Douze études sur les langues du Gabon et du Congo-Brazzaville

Jean Alain Blanchon


Le présent recueil, composé de douze articles parus entre 1984 et 1993 dans Pholia, revue du Centre de Recherches Linguistiques et Semiologiques de l'Université Lumiére-Lyon 2, traite de divers aspects de la morphologie et de la tonologie d'une dizaine de langues bantoues des zones B et H : mpongwé, eshira, massango, pounou, loumbou, nzébi, obamba, vili, yoombi et laari. Bien entendu, toutes les langues de la région n'ont pas été examinées et seules les questions les plus interessantes ont été retenues. Les choix qui ont été faits ont parfois été dictés par d'heureuses rencontres avec tel ou tel informateur ou collaborateur. Cependant, un projet cohérent sous-tend tout de même la diversité de ces études : guidé par la conviction que la solution à un problème linguistique donné peut souvent se découvrir plus facilement, et se formuler de façon plus intéressante, si l'on examine les langues voisines, il s'agissait d'essayer de mieux comprendre les problemes ardus posés par le groupe B.40, et tout particulièrement par le pounou (B.43) en étendant l'analyse de proche en proche. Cette méthode continue a guider les travaux plus récents de l'auteur.

Les langues du Gabon et du Congo-Brazzaville sont encore mal connues, malgré les apports récents de chercheurs africains et européens. L'ambition des travaux publiés ici était de fournir quelques bases solides pour des études dont beaucoup sont encore à venir.

ISBN 9783895869563. LINCOM Studies in African Linguistics 33. 210pp. 1999.

Daniel Franck Idiata
Université Lumière Lyon 2; Université Omar Bongo, Libreville

L'étude présentée dans cet ouvrage porte sur la description du processus d'acquisition de la langue isangu par les enfants (en tant que langue maternelle). Le isangu est une langue bantoue du nord-ouest parlée au Gabon (par le peuple des Masangu). Partant du constat que l'essentiel de la théorie en acquisition du langage par les enfants est basé sur les langues indo-européennes, cet ouvrage sur une langue "nouvelle" apporte une lumière sur un domaine très peu exploité : les langues bantoues. Cette étude, sur une langue ayant un système morphosyntaxique très riche, est une contribution intéressante dans le débat sur la place des universaux et celles des spécificités linguistiques dans l'acquisition du langage chez l'enfant. Il développe quatre aspects : les classes nominales (préfixes nominaux et morphèmes d'accord), les extensions verbales, les expressions locatives et la prise de perspective et le développement de la construction passive.

Pour chacun de ces aspects, un bilan théorique est élaboré avec beaucoup de détails et une comparaison des résultats est systématiquement faite ; cela pour montrer en quoi les données de la langue isangu contribuent plus à l'hypothèse des universaux en acquisition du langage ou à celle des spécificités linguistiques. Une réflexion sur la question de savoir au juste quel est le rôle des enfants dans l'évolution diachronique des langues est aussi menée à partir des données isangu.

ISBN 9783895865466. LINCOM Studies in African Linguistics 34. 240pp. 1998.

Swahili among the Maasai

On the Interlanguage Swahili by Maa Speakers

Ursula Drolc


Research on second language acquisition has already become a well-established topic in Europe and America. However, there are only few studies dealing with second language acquisition in Africa despite the fact that major languages like Swahili are mainly acquired as second languages. The study is an investigation of the interlanguage Swahili of speakers who have the Eastern Nilotic language Maa as their first language. They have acquired and are acquiring Swahili informally. Interlanguage is considered to be the result of a creative learning process that has to be analysed as an independent linguistic system. As interlanguage is characterised by high variability the data base consists of several texts of Maa speakers whose linguistic systems represent different levels of grammatical complexity. A functional approach has been used for the linguistic analysis. For each text a grammatical description of its specific linguistic features is provided. Finally, there is a statistic comparison of morphological and syntactic features of all the texts. The conclusion discusses the relationship between pidginization and second language acquisition and attempts to answer the question whether the investigated variety of Swahili can be classified as a pidgin language.

ISBN 9783895860881. LINCOM Studies in African Linguistics 35. 240pp.

Barawa Lexicon

A Wordlist of Eight South Bauchi (West Chadic) Languages: Boghom, Buli, Dott, Geji, Jimi, Polci, Sayanci and Zul

Ronald Cosper
Saint Mary's University, Canada, and Bayero University Kano, Nigeria

The South Bauchi group of languages, spoken in northern Nigeria is the least studied subfamily of West Chadic. The body of this document consists of a lexicon of 852 words from eight South Bauchi (Barawa) languages: Jimi, Zul, Geji, Polci, Dott, Sayanci, Buli and Boghom. Most of these languages could be called endangered; only Sayanci, the largest, is relatively secure, and some of the languages have only a few hundred speakers. Nearly all speakers are bilingual in Hausa, which has had a considerable influence on the lexicons and grammars of these languages.

For scholars interested in comparative linguistics, these languages should be of maximal use, as they represent geographic extremes of the family.

Items in the lexicon are organized according to semantic and syntactic categories: semantic categories of nouns are followed by adjectives, numerals, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions and a number of categories of verb. This organization reflects a cognitive structure useful in fieldwork with native speakers, and academic and general users of these wordlists should also find this topical mode of presentation helpful. The wordlists are preceded by an introduction and outline of the phonologies of the languages.

ISBN 9783895869310. LINCOM Studies in African Linguistics 39. 150pp. 1999.

A Descriptive Grammar of Noon

Maria Soukka


Noon is a West-Atlantic language of the Cangin subgroup, spoken by 25 000 people in central Senegal, in and around the town of Thiès. The aim of this book is to provide a full grammatical description of Noon, from phonology and morphology to syntax and discourse, since no such study has previously been published on the language. This present work is slightly adapted from a PhD thesis in 1999 at School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

The study is divided into 11 chapters, followed by a short interlinearised text sample with a free translation. All analysis is presented with language examples from data collected in the Thiès area over the years 1994-1998. Some of the features treated in this book include: a restricted regressive ATR harmony; a noun class system of 6 basic classes with extensive agreement of the determiners; a threefold locative distinction present in determined nominals, this locative distinction is further elaborated in the demonstratives; a verb system based on derivational and conjugational affixation; serial and reduplicative sentence types; a short presentation some of the major dialect differences in Noon.

ISBN 9783895866289. LINCOM Studies in African Linguistics 40. 240pp. 2000.

Aspects of Dagbani Grammar

With special emphasis on phonology and morphology

Knut J. Olawsky


This study constitutes a synchronic description of Dagbani, as spoken in the Northern Region of Ghana. The work gives an overview of a little-known Gur language in which various aspects of lexicon, syntax, morphology, and phonology are characterised. Special emphasis is put on the description of phonology and morphology. One section discusses the number inflection of nominals, supported by psycholinguistic evidence drawn from experiments with Dagbani speakers. This presumably reflects one of the first trials to explore the morphological structure of an African language by means of experiments.

The largest part of the work is dedicated to the phonology of Dagbani. The sections on tone re of particular interest, as they represent one of the few attempts to characterise the tonology of a Gur language. Dagbani displays a number of interesting phenomena of tonal interaction of various kinds which are ilustrated by numerous examples. The data are the result of various fieldtrips by the author. Where possible, frequency distributions and other statistical information are given in order to illustrate how representative a phenomenon is.

The systematic description of Dagbani grammar is a task which has not been undertaken so far. Though far from being complete, this description of Dagbani is the most comprehensive linguistic work on the language.

ISBN 9783895866388. LINCOM Studies in African Linguistics 41. 230pp. 1999.

Eleménts morphologiques et morphotonologiques dans la construction d'un énoncé yaka

Kutumisa B. Kyota


Le yaka, langue H31 dans la classification de M. Guthrie est parlé au Zaïre, dans la sous-région du Kwango. Le présent travail est une tentative d´exploitation syntaxique d'éléments déjà exposés dans la grammaire de van den Eynde (1968). Le travail s'articule en cinq parties:

1. Phonologie et tonologie
2. Determination formelle des catégories distributionelles majeures.
3. Approche morphotonologiques
4. Morphologie
5. Synthèse syntaxique

ISBN 9783895866494. LINCOM Studies in African Linguistics 42. 170pp. 1999.

Phonetic and Phonological Description of Mandinkakan Phonemes as spoken in Kajor

Fallou Ngom
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

This book provides a basic account of the phonological traits of Mandinkakan as spoken in Senegal and the Republic of Guinea Bissau. The book describes the articulation and realization of the sound units of the language and their phonemic realization. Mandinkakan belongs to the Mande language family, which in turn belongs to the larger Niger-Congo phylum.

The language is widely spread in West-Africa. Mande languages are spoken by over 15 million people in the following west-African states (Platiel,1978): Mali, Mauritania, Benin, Senegal, Togo, Niger, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Conakry, Niger, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso. Nowadays, Mandinkakan is one of the major languages used both by individuals with different historical and linguistic background, and by the radio stations in The Gambia, Senegal, and Guinea Bissau.

Despite the important scope of the language in these countries, its sound system is not well studied and practical work dealing with its pronunciation and phonemic inventory is rare. This book aims at filling that gap. Thus it provides a detailed description of the sound system of two varieties of Mandinkakan spoken in Senegal and in Guinea Bissau based upon field work data collected in Ziguinchor, a place where the two varieties coexist. The first chapter provides a detailed description of the Mandinkakan phonemic system (consonant and vowel system). The second chapter focuses on the phonotactics of the language (acceptable consonantal clusters, syllable types etc.). Finally, the book provides two Mandinkakan texts based upon the two varieties described and their English translation.

ISBN 9783895869471. LINCOM Studies in African Linguistics 44. 100pp. 2000.

Les classes nominales et leur semantisme dans les langues Bantu du nord-ouest

D.F. Idiata, M. Leitch, P. Ondo-Mebiame & J. P. Rekanga


La question du sémantisme des classes nominales dans le système bantu fascine les profanes aussi bien que les chercheurs. Mais dans la plupart des travaux, le sujet est abordé dans des termes si ambigus qu’on ne sait pas toujours ce qui est en cause, et on y confond souvent les niveaux d’analyse (diachronique et synchronique).

Le présent ouvrage, qui est une contribution de quatre linguistes, clôt définitivement le débat sur le mythique sémantisme des classes nominales dans les langues bantu actuelles, du moins celles du nord-ouest. Pour ce faire, les contributeurs décrivent et analysent, en se fondant sur des calculs statistiques précis, la corrélation entre affixes de classes et contenu sémantique dans huit langues bantu des zones A, B et C parlées au Cameroun (Mmala, groupe A 60), en république du Congo (Babole, groupe C 10) et au Gabon (Fang-ntumu, groupe A 75 ; Myene-nkomi, groupe B10 ; Ikota, groupe B 20 ; Pove, groupe B 30 ; Isangu, groupe B 40 et Inzebi, groupe B 50).

ISBN 9783895866685. LINCOM Studies in African Linguistics 48. 180pp. 2000.