An Introduction to African Languages, Volume 1This book introduces beginning students and non-specialists to the diversity and richness of African languages. In addition to providing a solid background to the study of African languages, the book presents linguistic phenomena not found in European languages. A goal of this book is to stimulate interest in African languages and address the question: What makes African languages so fascinating? The orientation adopted throughout the book is a descriptive one, which seeks to characterize African languages in a relatively succinct and neutral manner, and to make the facts accessible to a wide variety of readers. The author's lengthy acquaintance with the continent and field experiences in western, eastern, and southern Africa allow for both a broad perspective and considerable depth in selected areas. The original examples are often the author's own but also come from other sources and languages not often referenced in the literature. This text also includes a set of sound files illustrating the phenomena under discussion, be they the clicks of Khoisan, talking drums, or the ideophones (words like English lickety-split) found almost everywhere, which will make this book a valuable resource for teacher and student alike. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Table | 2 |
Table | 3 |
Morphology | 4 |
Table | 5 |
Table | 6 |
Table | 7 |
Table | 8 |
6768 | 74 |
68 | 75 |
21 | 84 |
Mandinka sentences with English glosses | 92 |
Tone measurements | 93 |
Verbal suffixes in Manjaku Karlik 1972 | 112 |
Syntax and semantics | 117 |
Zulu ideophones featured in Recording 7 | 120 |
Table | 9 |
The major language families phyla of Africa | 23 |
The most widely spoken languages of Africa | 24 |
Number of languages in Africa BendorSamuel 1989 Crystal | 26 |
Branching trees Schadeberg 1986 as in Williamson | 40 |
17 | 42 |
3 | 44 |
Phonetics and phonology | 55 |
Symbols for clicks | 58 |
Clicks and their accompaniments Ladefoged Traill 1994 | 60 |
232 | 72 |
112 | 149 |
Historical and typological issues | 153 |
Greenbergs stages illustrated with examples from Gur NigerCongo | 157 |
7 | 173 |
Appendices | 217 |
223 | |
231 | |
240 | |
248 | |
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Common terms and phrases
African languages African linguistics Afrikaans Afroasiatic areal Atlantic languages Bantoid Bantu languages Bender Benue-Congo Bijagó Blench Cameroon Cavalli-Sforza Childs clicks consonant creole Cushitic discussed Doke downdrift English example Fanagalo Figure focus Fula function genetic grammatical grammaticalization Greenberg Hausa Heine high tone historical hlonipha ideophones Igbo Isicamtho Kanuri Khoisan languages Kisi Kru languages language classification language spoken lexical Liberia logophoric Ma'a Mande languages Mandinka marked marker Mbugu Mchombo morphemes morphology nasal negation Niger-Congo Nigeria Nilo-Saharan Nilotic noun class noun class systems phonetic phonological phyla phylum pidgin plural prefix prenasalized pronoun referenced represent segmental semantic sentence serial verbs social Songhay South Africa southern speakers speech structure Sudanic suffix Swahili syllable syntax Tanzania tense tonal Traill Tsotsitaal typological varieties verb extensions verbal vowel harmony West Africa Westermann widely spoken Williamson Wolof word order Xhosa Zulu
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