Manual of Romance Languages in Africa

Manual of Romance Languages in Africa

Author: Ursula Reutner

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2023-12-18

Total Pages: 662

ISBN-13: 3110626179

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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.


Language Planning in Africa

Language Planning in Africa

Author: Nkonko Kamwangamalu

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-04-08

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 1134916957

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This volume focuses on language planning in the Cameroon, Sudan and Zimbabwe, explaining the linguistic diversity, historical and political contexts, current language situation (including language-in-education planning), the role of the media, the role of religion and the roles of non-indigenous languages. The authors are indigenous to the situations described, and draw on their experience and extensive fieldwork there. The extended case studies contained in this volume draw together the literature on each of the polities to present an overview of the existing research available, while also providing new research-based information. The purpose of this volume is to provide an up-to-date overview of the language situation in each polity based on a series of key questions, in the hope that this might facilitate the development of a richer theory to guide language policy and planning in other polities where similar issues may arise. This book comprises case studies originally published in the journal Current Issues in Language Planning.


African multilingualism and the Agenda 2030 / Multilinguisme africain et l'Agenda 2030

African multilingualism and the Agenda 2030 / Multilinguisme africain et l'Agenda 2030

Author: Thomas Bearth

Publisher: LIT Verlag Münster

Published: 2022-08

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13: 3643802811

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The UN Agenda 2030 read as an expression of a commitment to predefined goals, raises the question of a link, between failure to provide for needs of linguistic inclusion on the one hand and lingering deficits of adhesion on the other. Stated as a key factor for implementation sensitivity to language diversity correlates positively with inclusivity and sustainability, as this volume explains through case studies ranging from agriculture to health, education, human rights and ecology, and from digital inclusion to translation and science, thus enabling comparative advantages to turn language barriers into interfaces for `glocal' development.


A Dictionary of Cameroon English Usage

A Dictionary of Cameroon English Usage

Author: Jean-Paul Kouega

Publisher: Peter Lang

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 9783039110278

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This book initiates the process of codification of a postcolonial variety of English, namely Cameroon English. It focuses on the present-day lexicon of this non-native variety of English. English has been in use in this territory for a long period of time and over the years, it has developed some characteristic lexical features which have not as yet been described fully. Previous researchers have been regarding linguistic innovations as cases of lexical errors or Cameroonisms; as a result, teachers and language purists have been discouraging their usage. Today, it is obvious that these innovations have come to stay; they are specific to Cameroon and therefore constitute Cameroon's contribution to the development of world language English. The book is divided into two parts. Part One gives background information on Cameroon (physical and human geography, economy and geopolitics), the language situation in Cameroon (ancestral and vehicular languages, major lingua francas and official languages) and the linguistic features of English in Cameroon (phonology, grammar and lexicology). Part Two describes the research design (textual material, method of data collection and informants) and provides a lexicographic description (spelling, word formative process, definition) of characteristic Cameroon English lexemes.


Schools and National Identities in French-speaking Africa

Schools and National Identities in French-speaking Africa

Author: Linda Gardelle

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-11-25

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 100028154X

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Schools and National Identities in French-speaking Africa showcases cutting-edge research to provide a renewed understanding of the role of schools in producing and reproducing national identities. Using individual case studies and comparative frameworks, it presents diverse empirical and theoretical insights from and about a range of African countries. The volume demonstrates in particular the usefulness of the curriculum as a lens through which to analyse the production and negotiation of national identities in different settings. Chapters discuss the tensions between decolonisation as a moment in time and decolonisation as a lengthy and messy process, the interplay between the local, national and international priorities of different actors, and the nuanced role of historiography and language in nation-building. At its heart is the need to critically investigate the concept of "the nation" as a political project, how discourses and feelings of belonging are constructed at school, and what it means for schools to be simultaneously places of learning, tools of socialisation and political battlegrounds. By presenting new research on textbooks, practitioners and policy in ten different African countries, this volume provides insights into the diversity of issues and dynamics surrounding the question of schools and national identities. It will be of particular interest to scholars, researchers and postgraduate students of comparative and international education, sociology, history, sociolinguistics and African studies.