Description
Relatively little is known about Africa's endangered languages. Unlike indigenous languages in Australia, North Asia, and the Americas, which are predominantly threatened by colonizers, African languages are threatened most immediately by other local languages. As a result, the threat of language extinction is perceived as lower in Africa than in other parts of the globe, and a disproportionate amount of research is devoted to the study of endangered African languages when compared to any other linguistically threatened region in the world. There are approximately 308 highly endangered languages spoken in Africa (roughly 12% of all African languages) and at least 201 extinct African languages. This volume hopes to illuminate and challenge this trend.Chapters offer both documentary and theoretical perspectives, emphasizing the symbiotic relationship between the two approaches and its implications for the preservation of endangered languages, both in the African context and more broadly. Documentary-oriented chapters deal with key issues in African language documentation including language preservation and revitalization, community activism, and data collection and dissemination methodologies, among others. Theoretically-oriented chapters provide detailed descriptions and analyses of phonetic, phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic phenomena, and connect these to current theoretical issues and debates. Africa's Endangered Languages provides thorough coverage of a continent's neglected languages that will spur linguists and Africanists alike to work to protect them.
Table of Contents
List of contributorsChapter 1 - Africa's Endangered Languages: An OverviewJason Kandybowicz and Harold TorrenceChapter 2 - The Challenge of Documenting Africa's Least Known LanguagesBonny SandsChapter 3 - The Nata Documentation Project: An OverviewJoash J. Gambarage, Andrei Anghelescu, Strang Burton, Joel Dunham, Erin Guntly, Hermann Keupdjio, Zoe Wai-Man Lam, Adriana Osa-Gomez, Douglas Pulleyblank, Dayanqi Si, Yoshiko Yoshino and Rose-Marie DéchaineChapter 4 - Tongue Root Harmony in Nata: An Allomorphy-based AccountJoash J. Gambarage and Douglas PulleyblankChapter 5 - Nominal and Verbal Tone in Nata: An Allomorphy-based AccountAndrei Anghelescu, Joash J. Gambarage, Zoe Wai-Man Lam and Douglas PulleyblankChapter 6 - Nata Deverbal NominalizationsRose-Marie Déchaine, Dayanqi Si and Joash J. GambarageChapter 7 - Busy Intersections: A Framework for RevitalizationG. Tucker ChildsChapter 8 - Documenting Ekegusii: How 'Empowering' Research Fulfills Community and Academic GoalsCarlos M NashChapter 9 - The Role of Theory in Documentation: Intervention Effects and Missing Gaps in the Krachi Documentary RecordJason Kandybowicz and Harold TorrenceChapter 10 - Documenting Raising and Control in MoroPeter Jenks and Sharon RoseChapter 11 - The Linker in the Khoisan LanguagesChris CollinsChapter 12 - Theory and Description: Understanding the Syntax of Eegimaa Verb Stem MorphologyMamadou Bassene and Ken SafirChapter 13 - On (Ir)realis in Seenku (Mande, Burkina Faso)Laura McPhersonChapter 14 - Contributions of Micro-comparative Research to Language Documentation: Two Bantu Case StudiesMichael R. MarloChapter 15 - Sebirwa in Contact with Setswana: A Natural Experiment in Learning anUnnatural AlternationElizabeth C. Zsiga and One Tlale BoyerChapter 16 - Three Analyses of Underlying Plosives in Caning, A Nilo Saharan Language of SudanTimothy M. StirtzChapter 17 - Exceptions to Hiatus Resolution in Mushunguli (Somali Chizigula)Katherine HoutChapter 18 - Acoustic and Aerodynamic Data on Somali Chizigula StopsMichal Temkin Martinez and Vanessa RosenbaumChapter 19 - Unmasking the Bantu Orthographic Vowels: The Challenge for Language Documentation and DescriptionJoash J. Gambarage
