1. on Certain Recent Additions to African Philology;

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

1. on Certain Recent Additions to African Philology; 85 T R A N S A C 7’ I 0 N S OF THE P H I I, 0 L 0 G I C A L S 0 C 1 E T Y. 1855.-No. 7. April 27, Professor T. HEWITTKEY in the Chair. The following Papers were read :- 1. ‘‘ On certain Reccnt Additions to African Philology ;” hy R. G. LATIL~M,M.D. 11. “On the Derivation and Meaning of the Latin Verb USUBPARE ;” by T. HEWITTKEY, Esq. I. ‘‘ On certain Recent Additions to African Philology.” The chicf works that supply the basis for the forthcoming obscrvations are the follo\F ing :- (1.) Polyglotta Africans*, by the Rev. TV. S. Koclle; and (2.) Specimens of Dialects, sic. and Notcs of Countries and Customs in Africa?, by J. Clarke. Both the authors are Missionaries ; the chief field for the collections of thc former being Sierra Leone, for those of the latter the West Tndies. Both worked in the same way j i. e. availing themselves of the opportunities of their respective localities, they found out from the different Africans of the district wherein they wcre themselves settled, the name of their several native co untrics, the geographical relations of the same, and the namcs of the languages, of which they took specimens. It was in this manner the carlier collections of Oldendorp * London : Church Missonary House, 1854. t Berwick-upon-Tweed, 1848. H 8G wcre made. It has the advantage of generally gi\ing us the native namc, i. e. the name hy which a given tribc calls itself, rather than the name by which it is linomi to its neighbows. On tlie other hand, it givcs us particular districts ratlier tlian broad philological arcas, and dialccts and su1)dialects ratlicr tlian languages. Upon the whole, hoivcvcr, tlicrc is so much good in this plan, that tlic cvil with which it is accompanicd, (viz. the teiicleiicy to csaggcrate philological diffcrences) bciilg easily guarded against, is of comparatively slight importance. Ncrcrthcless, it rcquircs to bc ljornc in mind. IVc naturally expcct, in vocalmlarics this collcctcd, a great nunibcr of old lauguagcs unclcr new namcs, and this is nhat we find in each of thc works before us. The distribution, howet er, of tlicse and tlicir identification are l’oints of detail to nliich no great importance, in thc psmt noticc at least, is attachcd. T’lic broaclcr qucstion is tlie extent to iiliich wc have citlicr rcprcscntatircs of groups hitherto uriliiiown, or data for an improvcd classification. Koellc’s is the morc important work of thc ti\ o, both on account of thc grcatcr lcngtli of its vocabularics, and tlic fact of its attempting tlic most in the way of arrangement. Indccd his instructions from the Church Missioiiary Society n ere “to cultivate not oiily one particular lnnguagc, hut to giw information respecting the whole question of African philo- logy.” ‘(It was usually supposed,” he adds, “ that thcrc mere in Sierra Leone the reprcsentativcs of about forty ilif- fercrit tribcs ; bnt tlie searching examiliation amongst tlie pcople, which the collectkon of this vocabulary dcmandcd, iliscovercd individuals from morc than two hundred diffcrcnt trihcs arid countrics.” JIr. Clarlic’s li$t amounts to tlirec Iiundred and cighty-eight. With sucli high nurnbcrs as thcsr bcfore our cycs, wc may safely say tlpt tlic statcmciit so Ixtcly madc, coiiccriiiiig thc exaggeration of pliilological ilifti- cidtics cngcridcred by tlic methods uiidqr notice, Iias a stroii~ priitaa ,fa& appearance of 1)cirig accaratc. Of tlic txo primary groups of tlic Polyglotta Africaiia, tliosc of l’arts 1. aiitl II., tlic odcr inay convciiiciitly 1)c tr:tii\po\ed, at lcant for tlic. piir~)o~csof’ illuhtrntioii. ‘I’lik is 87 bccause, in order to understand the generic characteristic of the vcry first suhdivision of tlic first division, a certain amourit of iriforniatioii rcspccting tlie structure of the languages of Part 11. is necessary. Thus, Part 11. contains the “ South Africaii Languages distinguished by an initial inflrction,” whilst Ordcr I. in Class I. givcs us “North-west Atlantic Languagcs distinguishing thcmselves, like those of South Africa, by prefixal changes or an initial inflcction.” In tliis way tlic South African structure is taken as a sort of standard for tlic clavsification of the others. Of tlic South African the Kaffre tongues are the typc. Lct us consider, thcn, that South African means Kafre, and that, as the Kaffrc peculiarities, besides being otherwise known, liave forincd the sul1,jcct of a late contribution from Dr. Blcck, let us pass to Koellc’s- I. North-westcrn Atlantic Languages.-They fall into four groups, reprcseritcd by tlic (a) Felup, (b) Papel, (c) Biafada, and (d) Timmani languages, rcspectively, each falling into dialects and subdialects. Certain additions will have to be made to this group when me come to the Unclassified Lan- guagcs. The value of tlie class itsclf will bc considcred whcn tEirec other groups have been noticed, i. e. the Mandingo, the Woloff, and the Fdah. At present we may remember it as the North-western Atlantic division. II. TILe Nortli-western Hig7~ Sudan or Mandingo Lun- paps constitute thc second group. 111. The Qper Guinea or Micldle-coast Languages the third. This means, the forms of specch akin to (a) the Kru, (6) the Dahomey, (c) the Yorulm IV. The North-eastern High Sudan Lampages arc spolicn inland, at tlic back of tlic Ashanti country, and along the eastem rangc of the Kong mountains. They arc akin to the (a) Mosee, (6) Kouri, (c) Koama, and (d)Yula forms of speech. V. The Niger-delta group falls into the (a) Isoama, (b)Sobo, and (c) Okuloma divisions. VI. The Niger-Tshadda laiiguagcs arc those akin to the Nllfi. H2 88 VII. The Central African division contains the languages allied to (a) the Bornui, and (b) the Pika. In Part 11. we have the South African Lanpages distin- guished by an initial injection, as has been already stated. It escludes the Hottentot, arid includes the Old Calabar, Ca- meroon, and Gaboon languages. Doing this, it coincides with the so-called KaRre class of tongues, in its latest form, i. e. in the form it has talien since it \\as shown that tl~ Poongwe, tlic Isuliu, the Efik, and otlicr langnages exhibit a similar xrics of initial changes to those of tlie Kafre and Bichuana. Upon the dirisioiis and subdivisions of this class the present writer gives no opinion. Hc mrrcly remarks that the valnc of its chicf characteristic, the initial changes in question, is a point upon which he unwillingly differs with several excellcnt authorities ; but this hc 11 ill explain in the scqucl-passing, for the present, to Part III., containing up- wards of forty unclassed languages and clialccts. This is done simply with the view of asking how far they are really unsusccptible of classification? If they be riot so, it is aslied how many, and what, can be transferred to Parts I. and 11. ? Of these unclassed forms of speech, the exact number of which (plus a few subdialects) is forty-three, we may at once dispose of (the numbers not in parentheses are Koelle’s) the following :- (1.) A. a. 1. Which is Wolofl. (2. 3. 4.) B. 1. 2. 3. Asanti, Barba, and Boko, which are Ashdnti. (5.) C. 1. Kandin, which is Berber. (6.) C. 2. Which is Tim6uctu. (7.) C. 3. Which is Mandara. (8.) C. 4. Which is Begharmi. (9.) C. 5. Which is Hawsa. (10.) C. 6. Which is Fulah ;-all recognized divisions. (11.) A. 6. 5. The Landoma is the same class with the Tinimani. (12.) A. b. 4. Tbe Limba-probably is in the same category. (13.) A. a. 2. The Bissago is Felzip. 89 (14. 15. 16.) A. b. 1. 2. 3. The Banyun, Nalu, and Bu- landa are also Fel6p. (17.) A. a. 3. The Gadsaga is Xerawolli, or closely akin. (18.) A. a. 4. The Gum. (19.) The Yalo, which is Tapua or Nu$. All the rest (with the exception of thc Arabic of F.) are evidently either members of Part II., or transitional to it and Part I. Hence, laying out of the question the (1.)Bissago, (2.) the Banyun, and (3.) the Nalu, every one of the other forms of speech, either itself or in an allied dialect, has been consi- dered by previous investigators and classed. Whence, then, the present group of unclassificd languages. In somc cases we must say that there has been an absolnte oversight, e. g. in the case of the Landoma, which is transparently allicd to the languages of 1. d. Gcncrally, however, it seems that the reason has been different. The majority of the languages under notice, though they form classes, form classes without many divisions or subdivisions representcd in thc work before US. Some of them indecd are eminently simplc, e.g. the Begharmi and Mandara. The Ashanti, on the other hand, overflows with dialects and subdialccts. Of these, however, only three were reprcsented by individuals at Sierra Leone, between such and such days of such and such a ycar. Had this number been trebled or doubled, the result might have been differcnt, and tlic Ashanti might hwe taken a placc in Part I. A class is constitutcd by what it excludes, quite as much as by what it includes. This brings us to the most csccptionablc part of an otherwise valuable work. And even hcre, the exceptions lie less against the laborious miasionary liiniself than against the instructions with which he was furnished. These were (as has already been stated) to classify the languages of Africa as well as to collect samples of them.
Recommended publications
  • Proverbs, Tales, Fables, & Historical Fragments
    n AFRICAN NATIVE LITERATURE, OR PROVERBS, TALES, FABLES, & HISTORICAL FRAGMENTS IN THE KANURI OR BORNU LANGUAGE. TO WHICH ARE ADDED A TRANSLATION OF THE ABOVE AND A KANLTJ -ENGLISH VOCABULAKY. BY REV. S. W. KOELLE, CHURCH MISSIONARY. LONDON: CHURCH MISSIONARY HOUSE, SALISBURY SQUARE. 1854. Princt-8 -shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God. (Psalm LXVIU, 31.) Printed by C. and F. Unger in Berlin , 51. Markprafen Str. EIGHT BEV. DR W. HOFFMANN, GENERAL -SUPERINTENDENT OF THE UNITED CHURCH OF PRUSSIA, IN GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE OF THE HAPPY YEARS DURING WHICH I ENJOYED HIS LUMINOUS AND ANIMATING INSTRUCTION, THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR. PEEFACE, 1 have now the pleasure of introducing to the friends of Africa, who arc interested in its languages and people, the last volume which has resulted from my lingual researches during a live years' stay in Sierra Leone. It connects itself with the Bornu Grammar, lately published, and contains a limited se- lection from the manuscript literature on which that Grammar is based , and a Vocabulary of the same language. These three; parts, the Grammar, the native Literature, and the Vocabu- lary, will be found to form something complete, as far as they go, in one of the most important Negro languages, hitherto unknown. The narratives which arc here communicated deserve spe- cial attention: they are not compositions, formed with difficulty by a foreigner, but they are the work of a genuine Negro mind, both in conception and expression; in them we hear a real Negro tongue speaking to us, we hear tales in the same language, and about the same words, in which they have been told over and over again to beguile many an idle hour in a land where nature's richest bounties are obtained without al- most any labour.
    [Show full text]
  • The Status of the East Kainji Languages of Central Nigeria: Recent Research
    The status of the East Kainji languages of Central Nigeria: recent research Version submitted for proceedings of the Hamburg meeting, March 2004, to mark the retirement of Professor Ludwig Gerhardt Roger Blench Mallam Dendo 8, Guest Road Cambridge CB1 2AL United Kingdom Voice/Answerphone/Fax. 0044-(0)1223-560687 E-mail [email protected] http://homepage.ntlworld.com/roger_blench/RBOP.htm Cambridge, Saturday, 02 October 2004 TABLE OF CONTENTS FIGURES..........................................................................................................................................................I 1. INTRODUCTION: THE IDENTIFICATION OF AN EAST KAINJI GROUP.................................. 2 2. EAST KAINJI LANGUAGES TODAY.................................................................................................... 2 3. LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF EAST KAINJI........................................................................................ 3 3.1 Phonology............................................................................................................................................... 3 Consonants................................................................................................................................................... 4 Tones............................................................................................................................................................. 5 3.2 Nominal morphology............................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • The Hausa Lexicographic Tradition
    http://lexikos.journals.ac.za The Hausa Lexicographic Tradition Roxana Ma Newman, International Programs and Department of Linguistics ([email protected]) and Paul Newman, Department of Linguistics and West African Languages Institute ([email protected]), Indiana University, Bloomington, United States of America Abstract: Hausa, a major language of West Africa, is one of the most widely studied languages of Sub-Saharan Africa. It has a rich lexicographic tradition dating back some two centuries. Since the first major vocabulary published in 1843 up to the present time, almost 60 lexicographic works — dictionaries, vocabularies, glossaries — have been published, in a range of metalanguages, from English to Hausa itself. This article traces the historical development of the major studies according to their type and function as general reference works, specialized works, pedagogical works, and terminological works. For each work, there is a general discussion of its size, accuracy of the pho- nological, lexical, and grammatical information, and the adequacy of its definitions and illustrative material. A complete list of the lexicographic works is included. Keywords: ARABIC, BILINGUAL LEXICOGRAPHY, DIALECTAL VARIANTS, DICTION- ARIES, ENGLISH, ETYMOLOGIES, FRENCH, GERMAN, GLOSSARIES, GRAMMATICAL CATEGORIES, HAUSA, LANGUAGE LEARNING, LOANWORDS, NEOLOGISMS, NIGER, NIGERIA, ORTHOGRAPHY, PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION, PHONOLOGY, RUSSIAN, STAN- DARD DIALECT, STANDARDIZATION, TERMINOLOGY, VOCABULARIES, WEST AFRICA. Opsomming: Die leksikografiese tradisie in Hausa. Hausa, 'n belangrike taal van Wes-Afrika, is een van die tale van Afrika suid van die Sahara wat die wydste bestudeer word. Dit het 'n ryk leksikografiese tradisie wat ongeveer twee eeue oud is. Van die eerste groot woordeboek wat in 1843 gepubliseer is tot die hede is ongeveer 60 leksikografiese werke — woordeboeke, naamlyste, woordelyste — gepubliseer in 'n reeks metatale van Engels tot Hausa self.
    [Show full text]
  • 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
    [Show full text]
  • The Taxonomy of Nigerian Varieties of Spoken English
    Vol.5(9), pp. 232-240, November 2014 DOI: 10.5897/IJEL2014.0623 Article Number: B500D5F47763 International Journal of English and Literature ISSN 2141-2626 Copyright © 2014 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article http://www.academicjournals.org/IJEL Full Length Research Paper The taxonomy of Nigerian varieties of spoken English Oladimeji Kaseem Olaniyi Kwara State University, Malete, Nigeria. Received 05 June, 2014; Accepted 3 September, 2014 The dream of a Nigerian English dictionary has recently been actualized. The academic body of teachers and researchers known as NESA recently published a dictionary of the Nigerian English. The corpus of words and expressions in the dictionary represents the meaning and pronunciation of words as used by Nigerians.As a headlamp into the major and minor languages spoken by a vast population of Nigerians, this article seeks to stratify the varieties of Nigerian English on the basis of the popularity of the various ethnic groups which culminate in the variations that subsist in the accents of English available in Nigeria. As a result, in the first instance, a pyramid which classifies the over three hundred languages into three levels (in a pyramidal structure) is proposed. Secondly, coalesced phonemic inventories from all the varieties of Nigerian English are linguistically reconciled. From the methodology of the study to the findings, formal and informal interviews, perceptual and acoustic experiments carried out textually and inter-textually form the background of results which have been corroborated in the literatures of Nigerian English. This study is basically an appraisal of Nigerian English without any bias for the educated, uneducated, standard, or sub-standard varieties.
    [Show full text]
  • Online Bibliography of Chadic and Hausa Linguistics
    Online Bibliography of Chadic and Hausa Linguistics PAUL NEWMAN Online Bibliography of Chadic and Hausa Linguistics compiled by PAUL NEWMAN 1. INTRODUCTION The Online Bibliography of Chadic and Hausa Linguistics (OBCHL), henceforth the ‘biblio’, is an updated, expanded, and corrected edition of the bibliography published some fifteen years ago by Rüdiger Köppe Verlag (Newman 1996). That biblio was built on valuable earlier works including Hair (1967), Newman (1971), Baldi (1977), R. M. Newman (1979), Awde (1988), and Barreteau (1993). The ensuing years have witnessed an outpouring of new publications on Chadic and Hausa, written by scholars from around the globe, thereby creating the need for a new, up-to-date bibliography. Data gathered for this online edition, which was compiled using EndNote, an excellent and easy to use bibliographic database program, have come from my own library and internet searches as well as from a variety of published sources. Particularly valuable have been the reviews of the earlier bibliography, most notably the detailed review article by Baldi (1997), the Hausa and Chadic entries in the annual Bibliographie Linguistique, compiled over the past dozen years by Dr. Joe McIntyre, and the very useful list of publications found regularly in Méga-Tchad. The enormous capacity afforded by the internet to organize and update large-scale reference works such as bibliographies and dictionaries enables us to present this new online bibliography as a searchable, open access publication. This Version-02 is presented in PDF format only. A goal for the future is to make the biblio available in database format as well. 2.
    [Show full text]
  • RUGGEDNESS: the BLESSING of BAD GEOGRAPHY in AFRICA Nathan Nunn and Diego Puga*
    RUGGEDNESS: THE BLESSING OF BAD GEOGRAPHY IN AFRICA Nathan Nunn and Diego Puga* Abstract—We show that geography, through its impact on history, can has been on direct contemporaneous effects of geography on have important effects on economic development today. The analysis focuses on the historic interaction between ruggedness and Africa’s slave economic outcomes (Kamarck, 1976; Mellinger, Sachs, & trades. Although rugged terrain hinders trade and most productive activ- Gallup, 2000; Sachs, 2001; Gallup & Sachs, 2001; Sachs & ities, negatively affecting income globally, rugged terrain within Africa Malaney, 2002; Rappaport & Sachs, 2003).1 Recently oth- afforded protection to those being raided during the slave trades. Since the slave trades retarded subsequent economic development, ruggedness within ers have argued for a more nuanced effect of geography Africa has also had a historic indirect positive effect on income. Studying on economic outcomes, which works through past interac- all countries worldwide, we estimate the differential effect of ruggedness tions with key historical events (Diamond, 1997; Engerman on income for Africa. We show that the differential effect of ruggedness is statistically significant and economically meaningful, it is found in Africa & Sokoloff, 1997, 2002; Sokoloff & Engerman, 2000; Ace- only, it cannot be explained by other factors like Africa’s unique geographic moglu, Johnson, & Robinson, 2001; Acemoglu, Johnson, environment, and it is fully accounted for by the history of the slave trades. & Robinson, 2002). For instance, Acemoglu et al. (2001) argue that the importance of a disease-prone environment I. Introduction for current income levels lies in the effect that it had on potential settler mortality during colonization.
    [Show full text]
  • The Slave Trade and the Origins of Mistrust in Africa
    The Slave Trade and the Origins of Mistrust in Africa The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Nunn, Nathan, and Leonard Wantchekon. 2011. “The Slave Trade and the Origins of Mistrust in Africa.” American Economic Review 101 (7) (December): 3221–3252. doi:10.1257/aer.101.7.3221. http:// dx.doi.org/10.1257/aer.101.7.3221. Published Version doi:10.1257/aer.101.7.3221 Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:11986331 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA American Economic Review 101 (December 2011): 3221–3252 http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi 10.1257/aer.101.7.3221 = The Slave Trade and the Origins of Mistrust in Africa† By Nathan Nunn and Leonard Wantchekon* We show that current differences in trust levels within Africa can be traced back to the transatlantic and Indian Ocean slave trades. Combining contemporary individual-level survey data with histori- cal data on slave shipments by ethnic group, we find that individuals whose ancestors were heavily raided during the slave trade are less trusting today. Evidence from a variety of identification strategies suggests that the relationship is causal. Examining causal mecha- nisms, we show that most of the impact of the slave trade is through factors that are internal to the individual, such as cultural norms, beliefs, and values.
    [Show full text]
  • Ijah Vol 8 (3), July, 2019
    IJAH VOL 8 (3), JULY, 2019 International Journal of Arts and Humanities (IJAH) Ethiopia Vol. 8 (3), S/No 30, JULY, 2019: 71-83 ISSN: 2225-8590 (Print) ISSN 2227-5452 (Online) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/ijah.v8i3.7 Ibani Oral Literature: The Missing Link Jones M. Jaja, Ph.D. Professor of African and Social History Department of History and International Diplomacy Rivers State University, Port Harcourt Rivers State, Nigeria E-mail: [email protected] Tel: +2348033168998; +2348056049778 Abstract Language has long been considered as one of the most important attributes of cultural identity. So has literature. Indeed, language and literature are so closely linked in this respect that the great Slavic poet, Constantine the philosopher said, as early as the ninth century, that people without books in their language are naked and can be compared to a body deprived of proper food. To reaffirm and consolidate the identity of the Slavic people, then under foreign domination, Constantine went ahead to develop his own vernacular dialect into a literary and liturgical language that came to be known in philology as Old Church Slavonic. This paper sought to analyse oral literature, especially as it pertains to the Ibani people. The study and appreciation of oral literature are highly crucial to the understanding of the complexity of human cognitive skills. For many people around the world, particularly in areas where history and traditions are more predominantly conveyed through speech than in writing, the transmission of oral literature from one generation to the next lies at the heart of culture and memory.
    [Show full text]
  • Research and Development of Nigerian Minority Languages
    Introduction Research and development Nigerian languages 1 Research and development of Nigerian minority languages DRAFT INTRODUCTION FOR A VOLUME NEAR PRESS ON CURRENT RESEARCH IN NIGERIAN MINORITY LANGUAGES PLEASE DON’T QUOTE WITHOUT ASKING ME Roger Blench Kay Williamson Educational Foundation 1. Introduction After the island of New Guinea, Nigeria is one of the most linguistically diverse countries on earth. There are nearly five hundred languages, and some of those have a considerable range of dialects. It is the meeting place of three of Africa’s four language phyla, Niger-Congo, Nilo-Saharan and Afroasiatic. Nigeria has one of the most widely spoken languages in Sub-Saharan Africa, Hausa, and severely endangered languages whose last speakers are now very old. Yet its languages remain very poorly researched; compared with the effort that has gone into the indigenous languages of Europe, the Americas or Australia, Nigeria is barely known. The papers in this book serve to report on some aspects of current research into minority languages; and this general introduction is intended to provide an overview of the situation in the country as a whole. 2. The research agenda According to the most recent surveys (Blench 2011), Nigeria has some four hundred and eighty-eight languages. Of these, perhaps twenty are severely endangered and as many as two hundred are threatened. There are as few as ten reference dictionaries for major languages, and many of these are now very out of date. Dictionaries for Igbo and Yoruba tend to recycle the same material with variations in orthography rather than bringing new research to the table.
    [Show full text]
  • Russell G. Schuh: a Biographical Profile and Bibliography
    1 RUSSELL G. SCHUH: A BIOGRAPHICAL PROFILE AND BIBLIOGRAPHY Roxana Ma Newman Russell Galen Schuh, affectionately known by his Hausa sobriquet as Malam Takalmi ("Mr. Shoe"), was born on March 14, 1941, in Corvalis, a small town in Oregon, although he spent most of his childhood in Klamath Falls, which he considers his hometown. Russ took an early interest in foreign languages, and earned a B.A. in French at the University of Oregon in 1963. He spent the following year at Northwestern University as a teaching assistant, earning his M.A. in French. It was there that he was introduced to the relatively new field of linguistics and began to develop his lifelong curiosity about the structural properties of the world's different languages. After his M.A., he spent a year studying linguistics at the University of California at Berkeley, where he was exposed to Asian and Native American languages. By then, he knew he was "hooked, born to be a linguist." Not content to continue being just a student, and wanting to broaden his experience, Russ embarked on a path that he says was "the defining moment" of his life: he volunteered for the Peace Corps in 1965. He went to Niger, a franco­ phone African country, and there he spent two years supervising adult literacy programs in the Agadez-Tahoua-Bilma region, applying his linguistics training to learn both Tamashaq, a Berber language, and Hausa, a Chadic language. Like many returned Peace Corps volunteers, Russ came back ready to go on to graduate school. He enrolled at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), which had a nationally prominent program in African studies and African linguistics, and in a year (1968) earned a second M.A., this time in linguistics.
    [Show full text]
  • 000 by Mdacdougald; the Latter Figure Represents 2.5% of the Total Population of 2,000,000
    A PROVISIONAL PHONE:IC ANALYSIS OF KISI Will.iam J. Samarin INTRODUCTION During the academic year 1949-50 1 had an opportunity to spend about one hundred hours working with a native speaker of the IKisi language oif l7est Africa who happened to be in Berkeley for the year. I collected a considerable vocabulary and notes on some aspects of Kisi morphology and most of this data was checked by requestioning the informant during the process of analysis. The present paper presents my infor- mation on Kisi phonemic structure. (1) My informant was oses Davis (whose Kisi name is Tambh gandUt), an underareduate student at the University of Cal- iffornia on a scholarship from the Liberian government. He was born in the town of Kpukulo but lived in Sardu; both these towns are in the western province of Liberia. Before coming to the United States he had studied at a mission school and at a public high school in Liberia. As all his schooling took him away from home, it had been a long time since he was with his own people. He spoke Kisi well, but sometimes had difficulty remembering certain words. The Kisi language is spoken in parts of Liberia, Sierra Leone and French Guinea with an estimated total of from 335,000 to 350,000 native speakers. About 150,000 Nisi speakers live in Liberia where they represent some 7.9% of the total population of 1,900,000. Very few Liberian Kisi speakers are classed as literate. Another 150,00O live.in French Guinea, representing 7.3% of a total population of 2,050,000.
    [Show full text]