Christfried Naumann studied African linguistics and Oriental studies at the University of Leipzig. In 2011, he finished his PhD on "Acoustically Based Phonemics of Siwi (Berber)". From 2004 until 2013, he has been working in several documentation projects on Taa, a Tuu language spoken in Namibia and Botswana. He is currently employed by the Humboldt University at Berlin.