The Bantu Languages of Western Equatorial Africa
The Bantu Languages of Western Equatorial Africa

Author: Malcolm Guthrie

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-09-22

Total Pages: 104

ISBN-13: 1351600087

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The area covered by this book, originally published in 1953, is one that has long been recognized as presenting many problems from the point of view of Bantu linguistic studies. Almost all the material set out in this present work is based on notes taken in the field, and in many cases presented completely new facts. The sources of the information used are listed at the end of the linguistic description of each of the groups of languages dealt with. Since there are so many languages to be covered it would be impracticable to give even an outline of the main features of each of them, so an outline is given of the main characteristics of each separate group. One language is used as the type for each group, for the purpose of listing examples of the nominal prefixes, verbal conjugation, and personal prefixes. Other features are illustrated from whichever language is the most suitable.

Paths in the Rainforests
Paths in the Rainforests

Author: Jan M. Vansina

Publisher: University of Wisconsin Pres

Published: 1990-10-22

Total Pages: 450

ISBN-13: 0299125734

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Vansina’s scope is breathtaking: he reconstructs the history of the forest lands that cover all or part of southern Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, the Congo, Zaire, the Central African Republic, and Cabinda in Angola, discussing the original settlement of the forest by the western Bantu; the periods of expansion and innovation in agriculture; the development of metallurgy; the rise and fall of political forms and of power; the coming of Atlantic trade and colonialism; and the conquest of the rainforests by colonial powers and the destruction of a way of life. “In 400 elegantly brilliant pages Vansina lays out five millennia of history for nearly 200 distinguishable regions of the forest of equatorial Africa around a new, subtly paradoxical interpretation of ‘tradition.’” —Joseph Miller, University of Virginia “Vansina gives extended coverage . . . to the broad features of culture and the major lines of historical development across the region between 3000 B.C. and A.D. 1000. It is truly an outstanding effort, readable, subtle, and integrative in its interpretations, and comprehensive in scope. . . . It is a seminal study . . . but it is also a substantive history that will long retain its usefulness.”—Christopher Ehret, American Historical Review

A History of African Linguistics
A History of African Linguistics

Author: H. Ekkehard Wolff

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2019-06-13

Total Pages: 377

ISBN-13: 1108417973

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The first global history of African linguistics as an emerging autonomous academic discipline, covering Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia, and Europe.

The Bantu Languages
The Bantu Languages

Author: Mark Van de Velde

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-01-30

Total Pages: 788

ISBN-13: 1317628691

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Written by an international team of experts, this comprehensive volume presents grammatical analyses of individual Bantu languages, comparative studies of their main phonetic, phonological and grammatical characteristics and overview chapters on their history and classification. It is estimated that some 300 to 350 million people, or one in three Africans, are Bantu speakers. Van de Velde and Bostoen bring together their linguistic expertise to produce a volume that builds on Nurse and Philippson’s first edition. The Bantu Languages, 2nd edition is divided into two parts; Part 1 contains 11 comparative chapters, and Part 2 provides grammar sketches of 12 individual Bantu languages, some of which were previously undescribed. The grammar sketches follow a general template that allows for easy comparison. Thoroughly revised and updated to include more language descriptions and the latest comparative insights. New to this edition: • new chapters on syntax, tone, reconstruction and language contact • 12 new sketch grammars • thoroughly updated chapters on phonetics, aspect-tense-mood and classification • exhaustive catalogue of known languages with essential references This unique resource remains the ideal reference for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students of Bantu linguistics and languages. It will be of interest to researchers and anyone with an interest in historical linguistics, linguistic typology and grammatical analysis.

On reconstructing Proto-Bantu grammar
On reconstructing Proto-Bantu grammar

Author: Koen Bostoen

Publisher: Language Science Press

Published: 2023-03-15

Total Pages: 862

ISBN-13: 3961104069

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book is about reconstructing the grammar of Proto-Bantu, the ancestral language at the origin of current-day Bantu languages. While Bantu is a low-level branch of Niger-Congo, the world’s biggest phylum, it is still Africa’s biggest language family. This edited volume attempts to retrieve the phonology, morphology and syntax used by the earliest Bantu speakers to communicate with each other, discusses methods to do so, and looks at issues raised by these academic endeavours. It is a collective effort involving a fine mix of junior and senior scholars representing several generations of expert historical-comparative Bantu research. It is the first systematic approach to Proto-Bantu grammar since Meeussen’s Bantu Grammatical Reconstructions (1967). Based on new bodies of evidence from the last five decades, most notably from northwestern Bantu languages, this book considerably transforms our understanding of Proto-Bantu grammar and offers new methodological approaches to Bantu grammatical reconstruction.

Language in Africa
Language in Africa

Author: Edgar Gregersen

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 1977

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 9780677043807

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book developed out of a survey course on African languages that Uriel Weinreich invited the author to teach at Columbia University. The focus of the course changed considerably in the years that the author taught the course (1964-1968), in large part to accommodate the interests of many students without a background in linguistics but registered for the course. The one thing African languages have in common, setting them off from all the other languages in the world, is the fact that they are spoken in Africa.

Atlas of the World's Languages
Atlas of the World's Languages

Author: R.E. Asher

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-04-19

Total Pages: 416

ISBN-13: 1317851099

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

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.