This article is concerned with those literacy (language) practices the examinations require to be rehearsed as evidence of successful literacy in three sites, namely Afrikaans, English and Zulu Matriculation examinations in KwaZulu-Natal in November 1990. It presents a contrastive analysis of aspects of the Afrikaans, English and Zulu examinations…

This article profiles Joseph Hanson Kwabena Nketia, an outstanding musicologist, music educator, composer, and linguist. His countrymen, Ghanaians, know him best as a composer, and associate his name with his song "Yaanom Montie" and his choral compositions for unaccompanied SATB choirs--"Monkamfo No", "Nkyirimma Nye Bi" and "Monna N'ase". In…

Following Mozambique's independence from Portugal in 1975, and a prolonged civil war which ended in 1992, the ruling party FRELIMO has striven since 1993 to implement a bilingual educational system in the country. This paper addresses the reasons underlying the leaders' choice of this system and considers the problems involved in language planning…

Attitudes to science scales developed in England have been used in a rural region of South Africa with children aged 10 and 11 years in a two-stage data collection investigation. Cultural constraints on the use of "foreign" scales are explored. Factor analyses reveal differences between the South African and English children. A South…

This article analyses issues pertaining to language policy in Zimbabwean education beginning with the establishment of formal education under colonial rule. English is the official language of business, government and education, and the dominant language in the media. Official policy, before and after independence, has been characterised by…

This contribution investigates the frequency patterns of the modal verbs as they occur in the one-million-word corpus of Cameroon written English. An analysis of dominant senses of some of the modals is also attempted. I have used results and statistical figures from British and American English (as reported in studies such as Biber et al. 1999…

This study investigated the comparative influence of ethnicity and religious affiliation on the alienation of Nigerian university staff from their work environment. The influence of certain moderator variables such as the location of the university, gender, age, educational qualification, staff category, official rank and staff communicative…

This resource provides information on over 30 of Africa's most populous and well-known ethnic groups. The text concisely describes the history, traditions, environment, social structure, religion, and daily lifestyles of these diverse cultures. Each entry opens with a map outlining the area populated by the group and a list of key data regarding…

This dictionary of Fulani (Fulfulde) is designed for Peace Corps volunteers serving in Niger, and reflects daily communication needs in that context. A brief introduction to pronouns and verb endings precedes the dictionary text. The dictionary is presented in two sections. The first lists English words alphabetically and their translations in…

The serial verb construction (SVC) in Edo (Bini), a language spoken in Nigeria, is examined, and an analysis that systematically characterizes the notion of functional relationship of verbs within these constructions is proposed. It is argued that the verbs in series are sensitive to different semantic and grammatical phenomena and are therefore…

The structure of the grammar of Shabo, a little-known and unclassified Nilo-Saharan language of south-central Ethiopia, is described briefly. An introductory section describes the geographic area in which the language is used and reviews previous research on Shabo. Subsequent sections explain basic features of Shabo phonology (consonants,…

This paper examines nominalization and serial verb construction (SVC) in Dagaare, a West African language. It discusses nominalization theory and its relation to Germanic languages such as English, German, and Dutch, using insights gained from the study of these languages to help illuminate nominalization in Dagaare and other similar West African…

The author offers suggestions for an approach to teaching about Africa. Emphasis is placed upon the variety and complexity of African cultures, societies, languages, customs, religions, and history. (DE)

An autosegmental analysis of Kagate tone is presented. The focus is on tonal instability, which occurs as the result of a compensatory lengthening process. To account for facts of tonal stability, previously hypothesized, and tonal instability, it is proposed that the location of tone within the overall geometry is subject to parametric variation,…

Study of the use of baby talk in parental speech can illuminate the parent-child relationship, acquisition of adult language, the permissible modifications to language structure without diminishing meaning, and code-switching. This is illustrated in the baby talk embedded in adult-child conversation in the context of family and household in three…