ABSTRACT
A sociolinguistic survey that leads to an understanding of the ecology of the language in question should be part and parcel of fieldwork on the language. Such surveys help to ascertain the basic parameters of a language and its ecology. This chapter covers topics that may be somewhat particular to the African context, and their associated research methods, include: aspects of phonetic fieldwork, especially with respect to tone; consideration of nominal classification; investigation of ideophones; and questions of work on extremely endangered languages. Linguistic fieldwork in Africa will almost certainly involve investigating tone, all but a handful of languages in sub-Saharan Africa being tone languages, and with a relatively large range of types of tone system and tone inventories being found. Mambila, like many languages in Africa, has no written tradition; it is spoken in an area that is relatively remote and where the general level of education is not high.
