Abstract South Ethio-Semitic (SES) is a genealogical branch of Ethio-Semitic (ES), a subgroup of Semitic found almost entirely in Ethiopia and Eritrea. The paper considers two features characteristic of several South Ethio-Semitic languages. Firstly, the Prefix Conjugation displays a common 1sg/1pl prefix in various SES languages. Secondly, an innovative 1pl suffix is often employed in the Prefix Conjugation. In forms with 1sg/1pl syncretism, this suffix takes over the functional load of the plural marker. Both features are innovative in SES, and their absence from a number of languages in each of the main subbranches suggests areal diffusion rather than a shared innovation going back to the Proto-SES level. In former studies, it has been suggested that the innovative 1pl suffix was borrowed from Cushitic and that its introduction has triggered the 1sg/1pl syncretism. This hypothesis is critically reassessed in the present paper, which considers in detail various patterns of 1sg/1pl syncretism and various patterns of its interaction with the 1pl suffix, and offers a tentative reconstruction of their emergence and spread in the languages in question.
{"title":"The first person prefixes in South Ethio-Semitic","authors":"M. Bulakh","doi":"10.1515/jall-2023-2003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jall-2023-2003","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract South Ethio-Semitic (SES) is a genealogical branch of Ethio-Semitic (ES), a subgroup of Semitic found almost entirely in Ethiopia and Eritrea. The paper considers two features characteristic of several South Ethio-Semitic languages. Firstly, the Prefix Conjugation displays a common 1sg/1pl prefix in various SES languages. Secondly, an innovative 1pl suffix is often employed in the Prefix Conjugation. In forms with 1sg/1pl syncretism, this suffix takes over the functional load of the plural marker. Both features are innovative in SES, and their absence from a number of languages in each of the main subbranches suggests areal diffusion rather than a shared innovation going back to the Proto-SES level. In former studies, it has been suggested that the innovative 1pl suffix was borrowed from Cushitic and that its introduction has triggered the 1sg/1pl syncretism. This hypothesis is critically reassessed in the present paper, which considers in detail various patterns of 1sg/1pl syncretism and various patterns of its interaction with the 1pl suffix, and offers a tentative reconstruction of their emergence and spread in the languages in question.","PeriodicalId":43215,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Languages and Linguistics","volume":"44 1","pages":"1 - 23"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48395155","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Newman, Paul: A history of the Hausa language: reconstruction and pathways to the present","authors":"B. Caron","doi":"10.1515/jall-2023-2002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jall-2023-2002","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43215,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Languages and Linguistics","volume":"44 1","pages":"123 - 126"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46263165","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract This paper presents an overview, based on field data, of the adpositional system in Akebu, a Kwa (Ghana-Togo Mountain) language of West Africa. Like other Kwa languages, Akebu has both linear types of adpositions. Prepositions are not numerous and are fully grammaticalized. Two prepositions are used very widely, one of them expressing a comitative meaning and a number of related ones, the other having a generalized locative meaning, as well as other ones. In contrast, postpositions are more numerous, but most of them are weakly grammaticalized relator nouns that express the meanings of locational orientations and keep nominal morphology and independent uses. Still, grammaticalized postpositions are also present, the most common of them being a postposition that expresses apudessive, i.e. near, next to, orientation.
{"title":"Adpositions and adpositional relator nouns in Akebu","authors":"A. Shluinsky","doi":"10.1515/jall-2023-2006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jall-2023-2006","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper presents an overview, based on field data, of the adpositional system in Akebu, a Kwa (Ghana-Togo Mountain) language of West Africa. Like other Kwa languages, Akebu has both linear types of adpositions. Prepositions are not numerous and are fully grammaticalized. Two prepositions are used very widely, one of them expressing a comitative meaning and a number of related ones, the other having a generalized locative meaning, as well as other ones. In contrast, postpositions are more numerous, but most of them are weakly grammaticalized relator nouns that express the meanings of locational orientations and keep nominal morphology and independent uses. Still, grammaticalized postpositions are also present, the most common of them being a postposition that expresses apudessive, i.e. near, next to, orientation.","PeriodicalId":43215,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Languages and Linguistics","volume":"44 1","pages":"77 - 117"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42431213","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-05-01DOI: 10.1515/jall-2023-frontmatter1
{"title":"Frontmatter","authors":"","doi":"10.1515/jall-2023-frontmatter1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jall-2023-frontmatter1","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43215,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Languages and Linguistics","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135381853","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Languages feature labels used to name various feeling states, referred to as emotion lexica. Language-specific linguistic features patterned after culturally-shaped templates such as somatic referencing, make each emotion lexicon unique. This study investigates somatic referencing in the emotion lexicon of the Efik ethnolinguistic group obtained through ethnographic linguistic fieldwork in South-eastern Nigeria. Our analysis revealed that in the Efik language, nearly fifty body-centered lexemes serve as the primary labels for a variety of feeling states. The identified emotion terms incorporated specific body parts, various parts of the face, as well as the generalized body. In each instance, the body referent constituted part of the internal structure of the feeling label. Our findings complement existing emotion research examining the cultural scripting of emotion experiences as well as their expression and communication.
{"title":"Melting intestines, red hearts, and scattering eyes: exploring embodiment in the Efik feeling lexica","authors":"Eyo O. Mensah, V. Dzokoto","doi":"10.1515/jall-2023-2007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jall-2023-2007","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Languages feature labels used to name various feeling states, referred to as emotion lexica. Language-specific linguistic features patterned after culturally-shaped templates such as somatic referencing, make each emotion lexicon unique. This study investigates somatic referencing in the emotion lexicon of the Efik ethnolinguistic group obtained through ethnographic linguistic fieldwork in South-eastern Nigeria. Our analysis revealed that in the Efik language, nearly fifty body-centered lexemes serve as the primary labels for a variety of feeling states. The identified emotion terms incorporated specific body parts, various parts of the face, as well as the generalized body. In each instance, the body referent constituted part of the internal structure of the feeling label. Our findings complement existing emotion research examining the cultural scripting of emotion experiences as well as their expression and communication.","PeriodicalId":43215,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Languages and Linguistics","volume":"44 1","pages":"49 - 75"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41620550","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Philip J. Jaggar 1945–2023","authors":"Pauline Newman, R. Newman","doi":"10.1515/jall-2023-2004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jall-2023-2004","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43215,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Languages and Linguistics","volume":"44 1","pages":"119 - 121"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48615551","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract Tanzanian Swahili has two complementizers, kuwa and kwamba, both used to introduce finite embedded clauses. We explore whether the complementizers are in free variation, as reported in all descriptive and pedagogical work. Our study primarily relies on corpus data, which we supplement with native speaker judgments. We find that the complementizers are not in free variation, but in fact are affected by a number of factors known to affect embedded clauses cross-linguistically, including predicate class, person features of the main-clause subject, and mood in the embedded clause. We conclude that the complementizers ultimately reflect subtle, pragmatic factors concerning how the truth of the embedded clause should be evaluated. Our study expands on previous work on languages with so-called “dual-complementizer” systems.
{"title":"A corpus analysis of Swahili’s dual-complementizer system","authors":"Aron Finholt, John Gluckman","doi":"10.1515/jall-2023-2005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jall-2023-2005","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Tanzanian Swahili has two complementizers, kuwa and kwamba, both used to introduce finite embedded clauses. We explore whether the complementizers are in free variation, as reported in all descriptive and pedagogical work. Our study primarily relies on corpus data, which we supplement with native speaker judgments. We find that the complementizers are not in free variation, but in fact are affected by a number of factors known to affect embedded clauses cross-linguistically, including predicate class, person features of the main-clause subject, and mood in the embedded clause. We conclude that the complementizers ultimately reflect subtle, pragmatic factors concerning how the truth of the embedded clause should be evaluated. Our study expands on previous work on languages with so-called “dual-complementizer” systems.","PeriodicalId":43215,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Languages and Linguistics","volume":"44 1","pages":"25 - 48"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2023-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42458518","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Pacchiarotti, Sara: Bantu applicative constructions","authors":"Kyle Jerro","doi":"10.1515/jall-2022-8897","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jall-2022-8897","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43215,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Languages and Linguistics","volume":"43 1","pages":"305 - 309"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45408088","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract This article deals with the formation of nouns in Kabyle Berber. Analysis of Dallet’s (Dallet, Jean-Mari. 1982. Dictionnaire kabyle-français. Paris: Selaf) dictionary data has shown that 1) elements that appear in the plural but are absent in the singular are unpredictable and therefore part of the lexical ingredients of the root; 2) the plural template has a constant size of 5 CV units.
{"title":"Noun formation in Kabyle Berber","authors":"Samir Ben Si Saïd","doi":"10.1515/jall-2023-2001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jall-2023-2001","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article deals with the formation of nouns in Kabyle Berber. Analysis of Dallet’s (Dallet, Jean-Mari. 1982. Dictionnaire kabyle-français. Paris: Selaf) dictionary data has shown that 1) elements that appear in the plural but are absent in the singular are unpredictable and therefore part of the lexical ingredients of the root; 2) the plural template has a constant size of 5 CV units.","PeriodicalId":43215,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Languages and Linguistics","volume":"43 1","pages":"285 - 303"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45736691","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract This paper presents the first systematic study of tone in nouns and noun phrases in Degema. From a database of approximately 1,000 nouns, we find that nouns fall into three main tone patterns: /L-L/ (48% of nouns), /H-H/ (18%), and /L-HH/ (13%). This last case is theoretically important in that it includes cases where two separate H tones associate to the same tone-bearing unit, in violation of the Obligatory Contour Principle. In isolation, nouns are subject to two basic tone rules which alter their underlying forms: downstep is inserted between two final H’s (e.g. /H-H/ → [H↓H]), and H is inserted at the end of an all-low sequence (e.g. /L-L/ → [LH]). The combined effect of these rules is that virtually all nouns and noun phrases have a pitch change. Further, we catalog tonal effects found on nouns in 33 distinct modificational contexts within the noun phrase. We attribute these tonal effects to whether modifiers plus the noun form phonological phrases (φ) or phonological words (ɷ), and whether they form recursive prosodic structures, e.g. of the type ( ( A )φ B )φ. By positing recursive structure, we can localize tonal effects to an outermost prosodic layer (e.g. φ[+max]), innermost layer (e.g. φ[+min]), non-inner or outermost layers (e.g. φ[-max]), or to the prosodic category as a whole (i.e. all layers of a φ).
{"title":"Tone and prosodic recursion in Degema nouns and noun phrases","authors":"Nicholas Rolle, E. Kari","doi":"10.1515/jall-2022-8898","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jall-2022-8898","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper presents the first systematic study of tone in nouns and noun phrases in Degema. From a database of approximately 1,000 nouns, we find that nouns fall into three main tone patterns: /L-L/ (48% of nouns), /H-H/ (18%), and /L-HH/ (13%). This last case is theoretically important in that it includes cases where two separate H tones associate to the same tone-bearing unit, in violation of the Obligatory Contour Principle. In isolation, nouns are subject to two basic tone rules which alter their underlying forms: downstep is inserted between two final H’s (e.g. /H-H/ → [H↓H]), and H is inserted at the end of an all-low sequence (e.g. /L-L/ → [LH]). The combined effect of these rules is that virtually all nouns and noun phrases have a pitch change. Further, we catalog tonal effects found on nouns in 33 distinct modificational contexts within the noun phrase. We attribute these tonal effects to whether modifiers plus the noun form phonological phrases (φ) or phonological words (ɷ), and whether they form recursive prosodic structures, e.g. of the type ( ( A )φ B )φ. By positing recursive structure, we can localize tonal effects to an outermost prosodic layer (e.g. φ[+max]), innermost layer (e.g. φ[+min]), non-inner or outermost layers (e.g. φ[-max]), or to the prosodic category as a whole (i.e. all layers of a φ).","PeriodicalId":43215,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Languages and Linguistics","volume":"43 1","pages":"249 - 283"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48990884","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}