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Author: Herman Batibo Publisher: Multilingual Matters ISBN: 9781853598081 Category : Language Arts & Disciplines Languages : en Pages : 196
Book Description
The aim of this book is to inform both scholars and the public about the nature and extent of the problem of language decline and death in Africa. It resourcefully traces the main causes and circumstances of language endangerment, the processes and extent of language shift and death, and the consequences of language loss to the continent's rich linguistic and cultural heritage. The book outlines some of the challenges that have emerged out of the situation.
Author: Herman Batibo Publisher: Multilingual Matters ISBN: 9781853598081 Category : Language Arts & Disciplines Languages : en Pages : 196
Book Description
The aim of this book is to inform both scholars and the public about the nature and extent of the problem of language decline and death in Africa. It resourcefully traces the main causes and circumstances of language endangerment, the processes and extent of language shift and death, and the consequences of language loss to the continent's rich linguistic and cultural heritage. The book outlines some of the challenges that have emerged out of the situation.
Author: David Crystal Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 9780521012713 Category : Language Arts & Disciplines Languages : en Pages : 212
Book Description
The rapid endangerment and death of many minority languages across the world is a matter of widespread concern, not only among linguists and anthropologists but among all concerned with issues of cultural identity in an increasingly globalized culture. By some counts, only 600 of the 6,000 or so languages in the world are 'safe' from the threat of extinction. A leading commentator and popular writer on language issues, David Crystal asks the fundamental question, 'Why is language death so important?', reviews the reasons for the current crisis, and investigates what is being done to reduce its impact. This 2002 book contains not only intelligent argument, but moving descriptions of the decline and demise of particular languages, and practical advice for anyone interested in pursuing the subject further.
Author: Jason Kandybowicz Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 0190256346 Category : Foreign Language Study Languages : en Pages : 521
Book Description
This book examines the endangered languages of Africa from both documentary and theoretical perspectives, highlighting the threats of extinction many of them face and the challenges and implications each bring to bear on linguistic theory. It focuses on the symbiosis between documentary and theoretical methodologies, and its consequences for the preservation of endangered languages, both in the African context and more broadly.
Author: Nancy C. Dorian Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press ISBN: 1512815586 Category : Language Arts & Disciplines Languages : en Pages : 224
Book Description
This book is a volume in the Penn Press Anniversary Collection. To mark its 125th anniversary in 2015, the University of Pennsylvania Press rereleased more than 1,100 titles from Penn Press's distinguished backlist from 1899-1999 that had fallen out of print. Spanning an entire century, the Anniversary Collection offers peer-reviewed scholarship in a wide range of subject areas.
Author: K. David Harrison Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 0195372069 Category : Language Arts & Disciplines Languages : en Pages : 305
Book Description
It is commonly agreed by linguists and anthropologists that the majority of languages spoken now around the globe will likely disappear within our lifetime. This text focuses on the question: what is lost when a language dies?
Author: Laura McPherson Publisher: Walter de Gruyter ISBN: 3110301075 Category : Language Arts & Disciplines Languages : en Pages : 648
Book Description
Tommo So is a Dogon language with approximately 60,000 speakers in Mali, West Africa. As only the second full grammatical description of a Dogon language, this volume is a critical resource for solving the mystery of Dogon's genetic affiliation with other languages in Africa. Tommo So is an SOV language with isolating nominal morphology and agglutinative verbal morphology; suffixes on the verb mark tense/aspect/negation as well as subject agreement. The phonology is sensitive to levels of verbal morphology in that variable vowel harmony applies less frequently as one moves to outer layers of the morphology. The tone system of Tommo So is of typological interest in both its phonological and syntactic instantiations. Phonologically, it is a two-tone system of H and L, but these specified tones contrast with a surface-underspecified tone. Grammatically, the lexical tone of a word is often overwritten by syntactically-induced overlays. For example, an inalienable noun's tone will be replaced with L if it is possessed by a non-pronominal possessor, and by either H or HL if the possessor is pronominal. The language has also innovated a series of locative quasi-verbs and focus particles sensitive to pragmatic factors like certainty.
Author: Sosthène Boussougou Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing ISBN: 1443883255 Category : Language Arts & Disciplines Languages : en Pages : 160
Book Description
Following independence from their respective colonial regimes, seventeen African countries adopted French as their national language. This political move has had a number of consequences, both positive and negative, leading to the central question of this book: was the adoption of French as their national language a blessing or a curse for these countries? Is Francophonie a symbol of unity, a means of networking for French speakers in a globalised world, offering a sense of belonging through linguistic and cross-cultural, shared values, or is it a form of cultural imperialism in disguise? The rationale for adopting French was prompted by the perception that linguistic diversity in French Africa was a source of instability, while French could act as a stabilising agent. The adoption of this language has, however, widened the gaps between ethnic and tribal groups, reinforcing inequalities between classes, particularly the elite and the rural population. It has also strengthened the view that African languages are not fit for the business world and are unable to compete with dominant languages, thus perpetuating the colonial myth. Language is inseparable from culture, and both language and culture constitute a nation’s heritage. As such, African heritage is being eroded by the day. This book offers detailed insights into the impact of French in Gabon, exploring what the French language has brought to the country, but also considering what it is taking away.
Author: Jo Anne Kleifgen Publisher: Multilingual Matters ISBN: 1847691331 Category : Education Languages : en Pages : 312
Book Description
This book takes a fresh look at subordinated vernacular languages in the context of African, Caribbean, and US educational landscapes, highlighting the social cost of linguistic exceptionalism for speakers of these languages. Chapters describe contravening movements toward various forms of linguistic diversity and offer a comprehensive approach to language awareness in educative settings.
Author: James Essegbey Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company ISBN: 9027268150 Category : Language Arts & Disciplines Languages : en Pages : 324
Book Description
This volume brings together a number of important perspectives on language documentation and endangerment in Africa from an international cohort of scholars with vast experience in the field. Offering insights from rural and urban settings throughout the continent, these essays consider topics that range from the development of a writing system to ideologies of language endangerment, from working with displaced communities to the role of colonial languages in reshaping African repertoires, and from the insights of archeology to the challenges of language documentation as a doctoral project. The authors are concerned with both theoretical and practical aspects of language documentation as they address the ways in which the African context both differs from and resembles contexts of endangerment elsewhere in the world. This volume will be useful to fieldworkers and documentalists who work in Africa and beyond.
Author: Herman Batibo
Author: Herman Batibo
Author: David Crystal
Author: Jason Kandybowicz
Author: Nancy C. Dorian
Author: K. David Harrison
Author: Laura McPherson
Author: David Bradley
Author: Sosthène Boussougou
Author: Jo Anne Kleifgen
Author: James Essegbey