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Decoding the Continent: A Comprehensive Guide to the Africa Linguistic Map
Introduction:
Africa, the second-largest continent, boasts a staggering linguistic diversity, a vibrant tapestry woven from thousands of languages and dialects. Understanding this linguistic landscape is key to comprehending Africa's rich history, cultural complexities, and ongoing socio-political dynamics. This comprehensive guide delves into the intricate world of the Africa linguistic map, exploring its major language families, geographical distribution, historical influences, and the challenges and opportunities presented by this incredible linguistic richness. We'll uncover the stories behind the languages, revealing the connections and divergences that shape the continent's identity. Prepare to embark on a fascinating journey through the sounds, structures, and socio-cultural significance of African languages.
I. Major Language Families of Africa: A Continental Overview
Africa's linguistic landscape isn't a homogenous entity. Instead, it's a complex mosaic of language families, each with its own internal branches and variations. Understanding these families is crucial to grasping the broader picture. Some of the most prominent include:
Niger-Congo: This is the largest family, encompassing numerous languages spoken across sub-Saharan Africa. Its branches are incredibly diverse, ranging from the Bantu languages of southern and central Africa to the Atlantic languages of the west coast. Bantu languages, particularly Swahili, enjoy widespread use and influence across the region.
Afro-Asiatic: This ancient family includes some of the most widely spoken languages in Africa, such as Arabic (predominantly in North Africa), Berber, and Chadic languages of central and northern Africa. The history of Afro-Asiatic languages is intertwined with the continent's ancient civilizations and trade routes.
Nilo-Saharan: This family encompasses a diverse range of languages spoken primarily in eastern and central Africa. Its classification is still under debate, but it includes languages like Maasai and Dinka, reflecting the unique cultures of the regions where they're spoken.
Khoisan: This family is notable for its distinctive click consonants, a sound feature unique in the world's languages. Khoisan languages are largely spoken in southern Africa, with many facing endangerment due to language shift.
Austronesian: While the majority of Austronesian languages are found in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands, a small branch, particularly Malagasy, is spoken in Madagascar, showcasing the complex migratory patterns that have shaped the continent's linguistic map.
II. Geographical Distribution and Linguistic Boundaries
The geographical distribution of African languages is far from uniform. Certain language families dominate specific regions, reflecting historical migrations, trade networks, and colonial influences. For example:
North Africa: Primarily dominated by Arabic, with pockets of Berber languages persisting.
West Africa: A mosaic of Niger-Congo languages, featuring a high degree of language diversity, with many smaller languages coexisting within regions.
Central Africa: A significant area of Bantu language dominance.
East Africa: A mix of Nilo-Saharan, Afro-Asiatic (Arabic and Cushitic branches), and Bantu languages, reflecting historical interactions and migrations.
Southern Africa: Predominantly Bantu languages, with Khoisan languages concentrated in more isolated areas.
These distributions aren't always neatly defined. Contact zones between different language families often result in language mixing, borrowing, and the creation of creoles. The boundaries on the Africa linguistic map are fluid and dynamic, reflecting the continuous evolution of languages.
III. Historical Influences on the Africa Linguistic Map
The Africa linguistic map is a product of millennia of human migration, interaction, and cultural exchange. Several key historical factors have significantly impacted its current form:
Ancient Migrations: The movements of early human populations across the continent played a foundational role in shaping the distribution of language families. These migrations left their mark on the linguistic landscape, resulting in the spread and diversification of language groups.
Trade and Commerce: Historical trade routes, such as the trans-Saharan trade, facilitated the spread of languages and the emergence of lingua francas, like Swahili, which combined elements of Bantu and Arabic.
Colonialism: The colonial era profoundly impacted the African linguistic map. European languages, such as English, French, Portuguese, and others, became official languages in many countries, often at the expense of indigenous languages. This had a lasting impact on language use, education, and social structures.
Globalization: Modern globalization continues to exert pressure on African languages. The dominance of global languages like English poses a significant challenge to the survival of many smaller languages.
IV. Challenges and Opportunities: Preserving Linguistic Diversity
The remarkable linguistic diversity of Africa faces significant challenges in the 21st century:
Language endangerment: Many African languages are facing extinction due to language shift, where speakers adopt a dominant language, leading to the loss of unique cultural heritage and knowledge embedded within these languages.
Lack of language resources: The lack of written materials, dictionaries, and educational resources for many African languages hinders their preservation and development.
Unequal access to education: Education systems often prioritize dominant languages, marginalizing the use of indigenous languages and leading to reduced fluency among younger generations.
Despite these challenges, there are opportunities to promote linguistic diversity:
Language revitalization programs: Efforts to document, teach, and promote endangered languages are crucial for their survival.
Development of language resources: Creating dictionaries, educational materials, and other resources in various African languages empowers speakers and strengthens their linguistic identity.
Multilingual education: Implementing multilingual education policies allows children to learn in their mother tongue while also acquiring other important languages.
V. Conclusion: A Dynamic and Evolving Landscape
The Africa linguistic map is not a static entity; it's a dynamic and ever-evolving landscape shaped by historical forces, social dynamics, and ongoing processes of language change. Preserving this incredible linguistic diversity is not merely an academic pursuit but a vital task for ensuring the survival of African cultures and fostering inclusivity and social cohesion. By understanding the complexities of this linguistic landscape, we can better appreciate the richness and vibrancy of the African continent and work towards a future where all languages are valued and celebrated.
Book Outline: "Mapping the Sounds of Africa: A Linguistic Journey"
Introduction: A captivating overview of African linguistic diversity and the book's purpose.
Chapter 1: Major Language Families: Detailed exploration of each major family, including their geographical distribution, internal classification, and key characteristics.
Chapter 2: Historical Influences: Examining the impact of migrations, trade, colonialism, and globalization on the linguistic landscape.
Chapter 3: Language Contact and Change: Exploring the processes of language borrowing, mixing, and creolization.
Chapter 4: Endangered Languages and Revitalization: Focusing on the challenges facing African languages and strategies for their preservation.
Chapter 5: Language and Identity: Analyzing the socio-cultural significance of language in African societies.
Chapter 6: Linguistic Diversity and Development: Discussing the role of language in education, governance, and economic empowerment.
Conclusion: A summary of key findings and a call to action for promoting linguistic diversity.
(Note: The detailed content for each chapter of the book would follow the structure and information provided in the main blog post, expanding on each point with greater depth and specific examples.)
FAQs:
1. What is the most widely spoken language in Africa? Arabic is widely spoken across North Africa, but several other languages, including Swahili and various Niger-Congo languages, have large numbers of speakers.
2. How many languages are spoken in Africa? The exact number is difficult to determine due to the presence of many dialects and the ongoing evolution of languages, but it's estimated to be in the thousands.
3. What are click consonants? Click consonants are sounds produced by sucking air into the mouth, then releasing it with a clicking sound. They're a unique feature of Khoisan languages.
4. What is a lingua franca? A lingua franca is a language used for communication between people who speak different native languages. Swahili is an example of a lingua franca in East Africa.
5. Why are so many African languages endangered? Language endangerment is driven by language shift, often due to the dominance of global languages and lack of support for indigenous languages.
6. How can I contribute to language preservation efforts in Africa? You can support organizations working on language documentation, revitalization, and educational projects.
7. What is the impact of colonialism on African languages? Colonialism resulted in the dominance of European languages and the marginalization of many indigenous languages.
8. How is globalization affecting African languages? Globalization is accelerating language shift towards dominant global languages, putting many smaller languages at risk.
9. What is the role of language in African identity? Language is deeply intertwined with African identity, expressing cultural values, traditions, and social connections.
Related Articles:
1. The Bantu Expansion: A Linguistic Journey Through Africa: Exploring the historical migration and spread of Bantu languages across the continent.
2. Swahili: A Lingua Franca Bridging Cultures: Examining the history and sociolinguistic significance of Swahili in East Africa.
3. Endangered Languages of Africa: A Call for Preservation: Highlighting the critical situation faced by numerous African languages and the need for conservation efforts.
4. The Click Consonants of Khoisan Languages: A Unique Linguistic Feature: A deep dive into the unique phonetic characteristics of Khoisan languages.
5. The Impact of Colonialism on African Language Policy: Analyzing the legacy of colonial language policies on the present-day linguistic landscape.
6. Language and Education in Africa: Challenges and Opportunities: Discussing the role of language in education and its impact on access to learning.
7. Language Revitalization in Africa: Success Stories and Lessons Learned: Sharing examples of successful language revitalization projects across the continent.
8. Multilingualism in Africa: A Strength, Not a Weakness: Promoting the benefits of multilingualism and celebrating linguistic diversity.
9. The Afro-Asiatic Language Family: A Deep History and Diverse Branches: Delving into the rich history and diverse range of languages within the Afro-Asiatic family.
| africa linguistic map: Linguistic Atlas of South Africa Izak J. Van der Merwe, J. H. Van der Merwe, 2006 |
| africa linguistic map: A Sketch of the Modern Languages of Africa Robert Needham Cust, 1883 |
| africa linguistic map: An Introduction to African Languages George Tucker Childs, 2003-01-01 This book introduces beginning students and non-specialists to the diversity and richness of African languages. In addition to providing a solid background to the study of African languages, the book presents linguistic phenomena not found in European languages. A goal of this book is to stimulate interest in African languages and address the question: What makes African languages so fascinating? The orientation adopted throughout the book is a descriptive one, which seeks to characterize African languages in a relatively succinct and neutral manner, and to make the facts accessible to a wide variety of readers. The author's lengthy acquaintance with the continent and field experiences in western, eastern, and southern Africa allow for both a broad perspective and considerable depth in selected areas. The original examples are often the author's own but also come from other sources and languages not often referenced in the literature. This text also includes a set of sound files illustrating the phenomena under discussion, be they the clicks of Khoisan, talking drums, or the ideophones (words like English lickety-split) found almost everywhere, which will make this book a valuable resource for teacher and student alike. |
| africa linguistic map: Language and Development in Africa Ekkehard Wolff, 2016-05-26 This volume explores the central role of language across all aspects of public and private life in Africa. |
| africa linguistic map: The Languages of West Africa Diedrich Westermann, M. A. Bryan, 2017-09-22 This volume, originally published in 1970, presents a survey of the languages spoken in an area extending from the Atlantic coast at the Sengal River eastward to the Lake Chad region. The area covered by this volume is mainly a goegraphical one, so it follows that not all the languages included are related to one another, though a certain degree of homogeneity appears. |
| africa linguistic map: A Sketch Of The Modern Languages Of Africa Robert Needham Cust, 2023-07-18 Drawing on his extensive travels throughout Africa, Cust provides an in-depth survey of the continent's linguistic landscape. This book covers over thirty distinct language families, examining the similarities and differences between them. It is an essential resource for linguists, anthropologists, and anyone interested in African culture. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant. |
| africa linguistic map: Linguistic Atlas of South Africa Van der Merwe, I.J., Van der Merwe, J.H., 2007-02-01 This atlas maps various time-space dimensions of South Africa?s remarkable linguistic diversity to cast the geography of language within the conceptual framework of geolinguistics. It shows how historical patterns of spatial language preponderance have developed to produce current patterns and allows understanding of the way landscape has become regionally ingrained in the vocabulary of languages. Here language is cast as a barometer of the social dynamics processes of space and place: spatial convergence, regional competition, expansion and dominance, segregation and assimilation, ethnicity, social ecology, language identity, social interaction and migration trends. |
| africa linguistic map: A Sketch of the Modern Languages of Africa: Accompanied by a Language Map; Robert Needham Cust, 2019-02-23 This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant. |
| africa linguistic map: A Sketch of the Modern Languages of Africa Robert Needham Cust, 1883 |
| africa linguistic map: A Sketch of the Modern Languages of Africa Robert N. Cust, 2021-05-06 |
| africa linguistic map: Geographical Typology and Linguistic Areas Osamu Hieda, Christa König, Hirosi Nakagawa, 2011-01-26 Is Africa a linguistic area (Heine & Leyew 2008)? The present volume consists of sixteen papers highlighting the linguistic geography of Africa, covering, in particular, southern Africa with its Khoisan languages. A wide range of phenomena are discussed to give an overview of the pattern of social, cultural, and linguistic interaction that characterizes Africa's linguistic geography. Most contributors to the volume discuss language contact and areal diffusion in Africa, although some demonstrate, with examples from non-African linguistic data, including Amazonian and European languages, how language contact may lead to structural convergence. Others investigate contact phenomena in social-cultural behavior. The volume makes a large contribution toward bringing generalized theory to data-oriented discussions. It is intended to stimulate further research on contact phenomena in Africa. For sale in all countries except Japan. For customers in Japan: please contact Yushodo Co. |
| africa linguistic map: Corpus Linguistics and African Englishes Alexandra U. Esimaje, Ulrike Gut, Bassey E. Antia, 2019-02-15 Corpus linguistics has become one of the most widely used methodologies across the different linguistic subdisciplines; especially the study of world-wide varieties of English uses corpus-based investigations as one of the chief methodologies. This volume comprises descriptions of the many new corpus initiatives both within and outside Africa that aim to compile various corpora of African Englishes. Moreover, it contains cutting-edge corpus-based research on African Englishes and the use of corpora in pedagogic contexts within African institutions. This volume thus serves both as a practical introduction to corpus compilation (Part I of the book), corpus-based research (Part II) and the application of corpora in language teaching (Part III), and is intended both for those researchers not yet familiar with corpus linguistics and as a reference work for all international researchers investigating the linguistic properties of African Englishes. |
| africa linguistic map: The Language-families of Africa Alice Werner, 1925 |
| africa linguistic map: The Languages of Urban Africa Fiona Mc Laughlin, 2011-10-27 The Languages of Urban Africa consists of a series of case studies that address four main themes. The first is the history of African urban languages. The second set focus on theoretical issues in the study of African urban languages, exploring the outcomes of intense multilingualism and also the ways in which urban dwellers form their speech communities. The volume then moves on to explore the relationship between language and identity in the urban setting. The final two case studies in the volume address the evolution of urban languages in Africa. This rich set of chapters examine languages and speech communities in ten geographically diverse African urban centres, covering almost all regions of the continent. Half involve Francophone cities, the other half, Anglophone. This exciting volume shows us what the study of urban African languages can tell us about language and about African societies in general. It is essential reading for upper level undergraduates, postgraduates and researchers in sociolinguistics, especially those interested in the language of Africa. |
| africa linguistic map: The Oxford Handbook of African Languages Rainer Vossen, Gerrit Jan Dimmendaal, 2020 Une source inconnue indique : This book provides a comprehensive overview of current research in African languages, drawing on insights from anthropological linguistics, typology, historical and comparative linguistics, and sociolinguistics. It covers a wide range of topics, from grammatical sketches of individual languages to sociocultural and extralinguistic issues. |
| africa linguistic map: The Languages and Linguistics of Africa Tom Güldemann, 2018-09-10 This innovative handbook takes a fresh look at the currently underestimated linguistic diversity of Africa, the continent with the largest number of languages in the world. It covers the major domains of linguistics, offering both a representative picture of Africa’s linguistic landscape as well as new and at times unconventional perspectives. The focus is not so much on exhaustiveness as on the fruitful relationship between African and general linguistics and the contributions the two domains can make to each other. This volume is thus intended for readers with a specific interest in African languages and also for students and scholars within the greater discipline of linguistics. |
| africa linguistic map: Historical Linguistics and the Comparative Study of African Languages Gerrit J. Dimmendaal, 2011-06-08 This advanced historical linguistics course book deals with the historical and comparative study of African languages. The first part functions as an elementary introduction to the comparative method, involving the establishment of lexical and grammatical cognates, the reconstruction of their historical development, techniques for the subclassification of related languages, and the use of language-internal evidence, more specifically the application of internal reconstruction. Part II addresses language contact phenomena and the status of language in a wider, cultural-historical and ecological context. Part III deals with the relationship between comparative linguistics and other disciplines. In this rich course book, the author presents valuable views on a number of issues in the comparative study of African languages, more specifically concerning genetic diversity on the African continent, the status of pidginised and creolised languages, language mixing, and grammaticalisation. |
| africa linguistic map: A Sketch of the Modern Languages of Africa Robert N. Cust, 2021-04-30 |
| africa linguistic map: Historical Atlas of Islam Malise Ruthven, Azim Nanji, 2004 Chronicles the history of Islam from the birth of Mohammed to the independence of former Soviet Muslim States, covering a wide variety of themes, including philosophy, arts, and architecture. |
| africa linguistic map: Language Decline and Death in Africa Herman Batibo, 2005-01-01 The aim of this book is to inform both scholars and the public about the nature and extent of the problem of language decline and death in Africa. It resourcefully traces the main causes and circumstances of language endangerment, the processes and extent of language shift and death, and the consequences of language loss to the continent's rich linguistic and cultural heritage. The book outlines some of the challenges that have emerged out of the situation. |
| africa linguistic map: A Sketch of the Modern Languages of Africa Robert Needham Cust, 1883 |
| africa linguistic map: A Sketch of the Modern Languages of Africa Robert Needham Cust, 2016-05-20 This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant. |
| africa linguistic map: The Languages and Linguistics of Africa Tom Güldemann, 2018-09-10 This innovative handbook takes a fresh look at the currently underestimated linguistic diversity of Africa, the continent with the largest number of languages in the world. It covers the major domains of linguistics, offering both a representative picture of Africa’s linguistic landscape as well as new and at times unconventional perspectives. The focus is not so much on exhaustiveness as on the fruitful relationship between African and general linguistics and the contributions the two domains can make to each other. This volume is thus intended for readers with a specific interest in African languages and also for students and scholars within the greater discipline of linguistics. |
| africa linguistic map: The Languages of Africa Joseph Harold Greenberg, 1966 |
| africa linguistic map: Tracing Language Movement in Africa Ericka A. Albaugh, Kathryn M. de Luna, 2018-01-10 The great diversity of ethnicities and languages in Africa encourages a vision of Africa as a fragmented continent, with language maps only perpetuating this vision by drawing discrete language groups. In reality, however, most people can communicate with most others within and across linguistic boundaries, even if not in languages taught or learned in schools. Many disciplines have looked carefully at language movement and change on the continent, but their lack of interaction has prevented the emergence of a cohesive picture of African languages. Tracing Language Movement in Africa gathers eighteen scholars together to offer a truly multidisciplinary representation of language in Africa, combining insights from history, archaeology, religion, linguistics, political science, and philosophy. The resulting volume illuminates commonalities and distinctions in these disciplines' understanding of language change and movement in Africa. The volume is empirical -- aiming to represent language more accurately on the continent -- as well as theoretical. It identifies the theories that each discipline uses to make sense of language movement in Africa in plain terms and highlights the themes that cut across all disciplines: how scholars use data, understand boundaries, represent change, and conceptualize power. The volume is organized to reflect differing conceptions of language that arise from its discipline-specific contributions: that is, tendencies to study changes that consolidate language or those that splinter it, viewing languages as whole or in part. Each contribution includes a short explanation of a discipline's theoretical and methodological approaches to language movement and change to ensure that the chapters are accessible to non-specialists, followed by an illustrative empirical case study. This volume will inspire multidisciplinary conversations around the study of language change in Africa, opening new interdisciplinary dialogue and spurring scholars to adapt the questions, data, and method of other disciplines to the problems that animate their own fields. |
| africa linguistic map: The Cambridge Handbook of African Linguistics H. Ekkehard Wolff, 2019-05-16 This book provides an in-depth and comprehensive state-of-the-art study of 'African languages' and 'language in Africa' since its beginnings as a 'colonial science' at the turn of the twentieth century in Europe. Compiled by 56 internationally renowned scholars, this ground breaking study looks at past and current research on 'African languages' and 'language in Africa' under the impact of paradigmatic changes from 'colonial' to 'postcolonial' perspectives. It addresses current trends in the study of the role and functions of language, African and other, in pre- and postcolonial African societies. Highlighting the central role that the 'language factor' plays in postcolonial transformation processes of sociocultural modernization and economic development, it also addresses more recent, particularly urban, patterns of communication, and outlines applied dimensions of digitalization and human language technology. |
| africa linguistic map: A Sketch of the Modern Languages of Africa Robert Needham Cust, 2015-02-17 This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant. |
| africa linguistic map: A Thesaurus of African Languages Michael Mann, David Dalby, 2017-09-18 Originally published in 1987, this thesaurus is concerned with the spoken languages of Africa. Languages are grouped into a relatively large number of sets and subsets within which the relationship of languages to one another is locally apparent and uncontroversial. The volume presents the languages in classified order with notes on each language, their variant names and immediate classification, and reference to the sources consulted. One section offers an exhaustive list of the languages spoken as home languages by local communities in each state, together with details of languages widely used for inter-group communication, given official recognition, or used in education or the media. There are brief phonological analyses of a broad sample of some 20 African languages and a comprehensive bibliography and language index to the whole work |
| africa linguistic map: Repertoires and Choices in African Languages Friederike Lüpke, Anne Storch, 2013-05-28 Most African languages are spoken by communities as one of several languages present on a daily basis. The persistence of multilingualism and the linguistic creativity manifest in the playful use of different languages are striking, especially against the backdrop of language death and expanding monolingualism elsewhere in the world. The effortless mastery of several languages is disturbing, however, for those who take essentialist perspectives that see it as a problem rather than a resource, and for the dominating, conflictual, sociolinguistic model of multilingualism. This volume investigates African minority languages in the context of changing patterns of multilingualism, and also assesses the status of African languages in terms of existing influential vitality scales. An important aspect of multilingual praxis is the speakers' agency in making choices, their repertoires of registers and the multiplicity of language ideology associated with different ways of speaking. The volume represents a new and original contribution to the ethnography of speaking of multilingual practices and the cultural ideas associated with them. |
| africa linguistic map: Africa in Translation Sara Pugach, 2012-01-03 Africa in Translation is a thoughtful contribution to the literature on colonialism and culture in Germany and will find readers in the fields of German history and German studies as well as appealing to audiences in the large and interdisciplinary fields of colonialism and postcolonialism. ---Jennifer Jenkins, University of Toronto The study of African languages in Germany, or Afrikanistik, originated among Protestant missionaries in the early nineteenth century and was incorporated into German universities after Germany entered the Scramble for Africa and became a colonial power in the 1880s. Despite its long history, few know about the German literature on African languages or the prominence of Germans in the discipline of African philology. In Africa in Translation: A History of Colonial Linguistics in Germany and Beyond, 1814--1945, Sara Pugach works to fill this gap, arguing that Afrikanistik was essential to the construction of racialist knowledge in Germany. While in other countries biological explanations of African difference were central to African studies, the German approach was essentially linguistic, linking language to culture and national identity. Pugach traces this linguistic focus back to the missionaries' belief that conversion could not occur unless the Word was allowed to touch a person's heart in his or her native language, as well as to the connection between German missionaries living in Africa and armchair linguists in places like Berlin and Hamburg. Over the years, this resulted in Afrikanistik scholars using language and culture rather than biology to categorize African ethnic and racial groups. Africa in Translation follows the history of Afrikanistik from its roots in the missionaries' practical linguistic concerns to its development as an academic subject in both Germany and South Africa throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Sara Pugach is Assistant Professor of History at California State University, Los Angeles. Jacket image: Perthes, Justus. Mittel und Süd-Afrika. Map. Courtesy of the University of Michigan's Stephen S. Clark Library map collection. |
| africa linguistic map: The Routledge Handbook of African Linguistics Augustine Agwuele, Adams Bodomo, 2018-03-09 The Handbook of African Linguistics provides a holistic coverage of the key themes, subfields, approaches and practical application to the vast areas subsumable under African linguistics that will serve researchers working across the wide continuum in the field. Established and emerging scholars of African languages who are active and current in their fields are brought together, each making use of data from a linguistic group in Africa to explicate a chosen theme within their area of expertise, and illustrate the practice of the discipline in the continent. |
| africa linguistic map: Methodology and African Prehistory Jacqueline Ki-Zerbo, Unesco. International Scientific Committee for the Drafting of a General History of Africa, 1981 The result of years of work by scholars from all over the world, The UNESCO General History of Africa reflects how the different peoples of Africa view their civilizations and shows the historical relationships between the various parts of the continent. Historical connections with other continents demonstrate Africa's contribution to the development of human civilization. Each volume is lavishly illustrated and contains a comprehensive bibliography. |
| africa linguistic map: A History of African Linguistics H. Ekkehard Wolff, 2019-06-13 The first global history of African linguistics as an emerging autonomous academic discipline, covering Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia, and Europe. |
| africa linguistic map: African Languages Bernd Heine, Derek Nurse, 2000-08-03 This book is an introduction to African languages and linguistics, covering typology, structure and sociolinguistics. The twelve chapters are written by a team of fifteen eminent Africanists, and their topics include the four major language groupings (Niger-Congo, Nilo-Saharan, Afroasiatic and Khoisan), the core areas of modern theoretical linguistics (phonology, morphology, syntax), typology, sociolinguistics, comparative linguistics, and language, history and society. Basic concepts and terminology are explained for undergraduates and non-specialist readers, but each chapter also provides an overview of the state of the art in its field, and as such will be referred to also by more advanced students and general linguists. The book brings this range of material together in accessible form for anyone wishing to learn more about this challenging and fascinating field. |
| africa linguistic map: Crossing Linguistic Borders in Postcolonial Anglophone Africa Jemima Anderson, Valentine N. Ubanako, 2014-11-10 The papers collected in this volume discuss applied, pedagogical and ideological issues related to language use in selected countries in post-colonial Anglophone Africa. The collection represents new voices in linguistics from Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria, and is structured in four sections, covering the following themes: • languages in contact • language identity, ideology and policy • communication and issues of intelligibility • language in education The volume discusses the linguistic paradoxes and complexities that have emerged from the contact between English, (and/or) French and indigenous African languages. Some of the papers collected here discuss the characteristics, functions and peculiarities of the emerging varieties of languages that have developed in these post-colonial African States. Furthermore, the book offers empirical data on up-to-date research drawn from the expertise of budding and established scholars in the areas under discussion, and demonstrates the rich body of research that is developing in post-colonial Africa. Some of the areas covered in this volume include the linguistic products of bilingualism in Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, and new linguistic and sociocultural borders of Cameroonian Pidgin-Creole, which bridge the ideological gap between English and French speaking communities in Cameroon, unofficial language policy and language planning in the country and discourse choices in Cameroonian English. This book is an ideal resource for graduate students and researchers interested in the areas of sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, discourse analysis and World Englishes. |
| africa linguistic map: Manual of Romance Languages in Africa Ursula Reutner, 2023-12-18 With more than two thousand languages spread over its territory, multilingualism is a common reality in Africa. The main official languages of most African countries are Indo-European, in many instances Romance. As they were primarily brought to Africa in the era of colonization, the areas discussed in this volume are thirty-five states that were once ruled by Belgium, France, Italy, Portugal, or Spain, and the African regions still belonging to three of them. Twenty-six states are presented in relation to French, four to Italian, six to Portuguese, and two to Spanish. They are considered in separate chapters according to their sociolinguistic situation, linguistic history, external language policy, linguistic characteristics, and internal language policy. The result is a comprehensive overview of the Romance languages in modern-day Africa. It follows a coherent structure, offers linguistic and sociolinguistic information, and illustrates language contact situations, power relations, as well as the cross-fertilization and mutual enrichment emerging from the interplay of languages and cultures in Africa. |
| africa linguistic map: Atlas of the World's Languages R.E. Asher, Christopher Moseley, 2018-04-19 Before the first appearance of the Atlas of the World's Languages in 1993, all the world's languages had never been accurately and completely mapped. The Atlas depicts the location of every known living language, including languages on the point of extinction. This fully revised edition of the Atlas offers: up-to-date research, some from fieldwork in early 2006 a general linguistic history of each section an overview of the genetic relations of the languages in each section statistical and sociolinguistic information a large number of new or completely updated maps further reading and a bibliography for each section a cross-referenced language index of over 6,000 languages. Presenting contributions from international scholars, covering over 6,000 languages and containing over 150 full-colour maps, the Atlas of the World's Languages is the definitive reference resource for every linguistic and reference library. |
| africa linguistic map: Disinventing and Reconstituting Languages Sinfree Makoni, Alastair Pennycook, 2007 This book questions assumptions about the nature of language. Looking at diverse contexts from sign languages in Indonesia to literacy practices in Brazil, the authors argue that unless we change and reconstitute the ways in which languages are taught and conceptualized, language studies will not be able to improve the social welfare of language users. |
| africa linguistic map: UNESCO General History of Africa, Vol. I, Abridged Edition Jacqueline Ki-Zerbo, Unesco. International Scientific Committee for the Drafting of a General History of Africa, 1990 This volume covers the period from the end of the Neolithic era to the beginning of the seventh century of our era. This lengthy period includes the civilization of Ancient Egypt, the history of Nubia, Ethiopia, North Africa and the Sahara, as well as of the other regions of the continent and its islands.--Publisher's description |
| africa linguistic map: Theory and description in African Linguistics Emily Clem , Peter Jenks , Hannah Sande , 2019 The papers in this volume were presented at the 47th Annual Conference on African Linguistics at UC Berkeley in 2016. The papers offer new descriptions of African languages and propose novel theoretical analyses of them. The contributions span topics in phonetics, phonology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics and reflect the typological and genetic diversity of languages in Africa. Four papers in the volume examine Areal Features and Linguistic Reconstruction in Africa, and were presented at a special workshop on this topic held alongside the general session of ACAL. |
