The Bakassi Buffer Zone June 7, 2005
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Western Beboid and African Language Classification
Western Beboid and African language classification Linguistic Society of America Annual Meeting, Chicago, 6 January 2008 Western Beboid and African language classification 2 Western Beboid background Scott Farrar Jeff Good [8] The Niger-Congo language family (Williamson and Blench 2000:12) University of Washington University at Buffalo [email protected] [email protected] 1 Introduction1 [1] Greenberg’s (1966) proposals classifying African languages into four major fam- ilies have become relatively widely accepted. [2] However, the extent to which they should be understood as a genetic classification as opposed to a reference classification remains unclear. [3] . it is sometimes suggested that Niger-Congo is merely a typological and not a genetic unity. This view is not held by any specialists in the phylum. (Williamson and Blench 2000:11) [4] This would definitely seem to overstate the case, most strikingly with respect to the classification of Mande languages (see, e.g., Mukarovsky (1977:4–6)). [5] As more and more descriptive data become available on more and more African languages, there is increasing need for some objective inter-linguistic framework within which these data may be classified and compared. Unfortunately, no such ideal classification has been available for the languages of Africa as a whole, and in recent years descriptive linguists have tended to use Greenberg’s “genetic” classification as a frame of reference within which to locate the languages they are describing. Although most of these linguists have not con- cerned themselves with testing the validity or otherwise of Greenberg’s classification, their unqualified acceptance of it in print has lent a certain “respectability” to his classificational units. -
Linking Bantu to Benue-Congo: a View from the Northern Fringe
Linking Bantu to Benue-Congo: A view from the northern fringe of the Grassfields Berlin, 21–22 February 2010 Figure 1: Lower Fungom (based on Hombert (1980:84), with updates) Linking Bantu to Benue-Congo: LEDE&M ∗ ',281#=>*0216* A view from the northern fringe of the Grassfields 933@C,@8 Jeff Good B1>*0 University at Buffalo '3@30,/7*#03,6 [email protected] B1)-#B3,6 1 Introduction &*,0/G#>177,-* [1] As more and more descriptive data become available on more and more African languages, <(/61>1213)#A,C1@,7 there is increasing need for some objective inter-linguistic framework within which these ',281 data may be classified and compared. Unfortunately, no such ideal classification has been $'()'*+#,'-"./ '(5( '()6,/71 available for the languages of Africa as a whole, and in recent years descriptive linguists 9*)#A7(2@*0#H%1IJ#* '1223)- '()$*) have tended to use Greenberg’s “genetic” classification as a frame of reference within which K1#A7(2@*0#H/3*J +,! to locate the languages they are describing. Although most of these linguists have not con- 43281)#H$16J &-() <%,77#'*$,5 :( 43281) cerned themselves with testing the validity or otherwise of Greenberg’s classification, their 9,)-#H5,$J ./,0 '/(!"H%(AJ 4()- unqualified acceptance of it in print has lent a certain “respectability” to his classificational '*$,5 9,)- units. This acceptance is potentially misleading to non-linguists, especially historians, and 01()'*+#,'-"./ has helped obscure the fact many of these classificational units have never been scientifi- &,$1#H%55J +83, '/(! cally established. (Dalby 1971:17) 2'+)*13#4.+5 4()-#H$57J# [2] . -
Ekoid: Bantoid Languages of the Nigeria-Cameroun Borderland
EKOID: BANTOID LANGUAGES OF THE NIGERIA-CAMEROUN BORDERLAND Roger Blench DRAFT ONLY NOT TO BE QUOTED WITHOUT PERMISSION Roger Blench Kay Williamson Educational Foundation 8, Guest Road Cambridge CB1 2AL United Kingdom Voice/ Fax. 0044-(0)1223-560687 Mobile worldwide (00-44)-(0)7967-696804 E-mail [email protected] http://www.rogerblench.info/RBOP.htm TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. The Ekoid-Mbe languages: Overview ....................................................................................................... 1 2. Classification................................................................................................................................................ 3 2.1 External.................................................................................................................................................. 3 2.2 Internal................................................................................................................................................... 3 3. Phonology..................................................................................................................................................... 5 4. Morphology.................................................................................................................................................. 6 5. Conclusions .................................................................................................................................................. 7 References....................................................................................................................................................... -
The Central Delta Languages: Comparative Word List and Historical Reconstructions
The Central Delta languages: comparative word list and historical reconstructions [DRAFT CIRCULATED FOR COMMENT] Roger Blench Kay Williamson Educational Foundation 8, Guest Road Cambridge CB1 2AL United Kingdom Voice/ Fax. 0044-(0)1223-560687 Mobile worldwide (00-44)-(0)7967-696804 E-mail [email protected] http://www.rogerblench.info/RBOP.htm This printout: August 14, 2008 Roger Blench Comparative Central Delta: front matter. Circulation draft TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface..............................................................................................................................................................iii 1. Introduction: the Central Delta languages..................................................................................................... 1 2. Sources on the Central Delta languages........................................................................................................ 2 3. History and anthropology.............................................................................................................................. 3 4. Phonology ..................................................................................................................................................... 3 5. Morphology................................................................................................................................................... 3 6. Syntax........................................................................................................................................................... -
1 Towards the Reconstruction of the Tense-Aspect-Mood
Towards the reconstruction of the tense-aspect-mood (TAM) system in early Bantoid, with particular attention to the category “tense” John R. Watters, SIL International September 2012 Proto-Niger-Congo Congress, Paris 1.0 Definition of the question The general purpose of this study is to contribute to our understanding of the tense-aspect- mood (TAM) categories and systems in proto or early Bantoid. Within that broad purpose, this study will give particular attention to the status of tense in Proto-Bantoid or early Bantoid. All Bantoid languages today systematically mark aspectual categories (e.g. imperfective) and modal categories (e.g. subjunctive). However, only some Bantoid languages mark tense as a grammatical category such as the Grassfields Bantu and Narrow Bantu languages. In other Bantoid languages, tense is absent such as in the Ekoid Bantu languages. This variation in the distribution of tense raises the question whether proto or early Bantoid was a tense-aspect language in which tense was lost in some subgroups over time, or was an aspect-prominent language in which certain subgroups innovated tense. If the latter case holds, I would want to ask additional questions: Where and when did the marking of tense as a verbal category emerge? What would it mean for our understanding of the early years of Bantoid, its subgroupings, and its internal migrations? Did the development of tense originate within one sub-set of languages from which it spread to others, or did various subgroups innovate tense independently of the others? I would also want to compare the distribution of tense in Bantoid languages with the results of lexicostatistical studies. -
The Syntactic Diversity of Sauxov in West Africa Hannah Sande Georgetown University Nico Baier Mcgill University Peter Jenks UC Berkeley
Chapter 34 The syntactic diversity of SAuxOV in West Africa Hannah Sande Georgetown University Nico Baier McGill University Peter Jenks UC Berkeley Surface SAuxOV orders abound in West Africa. We demonstrate that apparent ex- amples of this word order have important structural differences across languages. We show that SAuxOV orders in some languages are due to mixed clausal headed- ness, consisting of a head initial TP and head-final VP, though this order can be concealed by verb movement. Other languages are more consistently head-initial, and what appear to be SAuxOV orders arise in limited syntactic contexts due to specific syntactic constructions such as object shift or nominalized complements. Finally, we show that languages which have genuine SAuxOV, corresponding to a head-final VP, tend to exhibit head-final properties more generally. This obser- vation supports the idea that syntactic typology is most productively framed in terms of structural analyses of languages rather than the existence of surface word orders. 1 Introduction The order subject-auxiliary-object-verb (SAuxOV) is quite common across West Africa. At the same time, it is well-known that syntactic differences exist among the languages with this surface order (Creissels 2005). Our goal in this paper is to identify structural differences across languages for which SAuxOV order occurs, Hannah Sande, Nico Baier & Peter Jenks. 2019. The syntactic diversity of SAuxOV in West Africa. In Emily Clem, Peter Jenks & Hannah Sande (eds.), Theory and descrip- tion in African Linguistics: Selected papers from the 47th Annual Conference on African Linguistics, 667–701. Berlin: Language Science Press. -
The Languages of Rivers State of Nigeria: an Overview
THE LANGUAGES OF RIVERS STATE OF NIGERIA: AN OVERVIEW Ethelbert Emmanuel Kari1 Abstract This paper2 provides an updated overview of the languages of Rivers State of Nigeria in respect of the number, linguistic classification and features of the languages, as well as the distribution of the languages across the 23 Local Government Areas (LGAs)3 of the state. This is because the existing overviews contain little or no data on the linguistic features of the languages. It notes that Rivers State is a multilingual state in which 28 native or indigenous languages are spoken, and that the languages fall into two major sub-families (Benue-Congo and Ijoid) within the Niger-Congo phylum. With relevant data, the paper highlights and illustrates some of the interesting linguistic characteristics of the languages, which include advanced tongue root vowel harmony, noun classification via noun prefixes and noun classifiers, inclusive- exclusive distinction in personal pronouns, sex gender, verbal extensions, serial verb constructions and subject and/or object agreement marking. Furthermore, the paper considers the distribution of Rivers State languages and notes that the languages are not evenly distributed across the LGAs, and that many indigenous people of the state are bilingual or multilingual in the languages of the state. Finally, the paper notes that despite the enabling national and state policies and laws favouring mother-tongue education, Rivers State languages have not actively been used at the levels stipulated by the policies and laws. It recommends the enforcement and implementation of existing laws and policies so that the indigenous languages of the state are used at the levels stipulated by the National Policy on Education for the benefit of the citizens, state and country. -
Berkeley Linguistics Society
PROCEEDINGS OF THE THIRTY-FIRST ANNUAL MEETING OF THE BERKELEY LINGUISTICS SOCIETY February 18-20, 2005 SPECIAL SESSION on LANGUAGES OF WEST AFRICA Edited by Rebecca T. Cover and Yuni Kim Berkeley Linguistics Society Berkeley, CA, USA Berkeley Linguistics Society University of California, Berkeley Department of Linguistics 1203 Dwinelle Hall Berkeley, CA 94720-2650 USA All papers copyright © 2006 by the Berkeley Linguistics Society, Inc. All rights reserved. ISSN 0363-2946 LCCN 76-640143 Printed by Sheridan Books 100 N. Staebler Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 ii TABLE OF CONTENTS A note regarding the contents of this volume ...................................................... iv Foreword............................................................................................................. v SPECIAL SESSION Interpreting Yorùbá Bare Nouns as Generic......................................................... 1 OLADIIPO AJIBOYE Divergent Structure in Ogonoid Languages ....................................................... 13 OLIVER BOND and GREGORY D. ANDERSON A Fixed Hierarchy for Wolof Verbal Affixes..................................................... 25 LESTON BUELL and MARIAME SY S-O-V-X Constituent Order and Constituent Order Alternations in West African Languages ......................................................................................................... 37 DENIS CREISSELS Nupe Coordinate Structures: A Syntactically Heterogeneous Class.................... 53 JASON KANDYBOWICZ Emai’s Aspect-Causative Interaction ................................................................ -
Bantu Expansion Shows That Habitat Alters the Route and Pace of Human Dispersals
Bantu expansion shows that habitat alters the route and pace of human dispersals Rebecca Grollemunda,1, Simon Branforda, Koen Bostoenb, Andrew Meadea, Chris Vendittia, and Mark Pagela,c,1 aEvolutionary Biology Group, School of Biological Sciences, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6BX, England; bKongoKing Research Group, Department of Languages and Cultures, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium; and cThe Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM 87501 Edited by Peter S. Bellwood, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia, and accepted by the Editorial Board August 10, 2015 (receivedfor review February 25, 2015) Unlike most other biological species, humans can use cultural inno- at ∼2,500 B.P. affected amongst others the western part of the vations to occupy a range of environments, raising the intriguing Congo Basin, creating patches of more or less open forests and question of whether human migrations move relatively indepen- wooded or grassland savannahs (14, 15). These areas eventually dently of habitat or show preferences for familiar ones. The Bantu merged into a corridor known as the “Sangha River Interval” that expansion that swept out of West Central Africa beginning ∼5,000 y repeatedly facilitated the north–southspreadofcertaintypical ago is one of the most influential cultural events of its kind, even- savannah plant and animal species (17, 20–22). tually spreading over a vast geographical area a new way of life in The Sangha River Interval may also have been a crucial pas- which farming played an increasingly important role. We use a new sageway for the initial north–south migration of Bantu speech dated phylogeny of ∼400 Bantu languages to show that migrating communities across the Equator. -
Metrical Prominence Assymetries in Medumba
METRICAL PROMINENCE ASYMMETRIES IN MEDɄMBA, A GRASSFIELDS BANTU LANGUAGE KATHRYN FRANICH University of Delaware There has been considerable debate as to whether word-level metrical prominence asymmetries are a universal feature of languages. African tone languages have been at the heart of this debate, as many of these languages do not show clear phonetic evidence of lexical stress. This article ex- plores metrical prominence asymmetries in Medʉmba, a Grassfields Bantu language, by examin- ing such asymmetries through the lens of speech timing. Forged within a dynamical model of metrical structure, a metronome-based phrase-repetition task known as speech cycling is used to investigate the relative timing of syllables hypothesized to be metrically prominent and metrically weak. Previous research using the task has shown that metrically prominent syllables are attracted to certain relative positions within a repetition cycle. Results of two experiments show that foot heads in Medʉmba also show this behavior, supporting their status as metrically prominent. These results suggest that true metrical prominence asymmetries exist in a broader range of languages than previously thought, and that relative timing serves as an important unifying property of met- rical structure crosslinguistically.* Keywords: metrical structure, prominence, accent, speech timing, Grassfields Bantu, Medʉmba 1. Introduction. An ongoing debate in phonology concerns whether word-level metrical prominence asymmetries—also sometimes referred to as metrical ‘accent’— are a universal feature of human language. One position, expressed by Goedemans and van der Hulst (2009), holds that all languages likely contain such asymmetries, and sim- ply vary in how they are phonetically marked: while some languages utilize stress or pitch accent to convey metrical prominence, other languages use different sets of cues, or perhaps none at all. -
The Membership and Internal Structure of Bantoid and the Border with Bantu
TheThe membershipmembership andand internalinternal structurestructure ofof BantoidBantoid andand thethe borderborder withwith BantuBantu 7-9th April, 2011 Roger Blench Kay Williamson Educational Foundation This PowerPoint can be found on my website http://www.rogerblench.info/Language%20data/Niger- Congo/Bantoid/Bantoid%20page.htm Individual papers covering branches of Bantoid are also posted as well as considerable amounts of raw data Among the prodigious mass of narratives, from which has been formed the general history of Voyages and Travels, and an infinity of others published every day, no mention is made of the languages which are spoken in the different countries, the manners and usages of which are described to us; and if the authors did not from time to time put into the mouths of the inhabitants of those distant regions, some words of which they know the meaning, we should be tempted to believe that only dumb people had travelled among those nations. All will agree at least that whatever relates to the language, its genius, its relation to other known languages, even its mechanism and flow, are not traits which would look misplaced in the historical picture of a nation. L’Abbé Proyart History of Loango.. (1776)I The Bantoid languages are some 150 languages positioned geographically between Nigeria and Cameroun and ‘between’ Benue-Congo and Bantu in terms of their position within Niger- Congo. Often referred to as Bantu, for example in the term ‘Ekoid Bantu’, their classificatory position remains uncertain. Their noun morphology is not that of classic Bantu, although their prefixes are often ascribed its class numbers in a misleading way. -
Reconstructing Benue-Congo Person Marking II
Kirill Babaev Russian State University for the Humanities Reconstructing Benue-Congo person marking II This paper is the second and last part of a comparative analysis of person marking systems in Benue-Congo (BC) languages, started in (Babaev 2008, available online for reference). The first part of the paper containing sections 1–2 gave an overview of the linguistic studies on the issue to date and presented a tentative reconstruction of person marking in the Proto- Bantoid language. In the second part of the paper, this work is continued by collecting data from all the other branches of BC and making the first step towards a reconstruction of the Proto-BC system of person marking. Keywords: Niger-Congo, Benue-Congo, personal pronouns, comparative research, recon- struction, person marking. The comparative outlook of person marking systems in the language families lying to the west of the Bantoid-speaking area is a challenge. These language stocks (the East BC families of Cross River, Plateau, Kainji and Jukunoid, and the West BC including Edoid, Nupoid, Defoid, Idomoid, Igboid and a few genetically isolated languages of Nigeria) are still far from being sufficiently studied or even described, and the amount of linguistic data for many of them re- mains quite scarce. In comparison with the Bantu family which has enjoyed much attention from comparative linguists within the last decades, there are very few papers researching the other subfamilies of BC from a comparative standpoint. This is especially true for studies in morphology, including person marking. The aim here is therefore to make the very first step towards the comparative analysis and reconstruction of person markers in BC.