2009
VI, 160 pp.
1 diagram, 27 tables
Text languages: English, French
The contributions published in this volume were prepared within the framework of the research project Sprachliche Innovation und Konzeptwandel in Westafrika [Linguistic Innovation and Conceptual Change in West Africa] of the Institute for African Studies at the University of Vienna. The purpose of the project was to examine the linguistic situation in West Africa with respect to language contact and change in its various facets. The linguistic situation of the West African Sahel region is characterized by ongoing social, historical, ecological and economical transformations.
In this volume various aspects of linguistic dynamics which were caused by these transformations are examined. The editors believe that linguistic structures are not only charcterized by genetic affiliation, but also to large extent through language contact. While, at first sight, this is evident in the lexicon (e.g. borrowings), its traces are more intricate to detect in phonology, morphology or syntax.
In connection with linguistic contact phenomena this volume particularly explores the following aspects – strategies of adoption of differing tonal systems, phonetic/phonological sound adaptation, alterations of T(ense)A(spect)M(ood) systems through language contact, syntactic subordination on different structural levels, sentence/clause structures which are influenced by contact, borrowing of function words, reduction of dialect features as an outcome of language contact, dynamism of code-switching and code-mixing, semantic shift in loan words.
Among others, the following phyla have been analysed:
Afro-Asiatic: Arabic, Buduma, Hausa, Kanuri
Niger-Congo: Adamawa Ful, Kru, Mande, Yoruba
This volume aims to contribute to the framework of research for universals and new global tendencies of linguistic change.
CONTENTS
Georg Ziegelmeyer / Norbert Cyffer: Foreword
Norbert Cyffer: Cause and reason in Kanuri – The impact of areality on linguistic change
Doris Löhr: Reduction of dialectal features in Kanuri as outcome of language contact
Ari Awagana: Quelques aspects des interférences kanuri–buduma
Georg Ziegelmeyer: The Hausa particle koo – A widely spread formative in northern Nigeria
Valentin Vydrine: Areal features in South Mande and Kru languages
Bamidele Rotimi Badejo: The dynamics of Yoruba–English contact in Nigeria
Abubakar Umar Girei: Hausa loanwords in Adamawa Fulfulde – A question of prestige or sociolinguistic necessity
Sergio Baldi: Arabic loans in West African languages – A semantic shift
Under these links you will find further analyses of language contact in West Africa , publications by the contributors and various descriptions of the Kanuri language and culture:
