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A Linguistic Geography of Africa (review)

A Linguistic Geography of Africa (review) BOOK REVIEWS A Linguistic Geography of Africa. Edited by BERND HEINE and DEREK NURSE. Cambridge Approaches to Language Contact. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008. Pp. xviii + 371. $115.00 (cloth). Reviewed by David Appleyard, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London There are around two thousand languages spoken in Africa, almost a third of the languages of the world, belonging (aside from a handful of as yet unclassified isolates) to four phyla or superfamilies. The variety of language typologies to be found in Africa is considerable, yet it has long been proposed that there is a recognizable African language "type." Until Joseph Greenberg's seminal study (1963), attempts to classify the languages of Africa tended to confuse typological with genetic considerations. The expansion or, indeed, explosion in African linguistics since Greenberg's work has provided an everincreasing body of data that have not only consolidated the larger part of Greenberg's proposed genetic groupings, but have also hinted at the complex threads of interaction between genetic and contact-induced factors that underlie the relations between African languages. Indeed, genetic relationship is clearly not the only parameter for understanding many of the processes involved in the development of African languages and http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Anthropological Linguistics University of Nebraska Press

A Linguistic Geography of Africa (review)

Appleyard, David L.
Anthropological Linguistics , Volume 51 (2) – Jul 14, 2009
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University of Nebraska Press
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Copyright © University of Nebraska Press
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1944-6527
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Abstract

BOOK REVIEWS A Linguistic Geography of Africa. Edited by BERND HEINE and DEREK NURSE. Cambridge Approaches to Language Contact. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008. Pp. xviii + 371. $115.00 (cloth). Reviewed by David Appleyard, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London There are around two thousand languages spoken in Africa, almost a third of the languages of the world, belonging (aside from a handful of as yet unclassified isolates) to four phyla or superfamilies. The variety of language typologies to be found in Africa is considerable, yet it has long been proposed that there is a recognizable African language "type." Until Joseph Greenberg's seminal study (1963), attempts to classify the languages of Africa tended to confuse typological with genetic considerations. The expansion or, indeed, explosion in African linguistics since Greenberg's work has provided an everincreasing body of data that have not only consolidated the larger part of Greenberg's proposed genetic groupings, but have also hinted at the complex threads of interaction between genetic and contact-induced factors that underlie the relations between African languages. Indeed, genetic relationship is clearly not the only parameter for understanding many of the processes involved in the development of African languages and

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Anthropological Linguistics – University of Nebraska Press

Published: Jul 14, 2009

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