11.461, Books: African Linguistics

Sat Mar 4 04:04:12 UTC 2000

LINGUIST List:  Vol-11-461. Fri Mar 3 2000. ISSN: 1068-4875.

Subject: 11.461, Books: African Linguistics

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1)
Date:  Fri, 03 Mar 2000 09:18:59 +0100
From:  LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA)
Subject:  African Ling: Comparative Morphology of the Omotic Languages, M.Bender

2)
Date:  Fri, 03 Mar 2000 09:46:08 +0100
From:  LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA)
Subject:  African Ling:Phonetic/Phonological Description of Mandinkakan Phonemes

3)
Date:  Fri, 03 Mar 2000 09:56:17 +0100
From:  LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA)
Subject:  African Ling: Madi-English Dictionary, M. Blackings

-------------------------------- Message 1 -------------------------------

Date:  Fri, 03 Mar 2000 09:18:59 +0100
From:  LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA)
Subject:  African Ling: Comparative Morphology of the Omotic Languages, M.Bender

Comparative Morphology of the Omotic Languages
M. LIONEL BENDER
University of  Southern Illinois-Carbondale

Omotic is the least-known family in the Afrasian (=Afroasiatic or
"Hamito-Semitic") phylum. No book-length synthesis of the family has
appeared previously and it is not generally known that Omotic is a
highly agglutinative family with many obvious Afrasian characteristics.
Omotic is located entirely within southwest and west Ethiopia, on both
sides of the Omo River, from which it takes its name. Some still consder
Omotic not to be an independent family, but rather West Cushitic.

In this monograph, the author covers all nine Omotic families in
descriptive chapters as follows:
1. Northwest Ometo, 2. Southeast Ometo and C'ara,
4. Gimira-Yem (Janjero)-Kefoid, 6. Dizoid, 7. Aroid, 8. Mao.
Chs. 3 and 5 are analytic chapters covering preceding chapters and Ch. 9
is an overall analysis, summary, and conclusions. All varieties having
sufficient documentation (about 30 in number) are covered, along with
notes on others.

Sources are all available published sources which contain significant
linguistic material, many of them obscure and difficult to obtain, plus
extensive unpublished fieldnotes of the author and others. All are fully
referenced.

Each descriptive chapter has an introduction featuring nomenclature,
locations, demographic estimates, and a listing of main sources. There
follows a brief phonological sketch divided into consonants, vowels, and
suprasegmentals and phonotactics. Morphological categories are then
taken up in the order: pronouns, including independents, possessives,
verbal affixes, gender, number, and case; demonstratives;
interrogatives; nouns, including species and the  categories applying to
pronouns; verbal TMA (tense-mode-aspect) system; copulas and connecters;
nominal and verbal derivations. In the comparative analysis, the author
surveys grammatical formatives by family and indicates potential
proto-forms where possible. Conclusions include remarks on the
sub-classification  of Omotic and the position of Omotic in the Afrasian
phylum.

The book contains about 250 pages including Notes, References, Map. It
is to be followed by a second volume on Omotic phonology and lexicon.

ISBN 3895862517
LINCOM Studies in African Linguistics 19.
Ca. 260 pp. EUR 70.56 / USD 94 / DM 138 /£ 56.

Ordering information for individuals: Please give us your creditcard no.
/ expiry date. Prices in this information include shipment worldwide by
airmail. A standing order for this series is available with special
discounts offered to individual subscribers.

Free copies of LINCOM'S newsflashes 18 & 19 are now available from
LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de.

LINCOM EUROPA, Freibadstr. 3
D-81543 Muenchen
Germany
FAX +49 89 62269404
http://www.lincom-europa.com
LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de

-------------------------------- Message 2 -------------------------------

Date:  Fri, 03 Mar 2000 09:46:08 +0100
From:  LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA)
Subject:  African Ling:Phonetic/Phonological Description of Mandinkakan Phonemes

Phonetic and Phonological Description of Mandinkakan Phonemes as spoken
in Kajor (Ziguinchor)

FALLOU NGOM, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

This book provides a basic account of the phonological traits of
Mandinkakan as spoken in Senegal and the Republic of Guinea Bissau. The
book describes the articulation and realization of the sound units of
the language and their phonemic realization. Mandinkakan belongs to the
Mande language family, which in turn belongs to the larger Niger-Congo
phylum.

The language is widely spread in West-Africa. Mande languages are spoken
by over 15 million people in the following west-African states
(Platiel,1978): Mali, Mauritania, Benin, Senegal, Togo, Niger, Sierra
Leone, Liberia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Conakry, Niger, Ghana, Ivory Coast
and Burkina Faso. Nowadays, Mandinkakan is one of the major languages
used both by individuals with different historical and linguistic
background, and by the radio stations in The Gambia, Senegal, and Guinea
Bissau.

Despite the important scope of the language in these countries, its
sound system is not well studied and practical work dealing with its
pronunciation and phonemic inventory is rare. This book aims at filling
that gap. Thus it provides a detailed description of the sound system of
two varieties of Mandinkakan spoken in Senegal and in Guinea Bissau
based upon field work data collected in Ziguinchor, a place where the
two varieties coexist. The first chapter provides a detailed description
of the Mandinkakan phonemic system (consonant and vowel system). The
second chapter focuses on the phonotactics of the language (acceptable
consonantal clusters, syllable types etc.). Finally, the book provides
two Mandinkakan texts based upon the two varieties described and their
English translation.

ISBN 3 89586 947 3.
LINCOM Studies in African Linguistics 44.
Ca. 100pp. EUR 40.91 / DM 80 / USD 44 / £ 27.

Ordering information for individuals: Please give us your creditcard no.
/ expiry date. Prices in this information include shipment worldwide by
airmail. A standing order for this series is available with special
discounts offered to individual subscribers.

Free copies of LINCOM'S newsflashes 18 & 19 are now available from
LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de.

LINCOM EUROPA, Freibadstr. 3
D-81543 Muenchen
Germany
FAX +49 89 62269404
http://www.lincom-europa.com
LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de

-------------------------------- Message 3 -------------------------------

Date:  Fri, 03 Mar 2000 09:56:17 +0100
From:  LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de (LINCOM EUROPA)
Subject:  African Ling: Madi-English Dictionary, M. Blackings

Madi-English Dictionary
MAIRI BLACKINGS, University of Strathclyde

Madi is a Central Sudanic (Nilo Saharan) language with a quarter of a
million speakers in Sudan and Uganda.  It is characterised by loanwords
across a geopolitical divide (Arabic in Sudan, Swahili in Uganda, and
English and Italian in both countries). Thus the lexicon of Madi
reflects in part the socio-cultural and political contacts of the Madi
people.

The core part of the dictionary has 5000 entries.  Each entry begins
with a phonetic transcription of a Madi word, followed by its
representation in standard orthography, its word class, and English
glosses.  Many entries also include derived or inflected words, idioms,
and example sentences.  Alternative pronunciations and spellings are
given, and dialectal variants.  Loanwords are indicated, and a source
word is suggested.

This dictionary improves on a short dictionary of Madi by Fr. John
Ferrazin (1995), which uses the standard orthography and does not
represent the full range of vowels or the tones. The author is a native
speaker of the language, and the research for the dictionary has also
included work with other native speakers.

ISBN 3 89586 892 2.
Languages of the World/Dictionaries 25.
Ca. 120 pp. Ca. EUR 39.88 / USD 43 / DM 78 / £ 26.

Ordering information for individuals: Please give us your creditcard no.
/ expiry date. Prices in this information include shipment worldwide by
airmail. A standing order for this series is available with special
discounts offered to individual subscribers.

Free copies of LINCOM'S newsflashes 18 & 19 are now available from
LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de.

LINCOM EUROPA, Freibadstr. 3
D-81543 Muenchen
Germany
FAX +49 89 62269404
http://www.lincom-europa.com
LINCOM.EUROPA at t-online.de

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