Language in Contemporary African Cultures and Societies

Language in Contemporary African Cultures and Societies
Author: Leonard Muaka
Publisher: Lexington Books
Total Pages: 255
Release: 2018-12-03
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1498572286

Language in Contemporary African Cultures and Societies examines language in contemporary Africa by positioning language at the center of interrelationships between individuals, society, and culture. Because of how language permeates every aspect of human existence within each society, this book has assembled contributions by researchers and scholars who focus on different topics within African languages and cultures. By presenting African languages as resources and subject and subject of the study, this book discusses Africa’s multilingualism, language policy, preservation, and their uses in development, security, liberation, and identity formation in the diaspora. Based on empirical research and analysis of texts, this book takes a closer look at the continent and the diaspora by situating African languages, cultures, and literatures at the center, and shows how African languages are used in the liberation, transfer of knowledge, and promotion of literacy among Africans globally. It is a book that seeks to bridge the gap between the continent and the diaspora. All contributors are experienced scholars of language, literature, education and linguistics. The chapters provide a major means for examining the interplay of language, literature, and education.

African Linguistics and the Development of African Communities

African Linguistics and the Development of African Communities
Author: West African Linguistic Society. Congress
Publisher: African Books Collective
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2006
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN:

This diverse collection of essays embraces the main discourses in the field of African languages and linguistics. Argues for the absolute necessity of developing African languages as a condition of socio-economic development.

A History of African Linguistics

A History of African Linguistics
Author: H. Ekkehard Wolff
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 377
Release: 2019-06-13
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 1108417973

The first global history of African linguistics as an emerging autonomous academic discipline, covering Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia, and Europe.

Language and Development in Africa

Language and Development in Africa
Author: Ekkehard Wolff
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 375
Release: 2016-05-26
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1107088550

This volume explores the central role of language across all aspects of public and private life in Africa.

African American Language

African American Language
Author: Mary Kohn
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 253
Release: 2020-12-03
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1108876749

From birth to early adulthood, all aspects of a child's life undergo enormous development and change, and language is no exception. This book documents the results of a pioneering longitudinal linguistic survey, which followed a cohort of sixty-seven African American children over the first twenty years of life, to examine language development through childhood. It offers the first opportunity to hear what it sounds like to grow up linguistically for a cohort of African American speakers, and provides fascinating insights into key linguistics issues, such as how physical growth influences pronunciation, how social factors influence language change, and the extent to which individuals modify their language use over time. By providing a lens into some of the most foundational questions about coming of age in African American Language, this study has implications for a wide range of disciplines, from speech pathology and education, to research on language acquisition and sociolinguistics.

Languages of Instruction for African Emancipation

Languages of Instruction for African Emancipation
Author: Birgit Brock-Utne
Publisher: Mkuki na Nyota Publishers
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2005
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN:

Languages of Instruction for African Emancipation is a collection of case studies from seven African countries poses questions such as: What alternatives are there for educational language policies towards African emancipation? What efforts have governments made to change the language policy in favour of African languages and how far have they succeeded? What challenges do African learners face when it comes to current language of instruction policies? The authors reject a language education policy that neglects the multilingualism existing in Africa; that reinforces patterns of privilege that existed in the colonial era, further entrenching the schism between the elite and the masses. They give short shrift to the 'new' justification of the unjustifiable status accorded to English in Africa as the language of globalisation, suggesting that it is not relevant to the vast majority of African lives and their human development. The sum of thoughts presented suggests that the answer to the language question provides the key to development challenges and further emancipation of the African peoples, which, it is argued, is at the same time a question that will determine whether Africa will remain a recognisable and distinctive cultural component of humanity or whether Africans will cease to exist culturally as Africans.

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.

The Routledge Handbook of African Linguistics

The Routledge Handbook of African Linguistics
Author: Augustine Agwuele
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 647
Release: 2018-03-09
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 1315392968

The Handbook of African Linguistics provides a holistic coverage of the key themes, subfields, approaches and practical application to the vast areas subsumable under African linguistics that will serve researchers working across the wide continuum in the field. Established and emerging scholars of African languages who are active and current in their fields are brought together, each making use of data from a linguistic group in Africa to explicate a chosen theme within their area of expertise, and illustrate the practice of the discipline in the continent.

The Oxford Handbook of African American Language

The Oxford Handbook of African American Language
Author: Sonja L. Lanehart
Publisher: Oxford Handbooks
Total Pages: 945
Release: 2015
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0199795398

Offers a set of diverse analyses of traditional and contemporary work on language structure and use in African American communities.

The Cambridge Handbook of African Linguistics

The Cambridge Handbook of African Linguistics
Author: H. Ekkehard Wolff
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2019-05-16
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 9781108417983

This book provides an in-depth and comprehensive state-of-the-art study of 'African languages' and 'language in Africa' since its beginnings as a 'colonial science' at the turn of the twentieth century in Europe. Compiled by 56 internationally renowned scholars, this ground breaking study looks at past and current research on 'African languages' and 'language in Africa' under the impact of paradigmatic changes from 'colonial' to 'postcolonial' perspectives. It addresses current trends in the study of the role and functions of language, African and other, in pre- and postcolonial African societies. Highlighting the central role that the 'language factor' plays in postcolonial transformation processes of sociocultural modernization and economic development, it also addresses more recent, particularly urban, patterns of communication, and outlines applied dimensions of digitalization and human language technology.