1998
X, 337 pp.
99 b/w photos, 2 tables, 3 figures, 2 facsimile reproductions
Text language: English
The present study contains the ethnographic works of Paul Berger (*11.3.1909, †21.2.1986). It deals with a multitude of genres which are of great interest for the analysis of Iraqw oral literature, like oral histories, trickster and animal stories, songs, riddles and description of games. Each text is followed by its translation into English. Iraqw is a South-Cushitic language of northern Tanzania.
Paul Berger recorded the texts between May of 1935 and February of 1936 in Mbulu and Dongobesh (Tanzania), where he stayed after he separated from the German East Africa expedition under Ludwig Kohl-Larsen (1934–1936) that he accompanied as a linguistic adviser.
During an expedition in Mbulu in July and August of 1993, Roland Kiessling checked through the content of the recorded texts and completed some gaps in the translations and in the grammatical theories. In addition, he collected further lexical material for the present study.
In addition to this text collection, an Iraqw-English Dictionary has been published by us, see the following link, as well as further works on South Cushitic languages:
