Heritage: Book: African Linguistics, Canadian French

[Scott McGinnis]

Heritage Languages Listserve
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Date:  Sun, 02 Apr 2000 22:47:39 +0200
From:  LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA)
Subject:  African Ling: Ogbronuagum, E. Kari

Ogbronuagum
ETHELBERT KARI, University of Port Harcourt

Ogbronuagum is a central Delta language spoken by about 12,000 people
in the present Degema Local Government Area of Rivers State of
Nigeria. It is spoken by the Agum (Bukuma) Community.

The sketch, which is the first attempt at providing a fairly
comprehensive description of Ogbronuagum, is divided into six
sections.  Section one re-examines the phonology as decribed by Alex
(1987), and establishes more consonants. In section two, the
morphology of the language is discussed. The noun class system as
established by Alex (1987) is also re-examined and more genders than
she established are found. The morphology of verbs, tense aspect and
modality, and nominal modifiers are treated in some detail. Section
three is concerned with syntax. Here different noun phrase
constructions and phenomena such as concord, co-ordination,
subordination, relativisation, serial verb constructions, focus and
cliticisation are discussed. Section four is a sample text with
interlinear translation. In section five, the history of the Agum
people is presented. The sketch concludes with a lexicon.

ISBN 3895866180.
Languages of the World/Materials 329.
Ca. 60 pp. EUR 25.46 / USD 31.50 / DM 49.80 / £ 19.90.


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Date:  Sun, 02 Apr 2000 22:58:12 +0200
From:  LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA)
Subject:  Romance Ling: The French Language in Canada, J. Hewson

The French Language in Canada
JOHN HEWSON, Memorial University of Newfoundland

Canadian French has had a long and remarkable history; it has been at
home upon this continent for almost 400 years. From 1763 until recent
times it survived upon its own, without substantial input from the
mother country, France, which gave up its North American colonies at
the Treaty of Paris.

Because of its remarkable history Canadian French has several
outstanding features. One of these is the existence of archaisms, of
old words and expressions that have disappeared or died out in France,
such as the old weights and measures that were in use before the
coming of the metrical system at the time of the French Revolution of
1789. The Revolution, coming a quarter of a century after the Treaty
of Paris, was largely irrelevant to Canada. Another was the borrowing
of Amerindian terms for the different life experiences of the New
World. Some of these, such as 'caribou', found their way into
international French, others remain purely local borrowings. Then
there is the development of a distinctive regional accent, which other
speakers of French recognize as "Canadian". There is also the
development of a distinctive form of expressive language that has led
to Canadian francophones on holiday in Mexico being nicknamed 'los
Tarbanacos' by the Mexicans. Finally there is the influence of
English, since the francophone population in Canada, largely centred
in the Province of Quebec, is surrounded by a continental sea of
English.

Canadian French is, consequently, a vast and fascinating tableau of
infinite detail, a subject matter with which the Canadian student of
French can become totally engrossed. This brief volume is designed as
an introduction to the subject, with the understanding that the proper
way to approach such complexity is to provide a guide through the maze
of resources so the the students can inform themselves by their own
researches rather than being provided with second hand information.

CONTENTS:  Ch.1: Regional Language and Standard Language - Exercises.
Ch.2: Commentaries: from the earliest travellers to the Atlas
Linguistique de l'Est du Canada -         Exercises. Ch.3: The cultural
matrix: the pioneer life - Exercises. Ch.4: Phonology of Canadian French
- Exercises. Ch.5:    Morphology and Syntax - Exercises. Ch.6:
Expressive language - Exercises. Ch.7: The parameters of linguistic
variation: historical,                 geographical, social - Exercises.
Ch.8: Anglicisms - Exercises.

ISBN 3 89586 571 0.
LINCOM Studies in Romance Linguistics 07.
Ca. 100pp. EUR 26.59 / USD 28 / DM 52 / £ 19.