As the Center for Studies in Letters (CEL) continues to be the only R&D unit in Portugal mainly dedicated to the historiography of linguistics and missionary linguistics, it has recently employed Dr. Ezra Alberto Chambal Nhampoca as a junior researcher for 36 months to compile an inventory of the extant metalinguistic texts of national languages spoken in African countries, written by Portuguese-speaking missionaries and laypeople. The primary purpose of this project is to identify, map, compile, register and analyze the lexicographical and grammatical works of the African or national languages spoken in Angola and Mozambique and other metalinguistic contributions by Portuguese missionaries and laypeople during the colonial period, i.e. from 1842 until 1975.
Furthermore, CEL is currently creating the infrastructure for Portugaliae Monumenta Linguistica, which is designed as a Digital Humanities project with its three subprojects: 1. Portuguese Grammatical Corpus; 2. Portuguese Orthographical Corpus; and 3. Corpus of Portuguese Missionary Linguistics. This project aims to provide the scientific world with open access to digitized and semi-diplomatic editions of many essential or hitherto inaccessible primary sources of Portuguese grammaticography, lexicography, orthography, and missionary linguistics stemming from the area of Portuguese Patronage.
