Argues that linguists have ignored diversity within the northern Khoesan (NK) group of languages of Southern Africa and this has had serious repercussions both for speakers of these languages and for linguistic theory. The variation that appears within NK has been ignored in part because a single variety has been misunderstood as being the !Kung…

Discusses the language situation in the Ivory coast. Examines historical and sociopolitical processes and the language policies and language-in-education practices of the country. Shows that the debate on language policy over the last two decades has failed to lead to the adoption of a language plan that takes into account the current language…

Analyzes the anterior tense and its interaction with object clitics in Palenquero (a creole spoken in a northern Colombia village), arguing that in Palenquero, the morpho-syntax of the anterior tense and its interaction with clitics results from a convergence of Iberian, especially Portuguese, and relevant African languages. Examples are provided…

In this paper I argue that literacy, as an aspect of language, is closely related to power. With the example of Karagwe, I show that different literacy practices relate differently to power. In Karagwe dominant literacies that are officially prescribed and standardised have a main function to sort people and maintain authority. As they are spread…

This paper is a critique of the interaction between language planning and literacy in Kenya. It demonstrates that, contrary to the reasons given at independence for not favouring indigenous languages as languages of instruction or as languages for communication in public discourse, the very things that the language policy was meant to safeguard…

The theme of this book cuts across disciplines. Contributors to this volume are specialized in education and especially classroom research as well as in linguistics, most being transdisciplinary themselves. Around 65 sub-Saharan languages figure in this volume as research objects: as means of instruction, in connection with teacher training,…

An analysis of the polysemic nature of prepositions in pidgins and creoles (PCs) looks at the analytic nature of PCs and the pervasive variability in their grammars, and then focuses on usage of the preposition "fo" in Anglo-Nigerian Pidgin (ANP), likely borrowed from the English "for." It is argued that while this is not the…

Tone-based classification rules for Igbo nouns need modification because: (1) class 1 nouns (monosyllables with high tones) do not, as claimed, operate differently from other terminal high-tone nouns; and (2) class 6 nouns (di-syllabic with downstep tones) can be accounted for within class 2 and class 3 nouns known as HH and LH nouns). The proper…

This paper examines the differences between locative expressions in Kpelle and English, based on the dialect of one native speaker of Kpelle. It discusses the crucial role of the reference object in defining the meaning of locatives in Kpelle, in contrast to English, where the characteristics of the object to be located are less important. An…

The working papers in this volume, written by staff and advanced students of the Summer Institute of Linguistics at the University of North Dakota, include the following: "The Antigone Constraint" (David Tuggy); "Clause Types in Southeastern Tepehuan" (Thomas L. Willett); "Sentence Components in Southeastern Tepehuan"…

An analysis of Gungbe, an African language, proposes that the determiner phrase (DP) has a head-initial underlying structure, and that the determiner system involves a more articulated structure, with the DP including different functional projections. The determiner and its number projection host the specificity marker and the number marker…

This paper demonstrates that the phonetic vowel sequences of Konni can be analyzed as a dipthongization of long mid vowels. Evidence from phonetics, phonological rules, and tone is cited to support this conclusion. The vowel harmony system of Konni is reviewed and underspecification of features is seen to play a crucial role in explaining vowel…

In a tone language, tonal distinctions between words in sequence can often be analyzed using the same devices that are applied within the word (e.g., downdrift or downstep). However, it is proposed here that Sandawe is a tone language in which the tonal relationships between constituents in clause structure, and between constituents in phrase…

This article is a qualitative sociolinguistic profile of the present language situation in Nigeria. The home, the government, religion, holidays and leisure activities, education, work, the market, clubs, and mass media are described in their relation to language types and functions. (SCC)

Three phases mark the instruction of indigenous languages since the precolonial period. Nigeria has more than 200 native languages, and the problems of instruction involve national language policy, the capabilities of the languages to cope with modern life, lack of prepared teachers, lack of understanding of language structures, teaching…