An areal typology of kin terms in the Nuba Mountain languages

Abstract

Abstract Despite the relatively large amount of linguistic and anthropological data on kinship terminologies in the languages of the Nuba Mountains, we still lack cross-linguistic studies attempting at reconstructing the areal history of this highly variable lexical field. This paper aims at comparing the formal and semantic features of kin terms across the languages of the Nuba Mountains in order to provide historical evidence for their transmission through inheritance or their possible diffusion via language contact. The comparative study surveys the kinship terminologies of 10 languages belonging to the three phyla attested in the Nuba Mountains (i.e. Niger-Congo, Nilo-Saharan and Kadu). In the first part of the paper, I analyze the morphosyntactic properties and functions of kin terms. By adopting a componential perspective of analysis, I then focus on the semantics of kin terms in the languages of the sample. The comparison eventually illustrates a high degree of typological variation whose origins can be traced back to the different genetic affiliations of the Nuba Mountain languages. It is also argued that matter and/or pattern borrowing can possibly occur in the domain of kin terms. However, language contact is less significant than shared sociocultural factors in triggering formal and semantic similarities across different kin terminologies. Above and beyond, the study intends to contribute to the ongoing debate on whether the Nuba Mountains constitute an ‘accretion’ zone and to point out some instances of micro-scale linguistic convergence between the languages of the region.