Language and History in the Light of Reconstructions

Edited by: Jörg Adelberger, Rudolf Leger. With a preface by: Rudolf Leger. With contributions by: Roger M. Blench, Christopher Ehret, Ulrich Luft, Olga Stolbova, Anne Storch.

Series: FAB Frankfurt African Studies Bulletin Year 2010, Volume 22

This issue of FAB is in its wider sense devoted to language history. It comprises a variety of relevant articles on language reconstruction and language use, shows the diverse scholarly approaches of the contributors towards historical aspects in a convincing way, and at the same time reflects their ongoing research interests.

The different case studies presented in this volume may be seen as general outlines, but also as detailed in-depth studies which examine different views of comparative historical linguistics and oral traditions. The geographical zone dealt with covers the central and eastern Sudanic region reaching from Nigeria up to Egypt.

This linguistically heterogeneous and fascinating area is highlighted and may enable the reader to get a more profound impression on distinct languages, their historical development and changes, filling a gap that had hitherto existed in comparative as well as descriptive studies. The articles may serve as a key for future comparative analyses of diachronic and synchronic linguistic processes within the wider Sudanic region.

CONTENTS

Rudolf Leger: Preface

Christopher Ehret: A guide to cognate discovery in Nilo-Saharan

Olga Stolbova: Velar prefixes in Chadic

Roger Blench: New reconstructions of West African economic plants

Ulrich Luft: Conjugation bases in the Sahidic Coptic – a reassessment

Anne Storch: How the West was won – ways of making history in Hone (Jukun, Nigeria)

Under these links you will find a learner's grammar of Coptic, reconstructions of various language families and publications of the contributors:

Accompanying material:

• A Dictionary of Sandawe (ISBN 978-3-89645-867-4)
• A Historical-Comparative Reconstruction of Nilo-Saharan (ISBN 978-3-89645-098-2)
• Anywa Language (ISBN 978-3-927620-73-5)
• Copy Pronouns (ISBN 978-3-89645-424-9)
• Das Hone und seine Stellung im Zentral-Jukunoid (ISBN 978-3-89645-107-1)
• Die Khoe-Sprachen (ISBN 978-3-927620-59-9)
• Historical Language Contact in Africa (ISBN 978-3-89645-091-3)
• Problems of Linguistic-Historical Reconstruction in Africa (ISBN 978-3-89645-094-4)
• Sprachgeschichte im West-Mande (ISBN 978-3-89645-071-5)

Cross-reference:

• Coptic Egyptian (Sahidic Dialect) (ISBN 978-3-89645-586-4)

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