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Historical Linguistics and the Comparative Study of African Languages

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Historical Linguistics and the Comparative Study of African Languages Historical Linguistics and the Comparative Study of African Languages UNCORRECTED PROOFS © JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY 1st proofs UNCORRECTED PROOFS © JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY 1st proofs Historical Linguistics and the Comparative Study of African Languages Gerrit J. Dimmendaal University of Cologne John Benjamins Publishing Company Amsterdam / Philadelphia UNCORRECTED PROOFS © JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY 1st proofs TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American 8 National Standard for Information Sciences — Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Dimmendaal, Gerrit Jan. Historical linguistics and the comparative study of African languages / Gerrit J. Dimmendaal. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. African languages--Grammar, Comparative. 2. Historical linguistics. I. Title. PL8008.D56 2011 496--dc22 2011002759 isbn 978 90 272 1178 1 (Hb; alk. paper) isbn 978 90 272 1179 8 (Pb; alk. paper) isbn 978 90 272 8722 9 (Eb) © 2011 – John Benjamins B.V. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the publisher. John Benjamins Publishing Company • P.O. Box 36224 • 1020 me Amsterdam • The Netherlands John Benjamins North America • P.O. Box 27519 • Philadelphia PA 19118-0519 • USA UNCORRECTED PROOFS © JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY 1st proofs Table of contents Preface ix Figures xiii Maps xv Tables xvii Part I. The comparative method 1 chapter 1 Explaining similarities 3 1.1 The introduction of historical-comparative linguistics in an African context 4 1.2 Sound correspondences and reconstructions 9 1.3 Additional methodological considerations 14 chapter 2 Explaining sound change 23 2.1 Some common types of segmental changes 23 2.2 Tonal changes 35 2.3 Sound change and its link with syllable structure and word structure 39 2.4 Structural consequences of sound change 43 2.5 What does it mean to explain sound changes? 50 2.6 Explaining exceptions 54 chapter 3 Classification and subclassification techniques 59 3.1 Shared innovations 60 3.2 Lexicostatistics 71 3.3 Mass comparison 74 3.4 The comparative study of African language families: A brief summary 81 chapter 4 Morphosyntactic changes 93 4.1 Morphological innovations and subclassification 93 4.2 More on analogy 101 4.3 Other types of morphological reinterpretations 109 4.4 Syntactic reconstruction 111 UNCORRECTED PROOFS © JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY 1st proofs vi Historical Linguistics and the Comparative Study of African Languages chapter 5 Semantic change 115 5.1 Stating the problem 115 5.2 Metaphors and metonymy 118 5.3 Grammaticalisation theories 122 5.4 Semantic change and cultural experience 132 5.5 The role played by cognition 135 chapter 6 Internal reconstruction 141 6.1 The historical relevance of synchronic morphophonemic alternations 141 6.2 Why today’s morphology is not necessarily yesterday’s syntax 149 chapter 7 Language-internal variation 153 7.1 Establishing dialect zones 153 7.2 Dialectometrical studies 164 7.3 The transition problem 167 7.4 Resolving the Neogrammarian controversy 174 Part II. The linguistic manifestation of contact 177 chapter 8 Borrowing 179 8.1 Lexical and grammatical borrowing 179 8.2 Structural borrowing 188 8.3 Codeswitching 199 8.4 Linguistic areas on the African continent 203 chapter 9 Pidginisation and creolisation 213 9.1 Pidginised and creolised languages 213 9.2 Bickerton’s bio-program 218 9.3 The role of substrate languages 223 9.4 Pidginisation and creolisation rather than pidgins and creoles 230 chapter 10 Syncretic languages 237 10.1 On so-called mixed languages 238 10.2 The emblematic role of syncretic languages 245 10.3 Special-purpose languages 248 UNCORRECTED PROOFS © JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY 1st proofs Table of contents vii chapter 11 Language contraction and language shift 253 11.1 Language contraction 253 11.2 Language shift and social identity 261 chapter 12 Language contact phenomena and genetic classification 265 12.1 History repeats itself 266 12.2 On so-called non-genetic and multi-genetic developments 267 12.3 Cladistic versus rhizotic models 276 Part III. Studying language change in a wider context 281 chapter 13 Language typology and reconstruction 283 13.1 Phonological typology as a heuristic and controlling device 283 13.2 Morphological typology and reconstruction 290 13.3 Syntactic typology and reconstruction 298 chapter 14 Remote relationships and genetic diversity on the African continent 307 14.1 On so-called long range comparisons 308 14.2 Afroasiatic 309 14.3 Nilo-Saharan 312 14.4 Niger-Congo 318 14.5 Additional language families and linguistic isolates 324 14.6 A note on stable and unstable features in languages 329 chapter 15 Language and history 333 15.1 The words-and-things method 334 15.2 The spreading of language families and population movement 336 15.3 Interpreting borrowing in a cultural-historical perspective 344 chapter 16 Some ecological properties of language development 347 16.1 Biological evolution and language evolution 348 16.2 Punctuation and equilibrium periods 352 16.3 A potential linguistic parallel of the species-area effect 355 16.4 Self-organising principles 365 16.5 Some final remarks 370 UNCORRECTED PROOFS © JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY 1st proofs viii Historical Linguistics and the Comparative Study of African Languages References 373 Appendix 409 Language index 411 Subject index 411 UNCORRECTED PROOFS © JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY 1st proofs Preface Although the comparative method has been applied to a range of African language families, these have received little coverage in general textbooks. The present mono- graph was written, first, in order to make the literature on African language families available to a wider public, and to give these languages the proper place they deserve in the comparative study of human language. Unfortunately, many students in African countries do not have access to more recent developments in historical-comparative linguistics or to the literature published on language families in their home countries, due to the sometimes deplorable financial situations at the institutions where they are studying. Furthermore, students interested in the historical comparison of African languages and the comparative method often have to take recourse to textbooks fo- cusing on other parts of the world. Although this is useful in itself, these African lan- guages also have their own story to tell, because of specific genetic and areal properties. This constitutes the second raison d’être for the present monograph. If the historical- comparative study of African languages were not to reveal certain novelties, one might still question the usefulness of another textbook on the comparative method. An attempt has been made here to present a critical assessment of some current views in historical linguistics and to formulate a kind of research agenda spelling out the specific needs, as seen by the present author, concerning the future investigation of (African) languages. Readers no doubt at times will disagree with the position taken by the present author on certain matters. The interpretation of so-called “mixed lan- guages”, “creoles” or aspects of current grammaticalisation theories no doubt is contro- versial and, to some extent, runs against the (apparent) communis opinio. By explicitly stating my own position and by forwarding arguments for and against alternative positions, the reader should be able to take a stance especially on such controversial matters. Hopefully, these explicit statements in the current volume will also help to stimulate (rather than to kill) the academic debate. Some readers may observe (or complain) that there is a particularly strong focus on Eastern and Central Africa in this textbook. This is due above all to the primary research experience of the author. Although an attempt has been made to include as many interesting phenomena from other parts of Africa as possible, it is not feasible to give detailed information about each and every language family on the African continent in a study of this size. UNCORRECTED PROOFS © JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY 1st proofs x Historical Linguistics and the Comparative Study of African Languages The present monograph not only grew out of a need for the production of a text- book on the comparative method that takes Africa as an incredibly rich and diverse area serious, but also out of a psychological need to proof to myself that I am still capable of being creative in some sense. When being immersed in heavy teaching loads, numerous administrative duties and the supervision of theses, next to provid- ing a service to the field as a reviewer of articles, research proposals, or monographs produced by colleagues in the field, one sometimes wonders whether this is all there is to an academic position. I would like to thank the Philosophische Fakultät of the Universität zu Köln for allowing me to spend part of an inspiring sabbatical between January 2006 and April 2006 at La Trobe University, Melbourne, where a first draft of the present monograph was completed. The support from the Institute for Advanced Study and the Research Centre for Linguistic Typology, La Trobe University, Melbourne, dur- ing my stay as a distinguished visiting scholar is also gratefully acknowledged here. R. M. W. (Bob) Dixon and Alexandra (Sasha) Aikhenvald (now at James Cook Uni- versity, Cairns) deserve special thanks for being such wonderful hosts and for their relentless support over the years. This meant a lot to me, especially at times where I started questioning my academic capabilities. Moreover, the numerous other col- leagues I interacted with during my stay in Australia should be thanked here, in par- ticular Keith Allan, Kate Burridge, David Fleck, Randy LaPolla, Frank Lichtenberk, Simon Overall, Tonya Stebbins, Sheena van der Mark, David Watters, Liejiong Xu, Ghil’ad Zuckermann, Siew-Peng Condon, Gilah C.
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