Berber Loanwords in Hausa

Berber Loanwords in Hausa
Author: Maarten G. Kossmann
Publisher:
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2005
Genre: Berber languages
ISBN:

Hausa is the numerically most important member of the Chadic language family and is spoken by over 35 million people. It is the mayor language of northern Nigeria and southern Niger, nowadays the language of sedentary people. In contrast to that Tuareg, a Berber language, is mostly a nomadʹs language. Linguistic contacts between Tuareg and Hausa have not remained unnoticed by previous scholars. The great event in Hausa-Berber studies occurred in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when the Hausaist Claude Gouffé wrote a number of articles concerning Tuareg-Hausa interferences. After Goufféʹs study, the most important contributions to the question of Tuareg loanwords in Hausa were made by Neil Skinner, which culminated in his "Hausa Comparative Dictionary" (1996). The present study follows the general lines set out by Gouffé and, to the lesser degree, Skinner. Its core part, chapter III.1, is an analytical list of about one hundred items which are considered certain Tuareg loans in Hausa. This list contains many etymologies already proposed by Gouffé and Skinner, but half of it are new proposals. In chapter III.2, some 50 uncertain etymologies are discussed. Some groups of etyma, which have specific histories, are studied in a separate chapter (chapter II). This comprises a study of words for domestic animals, which is mainly concerned with the evaluation of proposals by Skinner (1977, 1981), a study of early Islamic loans, a study of Berber loans which entered Hausa through Kanuri, and a special section on the etymon "camel". Chapter IV provides an analysis of the ways Tuareg loanwords were integrated to Hausa phonology and morphology. In chapter V, a number of subjects pertaining to Hausa linguistics are treated, which are drawn from the study of Tuareg loanwords, but which go beyond the analysis of loanwords only. -- Publisher description from http://www.koeppe.de (Oct. 4, 2011).

Being and Becoming Hausa

Being and Becoming Hausa
Author: Anne Haour
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 325
Release: 2010-07-30
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9004185437

Hausa society in West Africa has attracted researchers’ attention for decades, and has featured in the historical record for at least 500 years. Yet, no clear picture is available of the historical trajectories that underpin Hausa ethnogenesis. This book addresses this gap, deploying interdisciplinary approaches to revisit questions to which single disciplines have given partial answers, often due to the paucity of written sources for early periods of Hausa history. Contributors draw from the disciplines of anthropology, linguistics, economic history, and archaeology to enquire into how a ‘Hausa’ identity took shape and what have been its changing material and cultural manifestations. The result is a compelling overview of one of the most iconic groups of modern West Africa.

Loanwords in the World's Languages

Loanwords in the World's Languages
Author: Martin Haspelmath
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 1104
Release: 2009-12-22
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3110218445

This book is the first work to address the question of what kinds of words get borrowed in a systematic and comparative perspective. It studies lexical borrowing behavior on the basis of a world-wide sample of 40 languages, both major languages and minor languages, and both languages with heavy borrowing and languages with little lexical influence from other languages. The book is the result of a five-year project bringing together a unique group of specialists of many different languages and areas. The introductory chapters provide a general up-to-date introduction to language contact at the word level, as well as a presentation of the project's methodology. All the chapters are based on samples of 1000-2000 words, elicited by a uniform meaning list of 1460 meanings. The combined database, comprising over 70,000 words, is published online at the same time as the book is published. For each word, information about loanword status is given in the database, and the 40 case studies in the book describe the social and historical contact situations in detail. The final chapter draws general conclusions about what kinds of words tend to get borrowed, what kinds of word meanings are particularly resistant to borrowing, and what kinds of social contact situations lead to what kinds of borrowing situations.

Historical Linguistics and the Comparative Study of African Languages

Historical Linguistics and the Comparative Study of African Languages
Author: Gerrit J. Dimmendaal
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 441
Release: 2011-06-08
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027287228

This advanced historical linguistics course book deals with the historical and comparative study of African languages. The first part functions as an elementary introduction to the comparative method, involving the establishment of lexical and grammatical cognates, the reconstruction of their historical development, techniques for the subclassification of related languages, and the use of language-internal evidence, more specifically the application of internal reconstruction. Part II addresses language contact phenomena and the status of language in a wider, cultural-historical and ecological context. Part III deals with the relationship between comparative linguistics and other disciplines. In this rich course book, the author presents valuable views on a number of issues in the comparative study of African languages, more specifically concerning genetic diversity on the African continent, the status of pidginised and creolised languages, language mixing, and grammaticalisation.

A History of the Hausa Language

A History of the Hausa Language
Author: Paul Newman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 251
Release: 2022-03-31
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 1009275518

With more than sixty million speakers across Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, and Ghana Hausa is one of the most widely spoken African languages. It is known for its rich phonology and complex morphological and verbal systems. Written by the world's leading expert on Hausa, this ground-breaking book is a synthesis of his life's work, and provides a lucid and comprehensive history of the language. It describes Hausa as it existed in former times and sets out subsequent changes in phonology, including tonology, morphology, grammar, and lexicon. It also contains a large loanword inventory, which highlights the history of Hausa's interaction with other languages and peoples. It offers new insights not only on Hausa in the past, but also on the Hausa language as spoken today. This book is an invaluable resource for specialists in Hausa, Chadic, Afroasiatic, and other African languages as well as for general historical linguists and typologists.

A Typology of Verbal Borrowings

A Typology of Verbal Borrowings
Author: Jan Wohlgemuth
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 492
Release: 2009
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3110219336

Main description: The present work is the first in-depth cross-linguistic study on loan verbs and the morphological, syntactic and sociolinguistic aspects of loan verb accommodation, investigating claims that verbs generally are more difficult to borrow than other parts of speech, or that verbs could not be borrowed as verbs and needed a re-verbalization in the borrowing language.

The Oxford Handbook of Arabic Linguistics

The Oxford Handbook of Arabic Linguistics
Author: Jonathan Owens
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 619
Release: 2013-10-03
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 0199764131

Until about 60 years ago, linguistic research on the Arabic language in the West was restricted to inquiries on Classical Arabic and the Classical tradition, and spoken Arabic dialects, with historical studies embedded within the broader field of Semitic languages. This situation is changing quickly, not only through the continuation of older research traditions, but also with the integration of new research fields and perspectives. With this expansion comes the danger of specialists in Arabic losing an overview of the field, and of leaving non-specialists without basic resources for evaluating domains of research which they may be interested in for comparative purposes. The Oxford Handbook of Arabic Linguistics will confront this problem by combining state-of-the-art overviews with essays on issues of perspective, controversy, and point of view. In twenty-four chapters, leading experts from around the world will lay out their own stances on controversial issues. The book not only evaluates ways in which questions and theories established in general linguistics and its sub-fields elucidate Arabic, but also challenges approaches which might result in accommodating Arabic to "non-Arabic" interpretations, and brings out the Arabic specificity of individual problems. The Handbook, in one compact volume, gives critical expression to a language which covers large populations and geographical areas, has a long written tradition, and has been the locus of major intellectual fervor and debate.

The Languages and Linguistics of Africa

The Languages and Linguistics of Africa
Author: Tom Güldemann
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 1085
Release: 2018-09-10
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3110421755

This innovative handbook takes a fresh look at the currently underestimated linguistic diversity of Africa, the continent with the largest number of languages in the world. It covers the major domains of linguistics, offering both a representative picture of Africa’s linguistic landscape as well as new and at times unconventional perspectives. The focus is not so much on exhaustiveness as on the fruitful relationship between African and general linguistics and the contributions the two domains can make to each other. This volume is thus intended for readers with a specific interest in African languages and also for students and scholars within the greater discipline of linguistics.

The Arabic Influence on Northern Berber

The Arabic Influence on Northern Berber
Author: Maarten Kossmann
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 473
Release: 2013-07-18
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9004253092

The Arabic Influence on Northern Berber provides an overview of the effects of language contact on a wide array of Berber languages spoken in the Maghrib. These languages have undergone important changes in their lexicon, phonology, morphology, and syntax as a result of over a thousand years of Arabic influence. The social situation of Berber-Arabic language contact is similar all over the region: Berber speakers introducing Arabic features into their language, with only little language shift going on. Moreover, the typological profile of the different Berber varieties is relatively homogenous. The comparison of contact-induced change in Berber therefore adds up to a study in typological variation of contact influence under very similar linguistic and social conditions.