Abstract Recent research looks increasingly at languages with more than one system of nominal classification and first systematic typological assessments of so-called “concurrent noun classification” exist with a focus on cases involving classifiers and gender. We elaborate on this work by dealing with Niger-Congo languages that have restructured their inherited noun classification in a particular way. The inherited system entailing a strong parallelism between agreement-based gender and affix-based noun inflections shifted toward one where the gender system is reduced to an animacy-based opposition while nominal inflection maintains a considerable amount of original complexity with semantic criteria beyond those of the innovative gender distinction. While the phenomenon as such is not a new discovery, its typological relevance has gone unrecognized so far. We argue that such cases of restructured gender systems in Niger-Congo prima facie suggest themselves as candidates for a new type of concurrent noun classification, both from a synchronic and diachronic perspective. We present a detailed description of the phenomenon in the Guang language Gonja and determine whether or how it can be integrated in the available typology. We also survey its wider distribution and discuss some recurrent historical aspects of its emergence in the family.
{"title":"Restructured Niger-Congo gender systems as another type of concurrent nominal classification","authors":"Tom Güldemann, Ines Fiedler","doi":"10.1515/jall-2022-8899","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jall-2022-8899","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Recent research looks increasingly at languages with more than one system of nominal classification and first systematic typological assessments of so-called “concurrent noun classification” exist with a focus on cases involving classifiers and gender. We elaborate on this work by dealing with Niger-Congo languages that have restructured their inherited noun classification in a particular way. The inherited system entailing a strong parallelism between agreement-based gender and affix-based noun inflections shifted toward one where the gender system is reduced to an animacy-based opposition while nominal inflection maintains a considerable amount of original complexity with semantic criteria beyond those of the innovative gender distinction. While the phenomenon as such is not a new discovery, its typological relevance has gone unrecognized so far. We argue that such cases of restructured gender systems in Niger-Congo prima facie suggest themselves as candidates for a new type of concurrent noun classification, both from a synchronic and diachronic perspective. We present a detailed description of the phenomenon in the Guang language Gonja and determine whether or how it can be integrated in the available typology. We also survey its wider distribution and discuss some recurrent historical aspects of its emergence in the family.","PeriodicalId":43215,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Languages and Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45297393","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 explores how grammatical tones (GTs) are organized into inflectional paradigms in a sample of 20 Mande languages (Niger-Congo), where tonal morphology plays a central role in the expression of TAMP meanings. Adopting the Canonical Typology approach, I assess the degree of canonicity in Mande GTs based on their formal and semantic properties. I show that verbal grammatical tones are mainly realized as replacive in Mande; they are independent from segmental morphemes and may be strongly influenced by surface phonology. Verbal GTs tend to be used in idiosyncratic sets of TAMP constructions and form phonologically determined inflectional classes in Mande, as in many other African languages. I argue that GTs attested in Perfective and Irrealis constructions in modern Mande languages are likely to be an old phenomenon already present in Proto Mande. The consistency of morphological tone assignment in Mande verbs suggests that GTs may be genetically quite stable morphological markers.
{"title":"Tones and paradigms: a study of grammatical tones in Mande verbal inflection","authors":"M. Konoshenko","doi":"10.1515/jall-2022-8900","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jall-2022-8900","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This paper explores how grammatical tones (GTs) are organized into inflectional paradigms in a sample of 20 Mande languages (Niger-Congo), where tonal morphology plays a central role in the expression of TAMP meanings. Adopting the Canonical Typology approach, I assess the degree of canonicity in Mande GTs based on their formal and semantic properties. I show that verbal grammatical tones are mainly realized as replacive in Mande; they are independent from segmental morphemes and may be strongly influenced by surface phonology. Verbal GTs tend to be used in idiosyncratic sets of TAMP constructions and form phonologically determined inflectional classes in Mande, as in many other African languages. I argue that GTs attested in Perfective and Irrealis constructions in modern Mande languages are likely to be an old phenomenon already present in Proto Mande. The consistency of morphological tone assignment in Mande verbs suggests that GTs may be genetically quite stable morphological markers.","PeriodicalId":43215,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Languages and Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48018606","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 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.
{"title":"An areal typology of kin terms in the Nuba Mountain languages","authors":"S. Manfredi","doi":"10.1515/jall-2022-8896","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jall-2022-8896","url":null,"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.","PeriodicalId":43215,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Languages and Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48141318","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 Language contact with Khoisan languages has resulted in the adoption of click phonemes in certain southern African Bantu languages. Contact-induced changes outside the phonological domain, however, are less commonly recognized. This paper provides a first ever analysis of morphological influence from Khoisan languages in Yeyi, a Bantu language spoken in Botswana and Namibia. Firstly, Yeyi has a set of lexical verbs that take an obligatory prefix i- or ra-, and both these prefixes and many of the verbs on which they occur are of Khoisan origin. Secondly, Yeyi has four verbal derivational suffixes that have been copied from Khoisan languages. The description of these contact-induced changes in Yeyi shows that contact with Khoisan languages, especially those of the Khoe family, involved extensive bilingualism. Dialectal difference in Yeyi furthermore suggests that Khoisan contact was more intense in Botswana than in Namibia. As some linguistic changes appear to derive from Khoisan languages that are not spoken in the vicinity of Yeyi, the language contact situation in which they arose was quite different from the one that occurs today.
{"title":"Morphological Khoisan influence in the Southern African Bantu language Yeyi","authors":"Hilde Gunnink","doi":"10.1515/jall-2022-8892","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jall-2022-8892","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Language contact with Khoisan languages has resulted in the adoption of click phonemes in certain southern African Bantu languages. Contact-induced changes outside the phonological domain, however, are less commonly recognized. This paper provides a first ever analysis of morphological influence from Khoisan languages in Yeyi, a Bantu language spoken in Botswana and Namibia. Firstly, Yeyi has a set of lexical verbs that take an obligatory prefix i- or ra-, and both these prefixes and many of the verbs on which they occur are of Khoisan origin. Secondly, Yeyi has four verbal derivational suffixes that have been copied from Khoisan languages. The description of these contact-induced changes in Yeyi shows that contact with Khoisan languages, especially those of the Khoe family, involved extensive bilingualism. Dialectal difference in Yeyi furthermore suggests that Khoisan contact was more intense in Botswana than in Namibia. As some linguistic changes appear to derive from Khoisan languages that are not spoken in the vicinity of Yeyi, the language contact situation in which they arose was quite different from the one that occurs today.","PeriodicalId":43215,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Languages and Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49503177","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 The principal goal of this paper is to describe agreement in the Landuma language (Mel < Niger-Congo). Landuma shows agreement in animacy and, for inanimate nouns, radical alliterative agreement, a type of agreement conditioned by phonology: the first phoneme of the agreement prefix is conditioned by the first phoneme of the controlling noun. This type of agreement has much in common with agreement in noun class but is governed by essentially different mechanisms. Radical alliterative agreement is a challenge for linguistic theory, because it contradicts the generally adopted Principle of Phonology-Free Syntax and the understanding of phonological elements as unilateral entities. Radical alliterative agreement has been previously found in some other languages, first of all in the Kru languages (Niger-Congo) and in the Arapesh languages (New Guinea). The authors who have dealt with radical alliterative agreement have suggested a number of alternative descriptions in order to avoid theoretical problems. Some of the possible alternatives are also discussed in this paper.
{"title":"Landuma: a case of radical alliterative agreement","authors":"N. Sumbatova","doi":"10.1515/jall-2022-8893","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jall-2022-8893","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The principal goal of this paper is to describe agreement in the Landuma language (Mel < Niger-Congo). Landuma shows agreement in animacy and, for inanimate nouns, radical alliterative agreement, a type of agreement conditioned by phonology: the first phoneme of the agreement prefix is conditioned by the first phoneme of the controlling noun. This type of agreement has much in common with agreement in noun class but is governed by essentially different mechanisms. Radical alliterative agreement is a challenge for linguistic theory, because it contradicts the generally adopted Principle of Phonology-Free Syntax and the understanding of phonological elements as unilateral entities. Radical alliterative agreement has been previously found in some other languages, first of all in the Kru languages (Niger-Congo) and in the Arapesh languages (New Guinea). The authors who have dealt with radical alliterative agreement have suggested a number of alternative descriptions in order to avoid theoretical problems. Some of the possible alternatives are also discussed in this paper.","PeriodicalId":43215,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Languages and Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42165081","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 In this study I present the unusual properties of a rule of High Tone Bumping (HTB) which occurs in certain languages of the Rutara subgroup of Bantu. By this process, the final H tone of a word or clitic “bumps” a preceding H tone one syllable to the left, e.g. /kaawá=kí/ → kááwa=kí ‘what coffee?’ (as realized utterance-medially). The triggers consist of /H/ CV monosyllables as well as VCV words whose final syllable is /H/. Since these can interact with each other, frequently with V+V vowel coalescence, this produces H tone sequences of trigger-targets in which each H appears to be bumped one syllable to the left. I present the facts of HTB in some detail and offer two synchronic analyses, one involving a left-to-right iterative rule, the other recognizing H*-marked tone spans that can be globally accessed to apply HTB all at once. I conclude by considering possible historical origins of HTB.
{"title":"High tone bumping in Runyankore","authors":"Larry M. Hyman","doi":"10.1515/jall-2022-8890","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jall-2022-8890","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In this study I present the unusual properties of a rule of High Tone Bumping (HTB) which occurs in certain languages of the Rutara subgroup of Bantu. By this process, the final H tone of a word or clitic “bumps” a preceding H tone one syllable to the left, e.g. /kaawá=kí/ → kááwa=kí ‘what coffee?’ (as realized utterance-medially). The triggers consist of /H/ CV monosyllables as well as VCV words whose final syllable is /H/. Since these can interact with each other, frequently with V+V vowel coalescence, this produces H tone sequences of trigger-targets in which each H appears to be bumped one syllable to the left. I present the facts of HTB in some detail and offer two synchronic analyses, one involving a left-to-right iterative rule, the other recognizing H*-marked tone spans that can be globally accessed to apply HTB all at once. I conclude by considering possible historical origins of HTB.","PeriodicalId":43215,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Languages and Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44490173","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 Dialect clusters in Africa and specifically those of Khoisan languages are relatively underdocumented. !Xun can be described as a complex or a cluster of lects and the Ju|’hoan speakers of |Xae|xae, Botswana, are part of the (eastern) E1 dialect cluster of the !Xun language. Their closest neighbors in Tsum!kwe, Namibia, also speakers of Ju|’hoan, have been the subject of extensive linguistic study. A comparison based on lexical items affiliates speakers from |Xae|xae mainly with those from Tsum!kwe but with several exceptions. Additional comparisons between the Tsum!kwe and |Xae|xae speakers based on morphological markers show differences in plural markers and gender classes as well as differences in influences from neighboring languages. This study adds a specific variety to the description of the E1 dialect cluster that should encourage further research on Ju|’hoan as spoken in Botswana.
{"title":"Extending !Xun dialect comparisons with a Ju|’hoan variety spoken in |Xae|xae, Botswana: gender classes, plural markers and loanwords","authors":"Alex de Voogt","doi":"10.1515/jall-2022-8891","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jall-2022-8891","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Dialect clusters in Africa and specifically those of Khoisan languages are relatively underdocumented. !Xun can be described as a complex or a cluster of lects and the Ju|’hoan speakers of |Xae|xae, Botswana, are part of the (eastern) E1 dialect cluster of the !Xun language. Their closest neighbors in Tsum!kwe, Namibia, also speakers of Ju|’hoan, have been the subject of extensive linguistic study. A comparison based on lexical items affiliates speakers from |Xae|xae mainly with those from Tsum!kwe but with several exceptions. Additional comparisons between the Tsum!kwe and |Xae|xae speakers based on morphological markers show differences in plural markers and gender classes as well as differences in influences from neighboring languages. This study adds a specific variety to the description of the E1 dialect cluster that should encourage further research on Ju|’hoan as spoken in Botswana.","PeriodicalId":43215,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Languages and Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48294362","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":"Maren Rüsch. 2020. A conversational analysis of Acholi: structure and socio-pragmatics of a Nilotic language of Uganda. Leiden: Brill Academic, 376pp. ISBN 978-90-04-43758-6, $174.00","authors":"Ji Luo, Zhonghua Wu","doi":"10.1515/jall-2022-8895","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jall-2022-8895","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43215,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Languages and Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44427240","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":"Editorial","authors":"Felix K. Ameka","doi":"10.1515/jall-2022-8894","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jall-2022-8894","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43215,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Languages and Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43003376","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 The close cross-linguistic relation between the domains of space and time has been well described. The frequent emergence of Tense-Aspect-Mood (TAM) markers from deictic motion verbs in particular, has also been extensively detailed in the literature. This paper focusses on the less well-known link between associated motion, a category of functional morphemes expressing (deictic) motion events, and TAM, in a language contact situation. Specifically, it provides a synchronic and diachronic description of three associated motion prefixes, joo-, tóó- and koo- , found in the Tanzanian Bantu language Rangi, spoken in an area of high linguistic diversity. It proposes that the prefix joo- encodes movement towards a deictic centre, tóó- encodes movement towards a goal which is not the deictic centre, and koo- encodes movement away from a deictic centre. It further contends that while tóó- and koo- have maintained a purely deictic function, joo- has grammaticalised to assume an additional function whereby it encodes future tense, possibly aided by the absence of a dedicated future tense marker in the language. This three-way morphological encoding of spatial relations on the verb form is not a common characteristic of East African Bantu languages. However, this paper proposes that the system in Rangi can be accounted for on the basis of cross-linguistically widely attested pathways of grammatical change.
{"title":"The development of the encoding of deictic motion in the Bantu language Rangi: grammaticalisation and change","authors":"Hannah Gibson, A. Belkadi","doi":"10.1515/jall-2021-2024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/jall-2021-2024","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The close cross-linguistic relation between the domains of space and time has been well described. The frequent emergence of Tense-Aspect-Mood (TAM) markers from deictic motion verbs in particular, has also been extensively detailed in the literature. This paper focusses on the less well-known link between associated motion, a category of functional morphemes expressing (deictic) motion events, and TAM, in a language contact situation. Specifically, it provides a synchronic and diachronic description of three associated motion prefixes, joo-, tóó- and koo- , found in the Tanzanian Bantu language Rangi, spoken in an area of high linguistic diversity. It proposes that the prefix joo- encodes movement towards a deictic centre, tóó- encodes movement towards a goal which is not the deictic centre, and koo- encodes movement away from a deictic centre. It further contends that while tóó- and koo- have maintained a purely deictic function, joo- has grammaticalised to assume an additional function whereby it encodes future tense, possibly aided by the absence of a dedicated future tense marker in the language. This three-way morphological encoding of spatial relations on the verb form is not a common characteristic of East African Bantu languages. However, this paper proposes that the system in Rangi can be accounted for on the basis of cross-linguistically widely attested pathways of grammatical change.","PeriodicalId":43215,"journal":{"name":"Journal of African Languages and Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2021-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45560208","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}
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