Eastern and Southern African Khoisan
Evaluating Claims of Distant Linguistic Relationships
Author: Bonny Sands. Series edited by: Rainer Voßen.
Series: QKF Research in Khoisan Studies Volume 14
1998251 pp.
1 map, 5 graphs, 56 tables, appendix with 100-wordlist of English, !Xóo, !Xu, Korana, Nama, Nharo, Proto-Central Khoisan, Hadza, Sandawe, Dahalo, Xhosa and Zulu
Text language(s): English
Format: 160 x 240 mm
510 g
Paperback
€ 69.80
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The intern sub-grouping of Khoisan languages was up to now problematic due to the lack of data and the partially distant or questionable relations between the different languages. In the present study Bonny Sands develops a model for the comparison of eastern and southern african Khoisan languages whose intention does not lie in a polar yes/no answer regarding genetic affiliation and sub-grouping, but an inside in grade and nature of similarities between the languages in question. The model is based on the statistical analysis of a 100-word list, on lexeme comparison by means of an extended list containing core vocabulary as well as synonyms.
Furthermore words from certain semantic fields were compared in order to uncover similarities between lexemes which underwent a semantic shift in the course of language development. The noun class system, too, was part of the study, founded on the hypothesis that the nominal root originally had the structure CV in all Khoisan languages, from which follows that all other sound sequences in nouns are traces of nominal classes. Subsequently, suppletives and synonyms are compared. A test with regard to regular sound correspondences completes the tests.
The value of the work lies, among other things in the complete data material on which the comparison is based. Sources so far inaccessible were taken into consideration. Data from the author’s own fieldwork on Hadza also influenced the description.
Under these links you will find publications by the author and descriptions of further Khoisan languages:
Accompanying material:
- A Dictionary of Sandawe
(ISBN 978-3-89645-867-4 ) - Khoisan Languages and Linguistics – 1st Symposium 2003
(ISBN 978-3-89645-864-3 ) - Khoisan Languages and Linguistics – 3rd Symposium 2008
(ISBN 978-3-89645-873-5 ) - Khoisan Languages and Linguistics – 4th Symposium 2011
(ISBN 978-3-89645-880-3 ) - Khoisan Languages and Linguistics – 5th Symposium 2014
(ISBN 978-3-89645-878-0 ) - Language, Identity, and Conceptualization among the Khoisan
(ISBN 978-3-89645-143-9 )
Cross-reference:
- A Concise Dictionary of Northwestern !Xun
(ISBN 978-3-89645-149-1 ) - A Concise Grammar of Ju/'hoan [Ju|’hoan]
(ISBN 978-3-89645-145-3 ) - Linguistics across Africa
(ISBN 978-3-89645-510-9 ) - Lone Tree – Scholarship in the Service of the Koon
(ISBN 978-3-89645-227-6 ) - Southern African Khoisan Kinship Systems
(ISBN 978-3-89645-874-2 ) - Sprachen und Sprachzeugnisse in Afrika
(ISBN 978-3-927620-95-7 ) - The !Xun Language
(ISBN 978-3-89645-877-3 ) - The Complete Linguist
(ISBN 978-3-927620-84-1 )
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