The Routledge Language Family series is aimed at undergraduates and postgraduates of linguistics and language, and those with an interest in historical linguistics, linguistic anthropology and language development. According to a widely accepted hypothesis, the Khoesan languages represent the smallest of the four language phyla in Africa, geographically distributed mainly in Botswana and Namibia. Today, only 30 or so Khoesan languages may still exist, with about 300,000 native speakers. In other words, most Khoesan languages were already extinct before a sound scholarly interest in them could begin to develop. Drawing together a distinguished group of international experts, with much of the material taken from data collected by the authors' own field work, this volume presents descriptive, typological, historical-comparative and sociolinguistic material on Khoesan. The Khoesan Languages contains eight sections: an introduction, an overview of genetic relationships, a typological survey and profile of Khoesan, four chapters covering core linguistic areas of Khoesan phonetics and phonology, tonology, morphology and syntax, and a final chapter tackling major issues in Khoesan sociolinguistics, as well as discussions of language contact. Comprehensive and scholarly, yet also lucid in its coverage of a broad range of languages, dialects and sub-groups, this unprecedented and original work represents the current state of Khoesan linguistics.

The Routledge Language Family series is aimed at undergraduates and postgraduates of linguistics and language, and those with an interest in historical linguistics, linguistic anthropology and language development. According to a widely accepted hypothesis, the Khoesan languages represent the smallest of the four language phyla in Africa, geographically distributed mainly in Botswana and Namibia. Today, only 30 or so Khoesan languages may still exist, with about 300,000 native speakers. In other words, most Khoesan languages were already extinct before a sound scholarly interest in them could begin to develop. Drawing together a distinguished group of international experts, with much of the material taken from data collected by the authors' own field work, this volume presents descriptive, typological, historical-comparative and sociolinguistic material on Khoesan. The Khoesan Languages contains eight sections: an introduction, an overview of genetic relationships, a typological survey and profile of Khoesan, four chapters covering core linguistic areas of Khoesan phonetics and phonology, tonology, morphology and syntax, and a final chapter tackling major issues in Khoesan sociolinguistics, as well as discussions of language contact. Comprehensive and scholarly, yet also lucid in its coverage of a broad range of languages, dialects and sub-groups, this unprecedented and original work represents the current state of Khoesan linguistics.

Dieses Buch beschaftigt sich mit Fragesatzen in afrikanischen Sprachen, von denen einige bei dieser Satzart im Gegensatz zu anderen Sprachen der Welt nicht die gleichen verbreiteten Merkmale wie etwa eine hoehere Intonation, Fragepartikeln oder nach links verschobene W-Woerter aufweisen. Solche Abweichungen werden bei der Theoriebildung nicht beachtet. Das Buch versammelt einschlagige Daten aus mehr als einhundert Sprachen. Faszinierende Phanomene wie Fragetieftoene, nach rechts verschobene W-Woerter, morphologisch reduzierte Fragesatze oder W-Verben werden auf breitem Raum diskutiert. Dieses typologische Nachschlagewerk wendet sich gegen zu einseitig formulierte linguistische Theorien sowie Universalien und hinterfragt somit letztlich die Merkmale von Sprache uberhaupt.

Silbenspiele sind ein weltweit verbreitetes Phanomen; auch in Afrika sind sie in vielen Sprachen bekannt und dokumentiert. Vor allem Kindern und Jugendlichen wird die belustigende Beschaftigung mit diesen "Geheimsprachen" zugeschrieben. Das Buch widmet sich ihnen in zweifacher Hinsicht: Zum einen stellt es die formalen Bildungsregeln solcher Sprachen dar und systematisiert sie, zum anderen geht es auf die soziolinguistischen Gemeinsamkeiten dieses Phanomens ein. Im Anschluss daran werden Silbenspiele von ahnlichen sprachlichen Phanomenen wie Argots, Respektsprachen und Jugendsprachen abgegrenzt, mit denen sie sowohl Bildungsregeln als auch Funktionen teilen. Das Buch leistet damit einen Beitrag zur ganzheitlichen Betrachtung von Silbenspielen.

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.

L'objectif principal de ce travail est d'analyser la transitivite telle qu'elle se manifeste en seereer. Le seereer est l'une des principales langues du Senegal. Elle appartient au phylum Niger-Congo et est classee dans la branche nord de la famille atlantique. La majeure partie des donnees a ete collectee a travers l'enregistrement de seances d'elicitations, de contes, de recits, de poemes chantes et d'interviews ainsi que le recueil de textes. Ce livre decrit les structures intransitives, monotransitives et ditransitives. Il traite egalement l'ambitransitivite, les predicats verbaux semi-transitifs ainsi que les relations qu'entretient la transitivite avec la valence et la derivation. Le travail exploite aussi l'influence de certains parametres semantiques sur la transitivite. A travers les differents chapitres abordes, l'etude a revele l'importance des traits syntaxiques surtout et certaines proprietes semantiques dans la transitivite en seereer.

Das Buch hat die Beschreibung der folgenden funfzehn Bantusprachen bzw. -dialekte zum Inhalt, die an der Kuste Kameruns gesprochen werden: Kol , Mboko, Mokpe, Bubia, Isubu, Mongo, Pongo, Duala, Oli, Bidiman, Mulimba, Batanga, Banoho, Bapuku und Yasa. Diese Sprachen bzw. Dialekte entsprechen Guthries Gruppen A.20 und A.30 und werden vom Autor als Sawabantu bezeichnet. Sie werden nicht nur beschrieben, sondern auch auf phonologischer, lexikalischer und morphologischer Ebene miteinander verglichen. Ferner wird auf der Grundlage der sprachlichen Beziehungen eine neue Klassifikation dieser Sprachen und Dialekte vorgeschlagen, die sowohl die Phonologie als auch die Lexik und die Morphologie berucksichtigt.

This publication describes the usage of languages in the multilingual society of Ethiopia. It is based on empirical studies conducted in nine states of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia in 1997 and 1998. A research team of German and Ethiopian scholars surveyed about 3,500 high school students from 35 Ethiopian towns regarding their language behaviour. The data on the distribution of mother tongues and second languages are published here for the first time and are representative for a typical Ethiopian town. These data outline the development of multilingualism over three generations (students/parents/grandparents) and elucidate factors which promote the spread of multilingualism. The frame for the representation and explanation of the data is an adapted model of the social network theory.

The book's chapters address issues that are important not only in Southern Africa but also in other parts of the world. Although the focus and much of the data on language and identity are Southern African, most of the writers deal with their material in such a way as to locate it within theoretical debates and/or illuminate it with insights from related research in other parts of the world. The collection belongs to the constructivist paradigm and is one of the few works within this line of research. The issue of language and identity examines how language can become symbolic of the individual or group's identity. This aspect of language is explored from a variety of angles exhibiting different methods of investigation, and this � smorgasbord of methods provides ample inspiration for further studies in the field.