu language of Zambia and Namibia"
2012: Leiden University, Research MA in Linguistics

Employment
2019-2020, 2021-2022, 2024-now: Leiden University, lecturer in linguistics
2018-now: Ghent University, Postdoctoral researcher (funded by FWO - Flanders Research Organization)
2012-2018: Ghent University, PhD student/teaching assistant

Publications