This 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.

This book is an introduction to African languages and linguistics, covering typology, structure and sociolinguistics. The twelve chapters are written by a team of fifteen eminent Africanists, and their topics include the four major language groupings (Niger-Congo, Nilo-Saharan, Afroasiatic and Khoisan), the core areas of modern theoretical linguistics (phonology, morphology, syntax), typology, sociolinguistics, comparative linguistics, and language, history and society. Basic concepts and terminology are explained for undergraduates and non-specialist readers, but each chapter also provides an overview of the state of the art in its field, and as such will be referred to also by more advanced students and general linguists. The book brings this range of material together in accessible form for anyone wishing to learn more about this challenging and fascinating field.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1915 edition. Excerpt: ...but I may mention one point which is perhaps relevant--in Ewe certain onomatopoetic words are given the low tone if they refer to large objects and the high if they denote small ones, e.g. gbli and goli=" round." (See Westermann, Ewe-Grammatik, p. 44.) Similarly, in telling fairy-tales, we usually speak of ogres in a deep and small animals in a high voice. Here, then, we find an indisputable connection between pitch and meaning. Of course it is based on the fact that creatures of great size have deep voices, small ones high voices, corresponding to the size of their vocal chords. I have placed before you the two distinct types of language, each having its own peculiar character. But as groups of languages belonging to these distinct types are spoken side by side in Africa, a mixture was inevitable, and so we find that pitch accent has its place in the Bantu languages along with the stress accent. It is most markedly present in those languages which, like Duala, impinge on the Sudan area, it is far less so in those subjected to Hamitic or Semitic influences. In Swahili, the "tones" have quite disappeared. In Hottentot, which we believe to be a Hamitic language pervaded by a strong Bushman element, they exist side by side with the stress accent. You will very probably ask: "Who was the discoverer of these novel and very complicated phenomena?" In answer to this I must refer once more to my old friends the missionaries. In 1857, the missionary Schlegel published his Key to the Ewe Language,1 in which, already, the " tones " are discussed; and in the same year Wallmann, Inspector of Missions, gave to the world a Nama Grammar, in which he even marked the "tones" by means of musical notes....

This book developed out of a survey course on African languages that Uriel Weinreich invited the author to teach at Columbia University. The focus of the course changed considerably in the years that the author taught the course (1964-1968), in large part to accommodate the interests of many students without a background in linguistics but registered for the course. The one thing African languages have in common, setting them off from all the other languages in the world, is the fact that they are spoken in Africa.