DOCSLIB.ORG

Lessons in Sango. Volume I, Basic Course in Sango. By- Samarin, William J

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Lessons in Sango. Volume I, Basic Course in Sango. By- Samarin, William J REPORT RESUMES 46 ED 018 784 . AL 001 161 LESSONS IN SANGO. VOLUME I, BASIC COURSE IN SANGO. BY- SAMARIN, WILLIAM J. GRACE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY AND COLLEGE REPORT NUMBER BR -6 -2286 PUB DATE 67 CONTRACT OEC36062286..1662 MS PRICE mr-s1.25 HC- $12.96 322P. DESCRIPTORS- * SANGO, *LANGUAGE INSTRUCTION, *INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS, LANGUAGE GUIDES, STANDARD SPOKEN USAGE,CONNECTED DISCOURSE, CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC, THE 25 LESSONS IN THIS TEXT ARE DESIGNED TO TEACH SPOKEN SANGO TO SPEAKERS OF ENGLISH. THE AUTHOR FEELS THAT WITH SUFFICIENT APPLICATION "A STUDENT OUGHT TO BE ABLE7.(;) SPEAK THE LANGUAGE IN ABOUT THREE MONTHS" AND HE HAS INCLUDEDHERE WHAT. HE CONSIDERS THE MOST IMPORTANT SANGO GRAMMATICAL MATERIAL AND NON - FRENCH VOCABULARY. GENERALLY THELESSONS CONSIST OF A CONVERSATION, GRADED GRAMMATICAL NOTES, GRAMMATICAL DRILLS, PHONOLOGICAL DRILLS, AND VOCABULARY. ALL THE CONVERSATIONS CONCERN REALISTIC SITUATIONS INCENTRAL AFRICA AND ARE BASED ON SPONTANEOUS RECORDINGS. THESELESSONS ALSO CONTAIN EXTENSIVE SECTIONS OF CONNECTED DISCOURSE TO ENABLE THE STUDENT TO UNDERSTAND AND PRODUCE STRETCHES OF SPEECHLONGER THAN THE SENTENCES FOUND IN THE DIALOGS.ALL SANGO MATERIAL IS WRITTEN IN AN ORTHOGRAPHY ARRIVED AT THROUGH COMPARISON OF THE VARIOUS SPELLING SYSTEMS NOW IN USE IN THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC. FOR INFORMATIONCONCERNING THE AVAILABILITY OF THIS AND OTHER SANGO MATERIALS, THE AUTHOR'S ADDRESS IS- -GRACE COLLEGE, P.O. BOX 397, WINONA LAKE, INDIANA 46590. (JD) ,- ?.4. ?ER Ve.' LESSONS IN SANGO U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION -& WELFARE OFFICE OF EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRODUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGINATING IT.POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE OF EDUCATION ;POSITION OR POLICY. VolumeX 110.sic Course in Sango William JSamarin Associate Professor of Linguistics 1967 ammeimpoglmilrimIlPIEMPINIMPINIW imummiumopmlimummunimmumminomummilMINNIMIM. The research reported herein was performed pursuantto a contract with the United States popimettent of Health, .116,cation and Welfare, Office of Feduoation, =der provia *ions of Ilatik Title VI,Section 602. Rubor lit Itar844, .as amended* This first edition of Basic Course in Sang* was produced in 3)40 copies of which 40 copies appear in the Hartford Studies in Linguistics(Hartford .Seminary Foundation,55 Ilisaboth Street, Hartford, Connecticet,06105). The rest are distributed by Grace College,P.O. Box 397, Winona Lake, Indiana, 46590 (in cooperation with the author). It was not originally planned that these lessons be duplicated in fulfillment of the abovimmentioned contract.However, to make them availaw able for immediate use,it was finally decided to use the typescript preparing Xerox plates for offset duplication.Tido decision accounts for the rather unsightly appearance of maw of the pages,for Which apologies are nolo. ,. i I . LESSONS IN SANGO VolumeX Basic Course in Sango William J. Samarin Associate Professor of Linguistics 1967 CONTENTS Introductioni-xiv Lessons 1-297 Grammatical Grammatical Phonological . Conversations. Notes Drills Drills Vocabulary 1. 1 1 5 6 -- 2. 9 10 11 15 -- 3. 18 19 22 24 -- 4. 28 29 30 32 -- 5. 35 37 39 44 46 6. 48 51 55 59 -- 7. 62 64 66 68 -- 8. 73 76 78 84 9. 89 91 94 98 100 10. 102 104 106 108 112 11. 114 117 121 127 129 12. 132 113 136 138 141 13. 142 143 146 152 154 14. 155 157 163 OW = 165 15. 167 170 174 -- 178 16. 181 183 189, -- 193 17. 195 199 202 .... 210 18, 212 214 216 -- 222 19: 224 227 229, -- 230 20. 232 233 235 -- 239 21. 241 244 247 ... 254 22. 255 256 261 41119.01 265 23. 267 269 272 -- 275 24... 277 279 283 . -- 25. 287' 289 292 -- 296 Index 299 INTRODUCTION General remarks about Sango Sango is the lingua franca of the Central AfricanRepublic and the contiguous areas of the Chad and Cameroun Republics aswell as the Congo (Kinshasa).With Sangolea person can communicate with at least one million people in Middle Africa, regardless oftheir ethnic background. It is for practically all speakers a secondlanguage, although there are many young people in the large townsfor whom it is the first language; the latter learn Sango before they learn French or an ethnic (i.e. "tribal") language, and some may neverlearn an ethnic language and learnFrench very poorly. Sango is therefore not the tribal language of anybody.There is, however, a tribal language by the same name.The Sango people, and their very closely-related kin, the Yakoma and theNgbandi, live along the banks of the Ubangi River upstream ofBangui. It was from their language that the lingua franca issued.It is not yet clear precisely when and why Sango came to be used as acontact language, but it appears that when the French conquered thisUbangi-Shari area the riveri.Le population was already using it. Although the lingua franca is derived from thetribal language, the two must be distinguished. Speakers of the lingua franca are not able to understand the native language ofthe Ngbandi- Yakoma -Sango people, although they might have some idea what isbeing said. The latter, for their part, probably haveto learn to speak the lingua franca even while recognizingthat it is "their" language. The situation is comparable to thatwhen a native-speaker of English must learn to speak Pidgin English in anyof its forms (West African, Jamaican, Surinamese, or Melanesian). Indeed, lingua franca Sango is like Pidgin English, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese Crioulo in being a "simplified" form of a natural language.Sango has neither the tonal nor the grammatical complexity of its "mother" language. It is, however, a truly African. language in every way -- in phonology, syntax, and idiom. Take away the French borrowings, and it would be difficult to distinguish Sango from the other languages of the area. There are, in fact, other African lingua francas like Sango, notably Swahili. and Kituba (derived from Kikongo). In the Central African Republic Sango is the unofficial national language.Among Centralafricans (meaning the citizens of the C.A.R.) Sango enjoys more prestige than the tribal languages, which are often identified with "bush" life. It is sometimes contrasted with French, which ,is called the "white man's language" (1ALui tf.thbunzA), as beihg preeminently. the "African's language" (yIngS tf zo vok6).In any multilingual situation the language most used is Sango. This is, true even when speakers have a good.control ofFrench. (Centralafricans have been observed speaking Sango amongst themselves at a United Nations affair in 'New York City.) Sango is unquestionably the language of informal andintimate relations whereas French is the language of formal relations. This generalization should guide the foreigner in its use. He should remember that, as with all human relations, it is the host who opens the door from the formal to the informal. In Western society, one must remember, the guest does not leave the living room or take off his suit jacket except at the invitation of his host. Likewise, ii the French-speaking Centralafricanwill expect the foreigner to speak French; if the former is addressed by thelatter in Sango, he might be insulted.To avoid this error, it isbetter to err in the other direction and presume aknowledge of French: the interlocutor, even if he knowslittle or no French at all, willbe complimented by one's assessment of his status inthe society. Once rapport has been established, it maybepossible to switch to Sango; but one must be warned that the switching cuesmaybe as subtle as they arein Western society even after thehost has invited his guestto make himself at home. Of course, one can err inthe other direction, that is, by being more formalthan the situation demands. It would be insulting to address apoorly-clad upcountryvillager inFrench, for his appearance clearlyindicates that he never hadthe opportunity him of his to attend school; speaking to him in French strips self-respect. As one might expectwhere Western culture hasbeen mediated Some through the French language,there many French words inSango. of these are very recent,like republique. There are other Words that have been in thelanguage a long time; they have been not now recognize "naturalized" phonologically,and Centralafricans do them as French loans: e.g. AU,'to ruin, to die' < tell (colloquial), ski 'thousandfrancs' < sac. It is difficult to because there are more ways how many French wordsthere are in Sango, French will than one of being "in" alanguage. A person who knows no the one who has gone to think that lgre 'time' is Sango whereas There is, moreover, school will recognize itsderivation in l'heure. that French intrudes a greatdifference between speakersin the degree iii in their Sango. Interestingly enough, it is not so much how much French a person knows that determines the incidence of French words, but, as Charles Taber has dicovered, the status of the speaker: 31. , . lower -class people seem to use more French than the elite. In additiaft to this psychological motivation for borrowing from French, there is a topical one: it is obvious that in talking about automobiles one is going to use more French than he would in talking about gardening or hunting. I It is important to look at this subject with more care, for it is . easy to be deceived about the place of French in Sango. It is quite generally held by EUropeans, in fact, that Sango is a hodge-podge of African and French words. (Some Europeans do indeed speak a kind of hodge-podge language, but it is not Sango!) However, Dr. Charles Taber, who made a careful study of the incidence of French words in a body of tape-recorded Sango material consisting of 37,217 words, concludes that "Sango remains fundamentally and overwhelmingly African in the usage of its speakers" (36).The reason for this conclusion is a statistical one.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • On Adaptation in Military Operations: Tinkering and Bottom–Up Perspectives
    AARMS Vol. 13, No. 3 (2014) 389–396. On Adaptation in Military Operations: Tinkering and Bottom–Up Perspectives 1 JOBBÁGY Zoltán A biological perspective has much to offer for a better understanding of military operations. Biological evolution and military operations feature perpetual novelty and conditions far from equilibrium featuring dynamics that demand continuous adaptation. The author suggests that comprehending military operations in an evo- lutionary framework requires a shift from mechanics and engineering to biology and adaptation. Thus the emphasis moves from statics to dynamics, from time–free to time–prone reality, from determinism to probability and chance, and from uni- formity to variation and diversity, with all the consequences. Introduction A biological perspective on human behaviour has much to offer for a better understanding of the relationship between co-operation and conflict. Regardless whether one sees war and military operations through the eyes of Clausewitz, approach it as a complex adaptive sys- tem, or examine it along attributes that display similarities with biological evolution, there are timeless and innate characteristics. It is not difficult to conclude that both biological evolution and military operations are intrinsically complex, and primordial violence is at the heart of both. [1] Military operations indeed can be understood as a complex adaptive system in which the system properties emerge from the interactions of the many components at lower levels. The abundance of dispersed interactions in military operations indicates a mechanism that often lacks global control, but feeds from cross–cutting hierarchical setup. Similar to biolog- ical evolution, military operations also feature perpetual novelty and far from equilibrium dynamics that demand continual adaptation.
    [Show full text]
  • Number 36, 2011 Boin, M.; Polman, K.; Sommeling, C.M.; Doorn, M.C.A
    African Studies Abstracts Online: number 36, 2011 Boin, M.; Polman, K.; Sommeling, C.M.; Doorn, M.C.A. van Citation Boin, M., Polman, K., Sommeling, C. M., & Doorn, M. C. A. van. (2011). African Studies Abstracts Online: number 36, 2011. Leiden: African Studies Centre. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/1887/17918 Version: Not Applicable (or Unknown) License: Leiden University Non-exclusive license Downloaded from: https://hdl.handle.net/1887/17918 Note: To cite this publication please use the final published version (if applicable). Number 36, 2011 AFRICAN STUDIES ABSTRACTS ONLINE Number 36, 2011 Contents Editorial policy .............................................................................................................iii Geographical index .....................................................................................................1 Subject index...............................................................................................................3 Author index ................................................................................................................6 Periodicals abstracted in this issue ...........................................................................13 Abstracts ...................................................................................................................16 Abstracts produced by Michèle Boin, Katrien Polman, Tineke Sommeling, Marlene C.A. Van Doorn i ii EDITORIAL POLICY EDITORIAL POLICY African Studies Abstracts Online provides an overview of articles
    [Show full text]
  • International Criminal Court
    ICC-01/05-01/08-T-89-Red2-ENG WT 25-03-2011 1/52 NB T ICC-01/05-01/08-T-89-Red-ENG WT 25-03-2011 1/52 NB T Pursuant to Trial Chamber III ‘s Second Order, ICC-01/05-01/08-2223, dated 4 June 2012, and the instructions in the email dated 6 February 2014, the version of the transcript with its redactions becomes Public Trial Hearing (Open Session) ICC-01/05-01/08 Witness: CAR-OTP-PPPP-0222 1 International Criminal Court 2 Trial Chamber III - Courtroom 1 3 Situation: Central African Republic 4 In the case of The Prosecutor v. Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo - ICC-01/05-01/08 5 Presiding Judge Sylvia Steiner, Judge Joyce Aluoch and Judge Kuniko Ozaki 6 Trial Hearing 7 Friday, 25 March 2011 8 (The hearing starts open session at 2.37 p.m.) 9 THE COURT USHER: All rise. The International Criminal Court is now in session. 10 Please be seated. 11 PRESIDING JUDGE STEINER: Good afternoon. Could, please, our court officer 12 call the case. 13 THE COURT OFFICER: Thank you. The case of The Prosecutor versus Mr Bemba. 14 PRESIDING JUDGE STEINER: Court officer, just for the sake of the record, the 15 number of the case, please. 16 THE COURT OFFICER: The number of the case is ICC-01/05-01/08. 17 PRESIDING JUDGE STEINER: Thank you very much. Good afternoon. 18 Welcome the Prosecution team, the legal representatives of victims. Welcome to the 19 Defence team, Mr Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo.
    [Show full text]
  • Grammar of Sango.Pdf
    A GRAMMAR OF SANGO William J. Samarin, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Linguistics 1963 Hartford Seminary Foundation Hartford, Connecticut The research reported herein was performed pursuant to a contract with the United States Office of Education, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION The Sango language, page i Purpose of the grammar, iii Procedure in analysis, iv French words in Sango, vii Acknowledgements, viii Outline, ix Bibliography, x Statistical description of the corpus, xi Map, xiv PART ONE: PHONOLOGY Chapter Phonemes, page 1 o. Consonants, 1 1.20. Vowels, 5 1.21. Oral vowels 1.22. De-syllabification 1.2 3. Nasalized vowels 1.2 4. Long vowels 1.30. Tones, 10 1.31. Contrasts 1.32. Variations 1.33. Mid-tone 1.34. Frames 1.35. Polysyllabic words Chapter 2; Variations, page 17 2 .1o. External changes, 17 2.20. Internal changes, 19 2.21. C ons onants 2.22. Vowels Chapter 3: Intonation, page 23 3.10. Pauses, 24 3.11. Terminal 3.12. Non-t erminal 3.20. Tone, 26 3.30. Stress, 28 3.4o. French influenced, 2 9 PART TWO: WORD CLASSES Chapter Adjunctives, page 30 4.10. Ante-noun adjunctives, 33 4.20. Post-noun adjunctives, 38 4.21. ni 4.21.10. Restrictive 4.21.20. Pronominal 4.22. Numerals 4.23. sô 4.23.10. Relative constructions 4.23.20. Pronominal 4.23.30. Filler 4.2 3.4o. Mark subordinate clause 4.2 3.50. Clause final 4.24. wa 4.25. y§ 4.26. Others 4.30. Verbal adjunctives, 59 4.4o.
    [Show full text]
  • ICC-ASP/19/10/AV International Criminal Court Advance Version Distr.: General Assembly of States Parties 7 August 2020
    ICC-ASP/19/10/AV International Criminal Court Advance Version Distr.: General Assembly of States Parties 7 August 2020 Original: English Nineteenth session New York, 7-17 December 2020 Proposed Programme Budget for 2021 of the International Criminal Court 10-AV-E-070820 ICC-ASP/19/10/AV Contents Page Paragraphs List of abbreviations and acronyms ........................................................................................................... 4 Foreword by the Principals of the International Criminal Court ...................................................................... 6 I. Overview of the Proposed Programme Budget for 2021, budget priorities and operating parameters ........................................................................................................................................................ 8 1-38 A. Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 8 1-10 B. High-level Court-wide strategic budget priorities and main cost drivers for 2021............ 10 11-30 C. Macroanalysis .................................................................................................................... 13 31-33 D. Savings and efficiencies .................................................................................................... 14 34-38 II. Proposed Programme Budget for 2021 ......................................................................................... 17 39-756 A. Major Programme I: Judiciary ..........................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Crisis in the Central African Republic: Is It a Religious War in a Godforsaken Country Or Something Else?
    AARMS Vol. 13, No. 3 (2014) 457–476. Crisis in the Central African Republic: Is it a religious war in a godforsaken country or something else? 1 TOMOLYA János The Central African Republic is a landlocked country located in the centre of Afri- ca. Bordered by seven other countries in the heart of the African continent, it was ruled for most of the years after independence from France in 1960 by the self– styled “Emperor”, Jean–Bédel Bokassa. A series of coups followed, with power changing hands frequently. With more than 80 different ethnic groups, a mix of Christians, Muslims and followers of indigenous faiths, the country is notoriously difficult to rule, despite having a population of only 4.6 million. Despite significant deposits of gold, diamonds and uranium, and vast troves of timber, it is among the poorest nations on Earth, sitting just seven places from the bottom of the UN’s human development index. Chronic poor governance and lack of an efficient state has denied the wider population the benefits of the country’s potential riches. [1] Chaos in the Central African Republic (CAR) is about power, not religion, this is neither jihad nor crusade. Fighting in CAR is over political power and money, with the capitol city Bangui as the prize. Keywords: Central African Republic, diamond, gold, poor governance, inefficient state, political power, rebels, anti–rebels, humanitarian crisis; Introduction The Central African Republic is a landlocked country in central Africa, with a population of 4.5 million. The Central African Republic is often called a forgotten country, but that not quite right.
    [Show full text]
  • The Contribution of the Interfaith Platform to the Reconciliation Process in the Central African Republic
    Geneva Liaison Office of the World Evangelical Alliance – June 2014 The contribution of the interfaith platform to the reconciliation process in the Central African Republic Table of Contents Preface 1 Introduction .................................................................................................... 1 2 Historical outline ............................................................................................ 1 3 Pre-conflict situation and social structure ...................................................... 3 4 Crisis development ......................................................................................... 5 5 The role of the religious leaders ..................................................................... 9 5.1 Written statements from the CAR’s Church leaders ................................ 9 5.1.1 Bangui Declaration I: Breaching indifference ................................... 9 5.1.2 Bangui Declaration II ....................................................................... 10 5.2 Initial steps of joint action ...................................................................... 10 5.3 International high-level meetings ........................................................... 12 6 Prospects and limitations .............................................................................. 16 7 Conclusion .................................................................................................... 19 Preface On 10 April 2014, the UN Security Council unanimously decided that a peacekeeping
    [Show full text]
  • Aka As a Contact Language: Sociolinguistic
    AKA AS A CONTACT LANGUAGE: SOCIOLINGUISTIC AND GRAMMATICAL EVIDENCE The members of the Committee approve the masters thesis of Daniel Joseph Duke Donald A. Burquest _____________________________________ Supervising Professor Thomas N. Headland _____________________________________ Carol V. McKinney _____________________________________ Copyright © by Daniel Joseph Duke 2001 All Rights Reserved To the Bayaka people and their friends may our circle be unbroken AKA AS A CONTACT LANGUAGE: SOCIOLINGUISTIC AND GRAMMATICAL EVIDENCE by DANIEL JOSEPH DUKE Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Arlington in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS IN LINGUISTICS THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON August 2001 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The road to finishing this thesis has been a long one, and many people helped me keep going to the end. Some special people helped carry the burden, and some nearly had to carry me. I want to thank everyone who had a part in seeing the work through. Thanks to family and friends who supported and encouraged me. There are some special friends who were very directly involved with the writing of the thesis, and who I’d like to thank particularly. My committee consisted of Dr. Donald A. Burquest, Dr. Thomas N. Headland, and Dr. Carol V. McKinney. Each member put in a tremendous amount of time and effort into the redaction of the text, and each one contributed greatly from his or her specialization: Dr. Burquest in linguistics and African languages, Dr. McKinney in anthropology and African languages, and Dr. Headland in anthropology and hunter-gatherers. The thesis could not have been as ambitious as it was without the dedicated work and wide area or expertise these scholars brought into it.
    [Show full text]
  • LCSH Section U
    U-2 (Reconnaissance aircraft) (Not Subd Geog) U.S. 29 U.S. Bank Stadium (Minneapolis, Minn.) [TL686.L (Manufacture)] USE United States Highway 29 BT Stadiums—Minnesota [UG1242.R4 (Military aeronautics)] U.S. 30 U.S. Bicycle Route System (May Subd Geog) UF Lockheed U-2 (Airplane) USE United States Highway 30 UF USBRS (U.S. Bicycle Route System) BT Lockheed aircraft U.S. 31 BT Bicycle trails—United States Reconnaissance aircraft USE United States Highway 31 U.S.-Canada Border Region U-2 (Training plane) U.S. 40 USE Canadian-American Border Region USE Polikarpov U-2 (Training plane) USE United States Highway 40 U.S. Capitol (Washington, D.C.) U-2 Incident, 1960 U.S. 41 USE United States Capitol (Washington, D.C.) BT Military intelligence USE United States Highway 41 U.S. Capitol Complex (Washington, D.C.) Military reconnaissance U.S. 44 USE United States Capitol Complex (Washington, U-Bahn-Station Kröpcke (Hannover, Germany) USE United States Highway 44 D.C.) USE U-Bahnhof Kröpcke (Hannover, Germany) U.S. 50 U.S. Cleveland Post Office Building (Punta Gorda, Fla.) U-Bahnhof Kröpcke (Hannover, Germany) USE United States Highway 50 UF Cleveland Post Office Building (Punta Gorda, UF Kröpcke, U-Bahnhof (Hannover, Germany) U.S. 51 Fla.) Station Kröpcke (Hannover, Germany) USE United States Highway 51 BT Post office buildings—Florida U-Bahn-Station Kröpcke (Hannover, Germany) U.S. 52 U.S. Coast Guard Light Station (Jupiter Inlet, Fla.) BT Subway stations—Germany USE United States Highway 52 USE Jupiter Inlet Light (Fla.) U-Bahnhof Lohring (Bochum, Germany) U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • A Colletion of 100 Sango (Dr Congo)
    A COLLETION OF 100 SANGO (D R CONGO) PROVERBS AND WISE SAYINGS By LAUR MWEPU LUIZA African Proverbs Working Group Nairobi, Kenya MAY 2017 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I wish to thank all those who contributed towards the complete on of this document. My greatest thanks go to Fr. Joseph G. Healey, for the financial and moral support. My special thanks go to Cephas Agbemenu, Margaret Ireri, Elias Bushiri Elie, Florent Muepu and Kasse Adelle Christel who devotedly have corrected of 100 Sango proverbs. I also thank all the publishers of the Eton proverbs, whose publications gave me good resource and inspiration to do this work. I appreciate the support of the African Working Group in Nairobi for reviewing the progress of my work during their meetings. A RESEARCH PROPOSAL FOR THE COLLECTION OF 100 SANGO PROVERBS AND WISE SAYINGS By Laur Mwepu Luiza LOCATION The Sango are the Bantu ethnic group inhabiting the Equatorial province in D R Congo they are the minority in comparison to the Nilotes and pigmies in D R Congo. The Sango form a big ethnic group living in the five countries in Africa: Tanzania 165,000 Speakers, Chad 50,000 Speakers, Congo Brazzaville 102,000 Speakers, D R Congo 1400 Speakers and in Centre African Republic 350,000 in Central African Republic (1988 census) users: 4,600,000 in Central African Republic. In the Central African Republic all of the populations speak Sango language and it is a national language. The Sango language originated as a pidgin in the nineteenth century at the eastern part of the Ubangi River basin, as a result of the competitive occupation of that area by representatives of the Congo Free State and the French government.
    [Show full text]
  • Versions of Kituba's Origin
    DOI 10.1515/jall-2013-0004 JALL 2013; 34(1): 111 – 181 William J. Samarin Versions of Kituba’s origin: Historiography and theory1 Abstract: Casual explanations and thoughtful ones have been given for the emer- gence of Kituba, one of the African-based lingua francas of West Central Africa, but there is still no scholarly work that is based on political, historical, anthropo- logical, and linguistic research to account for the language’s origin and develop- ment. The present contribution is, frst, an overview of various attempts at ex- plaining its origin and development. Second, argued and arguable explanations are examined from diferent perspectives and with data not available before recent research. Finally, the author adds Kituba to his list of African vehicular languages that emerged in the late 19th century, when a signifcant number of auxiliaries – Africans in the majority, foreign and indigenous ones – solved their communication needs by contriving make-shif idioms that quickly gelled as lan- guages. Still far from the work that will hopefully be accomplished by others, this modest study suggests the kind of historiography and linguistic analysis that will helpfully characterize it. Keywords: Bantu grammar, Catholic schools, Congolese jargon, language and colonization, pidgin historiography, porterage, Scheut missionaries William J. Samarin (imeritus): Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto, Canada E-mail: [email protected] 1 An earlier version of this paper profted greatly from a careful reading by Armin Schwegler, Joseph Salomon, John A. Goldsmith (on tone), and two anonymous readers, to whom I am grateful. Too numerous to list are the individuals and organizations who helped me since the beginning of my study of language and colonization in West Central Africa in 1971, but the most important donor was the Social Sciences and Humanites Research Council of Canada.
    [Show full text]
  • Praying for Women In
    influences from other religions and from cultural Praying for Women in West & Central Africa practices such as magical charms, child slavery, and Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, the ritual sacrifice of children. Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Ivory Coast, 24. TWR Women of Hope to be able to resume Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Togo translation and distribution of prayer calendars in WestP and Central African countries are rich with diamonds, Ghana and to start production and broadcast of gold, oil, uranium, and other minerals, but the people are Praying for Women in Women of Hope in the Twi language. among the world’s poorest. The abundance of natural resources often becomes a curse rather than a blessing to West and Central Africa 25. Thousands of Nigerian women who are kidnapped the local people. The misuse of these resources results in and abused by traffickers in Libya as they try to limited infrastructure such as schools, hospitals, electricity, relocate to countries where they can find work to and other services, and this frustrates people who are help provide for their families. struggling to survive. This frustration has led to many rebellions and conflicts, which in turn displaces millions 26. Church leaders to teach men to respect and protect of people and leaves them facing malnutrition, insufficient women and girls. Pray for women and teenage girls access to safe water, inadequate sanitation, and a future to respect themselves and not allow men to seduce without hope. them, demanding instead that men treat them with dignity, marry them, and provide for their families.
    [Show full text]