Research Mate in African Linguistics – Focus on Cameroon

A Fieldworker’s Tool for Deciphering the Stories Cameroonian Languages Have to Tell. In Honor of Professor Larry M. Hyman

Edited by: Beban Sammy Chumbow, Ngessimo M. Mutaka. With contributions by: Akeriweh, Akinbiyi Akinlabi, Stephen C. Anderson, Edmond Biloa, Emmanuel Chia, Bruce Connell, Virginie Dangang, Jonas K. Diokdi, Juliette Clarisse Mabou Fodop, Richard Gravina, Jeanne Chantal Harerimana, Lucy Kenfac, Michel Kenmogne, Frida Kong, Béatrice Kouémou, Myles Leitch, Herman Misse, Ngessimo M. Mutaka, Clotaire Mvakang, Ndzengue Lucia Nassuna, Louise A. Ngamngne, Comfort Che Ngum, Antoine Owona, James S. Roberts, Bonaventure M. Sala, Keith Snyder, Maurice Tadadjeu †, Pius N. Tamanji †, John R. Watters. Series edited by: Wilhelm J.G. Möhlig †, Bernd Heine.

Series: GA Grammatical Analyses of African Languages Volume 17

In the book dedicated to Professor Larry Michael Hyman (University of Berkeley/California, USA) articles with a broad range of topics are published. Their authors all share a deep gratitude for the inspirations and knowledge they have gained from the honoured professor, who has been working on Bantu for three decades. With the present work the editors want to encourage research on little known Cameroonian languages and provide a working tool for established scholars as well as advanced students of linguistics.

The book consists of four main parts – phonology, syntax, sociolinguistics and a part of general interest including guidelines and questionnaires. Each part is made up of articles on various – predominantely Cameroonian – language groups, i.e. Narrow Bantu, Grassfields Bantu, Bantu Zone A, Ekoid, Mambiloid and Chadic.

CONTENTS

PART 1 Phonology

Ngessimo M. Mutaka: Data building for a lexical phonology analysis of a Bantu language

Michel Kenmogne: Curiosities in the phonology of Bantu A languages

Stephen C. Anderson: Phonological characteristics of Eastern Grassfields languages

John R. Watters: Some phonological characteristics of Ejagham (Etung), an Ekoid Bantu language of Cameroon and Nigeria

Bruce Connell: An Introduction to the Mambiloid languages

James S. Roberts: Phonological features of Central Chadic languages

Richard Gravina: Features of a Chadic Language – the case of Mbuko Phonology

PART 2 Syntax

Edmond Biloa: Data building for a syntactic analysis of an African language

Pius N. Tamanji: Issues in the syntax of Grassfields Bantu languages

PART 3 Sociolinguistics

Ngessimo M. Mutaka: Reading notes on Wardhaugh’s “An Introduction to Sociolinguistics” – an African perspective

Frida Kong: Non human objects as participants in speech acts within the Nso cultural society

Comfort Che Ngum: Provoked thunder strikes in Bafut

Virginie Dangang: Communication entre les hommes et les animaux dans le village de Balengou à l’Ouest du Cameroun

Clotaire Mvakang: La communication avec les êtres vivants, non-humains chez les sanaga de Ngoro (Province du centre, département du Mbam & Kam)

Akeriweh: En dehors des êtres humains, qui peut parler dans notre culture?

Antoine Owona: Petit Nègre – un parler du français de la rue parlée au Cameroun

Jonas K. Diokdi: L’inventaire des couleurs et la subdivision des jours, des mois et des années dans la culture màsà

Louise A. Ngamgne: Fonctionnement des sociétés secrètes dans l’Ouest-Cameroun – le cas du famla

Bonaventure M. Sala: Fon’s acquisition of wives as a form of performative utterance – A case study of grassfield cultures in the Northwest province of the Republic of Cameroon

Virginie Dangang: L’expression des sentiments lors de la courtoisie d’une fille chez les Balengou du Cameroun

Frida Kong: Abuses in Nso'

Juliette Clarisse Mabou Fodop: Cérémonie d’exhumation dans le canton Bamendjou et aspects sociolinguistiques de l’exhumation dans ce canton

Jeanne Chantal Harerimana: La cérémonie de dot au Burundi

Jeanne Chantal Harerimana: L'acte d’accouchement et les rites qui l’entourent dans la société burundaise

Comfort Che Ngum: The announcement and fight of a natural calamity in Bafut

Clotaire Mvakang et al.: Les cérémonies d’initiation dans quelques tribus camerounaises (bafia, massa, bamiléké, beti-fang)

Lucy Kenfac: Communication between the living and the dead in the Bamileke and the Kenyang cultures

Béatrice Kouémou: L’usage de la parole chez les Bafang

Herman Misse: The Doualas and their sea

Béatrice Kouémou: La taxinomie du temps chez les Fe’fe' du Cameroun

Ndzengue Lucia Nassuna: Taboo and euphemistic expressions in Ewondo

PART 4 General interest

Maurice Tadadjeu: Basic standardization of all unwritten African languages

Ngessimo M. Mutaka / Emmanuel Chia: Issues to investigate in Cameroonian linguistics

Ngessimo M. Mutaka: Hints for solving a phonology problem

Michel Kenmogne: Questionnaires and data gathering in phonology

Myles Leitch / Ngessimo M. Mutaka: Guidelines for creating conference handouts

Keith Snider: Linguistic factors in orthography design

Akinbiyi Akinlabi / Ngessimo M. Mutaka: Tone in the infinitive in Kinande – an OT analysis

Under this link you will find further festschrifts and memorial volumes for renowned scholars published in our programme.

Under these links you will find further grammatical descriptions, dictionaries and text collections of Cameroonian Bantu and Grassfields Bantu languages:

Accompanying material:

• A Descriptive Grammar of Bafut (ISBN 978-3-89645-551-2)
• A Descriptive Grammar of Bangwà (ISBN 978-3-89645-563-5)
• A Grammatical Description of Metta (Cameroon) in Relation to Focus Parametric Variation (ISBN 978-3-89645-544-4)
• A Pedagogic Grammar of Babanki (ISBN 978-3-89645-558-1)
• Akum, Ala’atening and Mankon: Dialects or Languages? (ISBN 978-3-89645-562-8)
• Analyse contrastive des parlers Yémba du département de la Ménoua de l’Ouest-Cameroun (ISBN 978-3-89645-046-3)
• Engagement with Africa (ISBN 978-3-89645-768-4)
• Grammaire descriptive du pólrì (ISBN 978-3-89645-567-3)
• Lamnso’-English Dictionary (ISBN 978-3-89645-429-4)
• Mungaka (Bali) Dictionary (ISBN 978-3-927620-30-8)
• Structural and Typological Approaches to Obang Grammar (ISBN 978-3-89645-568-0)
• Traditions, Tales and Proverbs of the Bali-Nyonga (ISBN 978-3-927620-32-2)
• Verbal Serialisation in Isu (West Ring) (ISBN 978-3-89645-555-0)

Cross-reference:

• A Descriptive Grammar of Basaa (A.43) (ISBN 978-3-89645-773-8)
• Bantu Languages (ISBN 978-3-89645-705-9)
• Cameroon Professional Women in Sciences (ISBN 978-3-89645-853-7)
• Domains and Regions in Bantu Tense and Aspect (ISBN 978-3-89645-772-1)
• Issues in Bantu Tonology (ISBN 978-3-89645-033-3)
• Linguistic Salvage – Isubu and Wovea (Bantu A231) (ISBN 978-3-89645-770-7)
• Mòkpè (Bakweri) – English Dictionary (ISBN 978-3-927620-33-9)
• North-South Contributions to African Languages (ISBN 978-3-89645-889-6)
• The Bantu Bibliography (ISBN 978-3-89645-181-1)

Reviews

© 2024 by Rüdiger Köppe Verlag – www.koeppe.de

Print