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SUMMARY:Methodological approaches to the ‘classification’ of African l
 anguages: ‘good science’ vs ‘bad science’ - Philip Jaggar\, School
  of Oriental and African Studies\, University of London
DTSTART:20130311T170000Z
DTEND:20130311T180000Z
UID:TALK42707@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Judith Weik
DESCRIPTION:'Methodological approaches to the 'classification' of African 
 languages: 'good science vs. 'bad science'\n\nThere are ca. 2\,000 distinc
 t languages in sub-Saharan Africa\, one third of the world's total (Ethnol
 ogue\, 2013)\, and multilingualism is extensive.  Ex-colonial languages ar
 e still in use\, in addition to important pidgins/creoles based on Europea
 n and major African languages\, and lingua francas\, e.g.\, Nigerian Pidgi
 n (< English)\, Fanagalo (< Zulu).\nThe ancestors of modern humans started
  to migrate out of Africa 100\,000+ years ago\, so language as a unique hu
 man innovation must have been used there longer than anywhere else. The ma
 ssive time-depth involved correlates with extensive linguistic diversity\,
  and has meant that the phylogenetic classification of the languages has b
 een complex and controversial. The standard reference point remains Greenb
 erg's (1963) four families\, a model which replaced earlier hypotheses som
 etimes based on irrelevant non-linguistic criteria (e.g.\, association wit
 h the pernicious "Hamitic Hypothesis").  When comparing languages\, it is 
 methodologically important to distinguish chance look-alikes\, borrowings\
 , and cognate items. Most African languages remain undescribed/ underdescr
 ibed\, with many endangered or already extinct\, under pressure from large
 r expansionist lingua francas\, e.g.\, Hausa (west)\, and Swahili (east/ce
 ntral). \nTypical features are: noun-class systems in Niger-Congo (esp. Ba
 ntu)\, e.g.\, ki-Swahili\; unit phonemes /mb/\, /nd/\, and /kp/\, /gb/\; l
 exical/grammatical tone is (near) universal\; "clicks" in Khoisan (unique)
 \; "emphatic" consonants in Afroasiatic\, e.g.\, ejectives /t'/ in Amharic
 \,  /ts/ in Hausa\; ideophones\, e.g.\, (Hausa) buguzumzum emphasizes a fa
 t ungainly person\; "serial verbs"\, e.g.\, (Yoruba) mo gba omo naa gbo [I
  take child the hear] = 'I believed the child'.
LOCATION:Seminar Room SG2 Alison Richard Building\, 7 West Road\, Cambridg
 e CB3 9DT
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