AN ATLAS OF NIGERIAN LANGUAGES (original) (raw)
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Review: An Introduction to African Languages
An introduction to African languages is a somewhat atypical work that serves, on the one hand, as a kind of extended scholarly review of a selection of significant linguistic research on African languages from as for back as Koelle (1854) to the present day, while, on the other hand, adopting a tone and format more along the lines of an introductory textbook than a book for specialists.
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This is a guide to parts of speech as they occur in the languages of Central Nigeria. Some of them may be unfamiliar reflecting idiosyncratic usages which are not captured by usual grammar guides. Phonology and syntax are not generally covered.
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The paper is an overview of Pe, a Tarokoid language spoken in SE Plateau State, Central Nigeria. It provides a phonology, analysis of the nominal classification system, hypotheses about a former system of verbal extensions, as well as a lengthy annotated wordlist. A revised internal classification of Tarokoid is included in a final section.
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This paper presents basic data on the Məgang (=Bolu, Pelu) language spoken northwest of Bauchi town in some eight villages. Previously the language was known only from a short wordlist. Məgang is closely related to Gyaazi, part of West South Bauchi. It has a reduced consonant inventory compared with some neighbouring South Bauchi languages, the usual six vowels with length contrast, and three tone heights. A brief section compares the lexicon of Məgang with related languages.
Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 2002
These two edited volumes represent major breakthroughs in the published scholarship on African languages and linguistics. Bom share the goal of striking a middle ground between specialist and nonspecialist audiences, and both, through their extremely well-written chapters and well-thought-out organization, succeed in this goal as highly accessible and internally coherent edited volumes. The Heine and Nurse volume is a general introductory textbook that positions the study of African languages within mainstream linguistics, while the Webb and Kembo-Sure volume is a more problem-driven sociolinguistic textbook that positions the study of African languages within the study of society, culture, and the nation-state. In this sense, the two books are excellent complements to each other. Consistent with their titles, African Languages stresses languages themselves as the object of study, while African Voices focuses more on the very human-and often highly charged-social nature of language. In contrast to these two volumes, most books on African languages fall into one of two types. On the one hand, there are the single-language studies modeled, for example, on the conventional paradigms of theoretical linguistics, descriptive linguistics, or folklore studies. On the other hand, mere are the national-level studies guided by macrosociolinguistic concerns, particularly in language planning and policy. Both types of books mainly target specialists in the languages of Africa and specialists in specific subfields of linguistics. While articulating strongly with this existing literature, both of the edited volumes reviewed here resist any kind of narrow enclaving of the study of African languages and linguistics. In this sense, they fill a significant gap by enabling a more widespread understanding of African language structures and the place of language in contemporary African contexts. The Heine and Nurse volume covers all language families of Africa and includes detailed examples from languages such as Fulfulde, Hausa, Igbo, Maasai, Setswana, Kiswahili, and !X6o. The Webb and Kembo-Sure volume is equally detailed in its representation of specific African languages, but with the exception of material from Dholuo and Afrikaans, it is more confined to examples from Bantu languages such as Chibemba, Iingala, Sepedi, Kiswahili, and isiZuhi. The two books together, or selected chapters from mem, could be used in a wide range of courses in African studies, cultural anthropology, linguistic anthropology, and linguistics. For the most part, their styles of presentation are accessible and engaging for a range of readers, including college undergraduates, advanced students, general linguists, and readers interested in African studies. Some sections of the Heine and Nurse volume, however, are written primarily for linguists and advanced linguistics students. Turning to each volume separately, African Voices (Webb and Kembo-Sure) represents the collaborative work of eleven scholars based at eight different universities across Africa-in Botswana, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda. This in itself is an unprecedented kind of joint effoit for linguists from across the continenL African Voices is positioned as "a wholly African-oriented introductory linguistics textbook" (p. xiii), intended to serve as a corrective to what the editors see as the Western-centric nature of most introductory linguistic textbooks. The book is not meant to be a textbook on African languages, nor a textbook for African students alone; it is usable as an introductory text to linguistics in general. Yet the Sure's African Voices.
The Languages of Rivers State of Nigeria: An Overview
Marang: Journal of Language and Literature, 2019
This paper provides an updated overview of the languages of Rivers State of Nigeria in respect of the number, linguistic classification and features of the languages, as well as the distribution of the languages across the 23 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state. This is because the existing overviews contain little or no data on the linguistic features of the languages. It notes that Rivers State is a multilingual state in which 28 native or indigenous languages are spoken, and that the languages fall into two major sub-families (Benue-Congo and Ijoid) within the Niger-Congo phylum. With relevant data, the paper highlights and illustrates some of the interesting linguistic characteristics of the languages, which include advanced tongue root vowel harmony, noun classification via noun prefixes and noun classifiers, inclusive-exclusive distinction in personal pronouns, sex gender, verbal extensions, serial verb constructions and subject and/or object agreement marking. Furthermore, the paper considers the distribution of Rivers State languages and notes that the languages are not evenly distributed across the LGAs, and that many indigenous people of the state are bilingual or multilingual in the languages of the state. Finally, the paper notes that despite the enabling national and state policies and laws favouring mother-tongue education, Rivers State languages have not actively been used at the levels stipulated by the policies and laws. It recommends the enforcement and implementation of existing laws and policies so that the indigenous languages of the state are used at the levels stipulated by the National Policy on Education for the benefit of the citizens, state and country.