The Oxford Handbook of African Languages

by Rainer Vossen (Editor), Gerrit J. Dimmendaal (Editor)

Overview

This book provides a comprehensive overview of current research in African languages, drawing on insights from anthropological linguistics, typology, historical and comparative linguistics, and sociolinguistics. Africa is believed to host at least one third of the world's languages, usually classified into four phyla - Niger-Congo, Afro-Asiatic, Nilo-Saharan, and Khoisan - which are then subdivided into further families and subgroupings. This volume explores all aspects of research in the field, beginning with chapters that cover the major domains of grammar and comparative approaches. Later parts provide overviews of the phyla and subfamilies, alongside grammatical sketches of eighteen representative African languages of diverse genetic affiliation. The volume additionally explores multiple other topics relating to African languages and linguistics, with a particular focus on extralinguistic issues: language, cognition, and culture, including colour terminology and conversation analysis; language and society, including language contact and endangerment; language and history; and language and orature. This wide-ranging handbook will be a valuable reference for scholars and students in all areas of African linguistics and anthropology, and for anyone interested in descriptive, documentary, typological, and comparative linguistics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780191007385
Publisher:	OUP Oxford
Publication date:	03/19/2020
Series:	Oxford Handbooks
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	1056
File size:	19 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Rainer Vossen is Professor Emeritus of African Studies at Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main. He has published descriptive and comparative studies on Khoisan, Nilotic, Bantu, and Mande languages as well as on dialectological, sociolinguistic, and historical topics. His recent books include the edited volumes The Khoesan Languages (Routledge, 2013), and African Sociolinguistic and Sociocultural Studies (Rüdiger Köppe, 2014). Gerrit J. Dimmendaal is Professor of African Studies at the University of Cologne. He has published descriptive and comparative studies on languages belonging to three different language families, Afroasiatic, Niger-Congo, and Nilo-Saharan, as well as on anthropological linguistics. His more recent monographs include Historical Linguistics and the Comparative Study of African Languages (Benjamins, 2011) and The Leopard's Spots: Essays on Language, Cognition and Culture (Brill, 2015).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
List of maps, figures, and tables
The contributors
1. Introduction, Gerrit J. Dimmendaal and Rainer Vossen
Part I: Domains of Grammar
2. Phonology and phonetics, Michael J. Kenstowicz
3. Tone, David Odden
4. Morphology, Klaus Beyer
5. Syntax, Jochen Zeller
Part II: Language Comparison
6. African language types, Rainer Vossen
7. Dialectology and linguistic geography, Mena Lafkioui
8. Reflections on the history of African language classification, Ludwig Gerhardt
Part III: Language Phyla and Families
9. Niger-Congo, with a special focus on Benue-Congo, Jeff Good
10. Atlantic, Friederike Lupke
11. Mande, Henning Schreiber
12. Kwa, Mary Esther Kropp Dakubu
13. Gur, Gudrun Miehe
14. Bantu and Bantoid, Lutz Marten
15. Adamawa, Ulrich Kleinewillinghofer
16. Ubangi, Helma Pasch
17. Kordofanian, Nicolas Quint
18. Afro-Asiatic overview, Victor Porkhomovsky
19. Egyptian, Balazs J. Irsay-Nagy
20. Berber, Maarten Kossmann
21. East Cushitic, Mauro Tosco
22. North Cushitic, Martine Vanhove
23. Central Cushitic, Zelealem Leyew
24. South Cushitic, Roland Kiessling
25. Omotic, Bernhard Kohler
26. Chadic, Bernard Caron
27. Ethio-Semitic, Victor Porkhomovsky
28. Nilo-Saharan and its limits, Gerrit J. Dimmendaal
29. Saharan, Norbert Cyffer
30. Eastern Sudanic, Gerrit J. Dimmendaal and Angelika Jakobi
31. Central Sudanic, Pascal Boyeldieu
32. Khoisan, Henry Honken
33. Linguistic isolates, Gerrit J. Dimmendaal
Part IV: Languages Structures: Case Studies
34. Bom-Kim, Tucker G. Childs
35. Dan, Valentin Vydrin
36. Biali, Coffi Sambieni
37. Yukuben, Rose-Juliet Anyanwu
38. Bende, Yuko Abe
39. Waja, Ulrich Kleinewillinghofer
40. Zande, Helma Pasch
41. Zenaga, Catherine Taine-Cheikh
42. Sidaama, Kazuhiro Kawachi
43. Kolisi, Zelealem Leyew
44. Iraqw, Maarten Mous
45. Wandala, Zygmunt Frajzyngier
46. Kumam, Osamu Hieda
47. Baale, Gerrit J. Dimmendaal
48. Songhay languages, Lameen Souag
49. Cara, Rainer Vossen
50. ǁX'egwi, Henry Honken
51. Sandawe, Helen Eaton
Part V: Language, Cognition, and Culture
52. Ideophones, Christa Kilian-Hatz
53. Colour term systems: Genetic vs areal distribution in Sub-Saharan Africa, Doris L. Payne
54. Experiencer constructions, Ulrike Zoch
55. Language and ethnobotany, Karsten Legere
56. Distinctive languages, Patricia Friedrich
57. Conversation analysis, Maren Rusch
58. Cognition and language, Axel Fleisch
Part VI: Language and Society
59. Indigenous African scripts, Andrij Rovenchak and Solomija Buk
60. Language policy and politics, Kembo Sure
61. Language and education, Ingse Skattum
62. Language endangerment, documentation, and revitalization, James Essegbey
63. Language birth: youth/town language, Ellen Hurst
64. Language contact, Klaus Beyer
65. Mixed languages: The case of Ma'a/Mbugu, Maarten Mous
66. African languages in the Diaspora, Andrea Hollington
67. Pidgin and creole languages, Gabriele Sommer
68. Sign languages, Victoria A.S. Nyst
69. Arabic in Africa, Jonathan Owens
70. Orthography standardization, Elke Karan and David Roberts
71. Pragmatics and communication, Thomas Bearth
72. African languages in information and communication technology, Kristin Vold Lexander
Part VII: Language and History
73. Words, things, and meaning: Linguistics as a tool for historical reconstruction, David L. Schoenbrun
74. Language and archaeology, Koen Bostoen
Part VIII: Language and Orature
75. Narratives, Wilhelm J.G. Mohlig
76. Proverbs, Sebastian K. Bemile
77. Poetry, Clarissa Vierke
Language index
Author index
Subject index

Editorial Reviews

"...is a state-of-the-art luxury liner of a reference work on all aspects of African linguistics. Many scholars of African languages will consult it frequently and repeatedly for the foreseeable future as one of the major monuments of scholarship in this multidisciplinary field." — Paul D Fallon, University of Mary Washington, LINGUIST List

"The Oxford Hanbook of African Languages is an outstanding up-to-date introduction to the languages of the continent...the book is a useful tool for readers interested in languages and linguistics." — Gian Claudio Batic, Orientalistische Literaturzeitung 2023

From the Publisher