Christoph Marx: Von Berlin nach Timbuktu – Der Afrikaforscher Heinrich Barth – Biographie. Göttingen: Wallstein 2021, 381 S., zahlreiche Abb.

Review of Christoph Marx. 2021. Von Berlin nach Timbuktu – Der Afrikaforscher Heinrich Barth – Biographie

Two concurrent systems of nominal classification in Ngəmba (Eastern Grassfields)

Alongside a reduced gender system of the Bantoid type, the Eastern Grassfields language Ngəmba (Cameroon) of the Ghomala’ cluster operates an incipient numeral classifier system that is restricted to a given set of nouns. The present paper provides a first analysis of its semantic, morphosyntactic and etymological profile and explores its relation to the concurrent gender system following the model of Fedden & Corbett 2017. Semantically, Ngəmba numeral classifiers categorize counted items for their shape and texture (saliently one-dimensional long and rigid vs. two-dimensional flat shape vs. three-dimensional globular), their partition (morsel vs. lump vs. slice) and their arrangement or aggregation (pile vs. bunch vs. tuft) with an instance of conflation with the notion of counterexpectual scantiness and inferior quality (meagre portion). On the etymological level, Ngəmba numeral classifiers develop from ordinary generic nouns denoting concepts such as head, horn, grain, stick, pod, pile and lump. Eventual loss of nominal properties indexes an incipient functional split of the lexical source item and the newly emergent word class of numeral classifier. While Ngəmba conforms with the profile of numeral classifier systems found in other Bantoid languages such as Tiv (Angitso 2020) and beyond (Kießling 2018) in these respects, it diverges by its morphosyntax in establishing a close bond between classifier and numeral to the exclusion of the enumerated noun

Batic, Gian Claudio & Rudolf Leger (eds.). 2017. Studia Africana - Papers in honour of Sergio Baldi. (Topics in interdisciplinary African studies, 46.) Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.

Review of Batic, Gian Claudio & Rudolf Leger (eds.). 2017. Studia Africana - Papers in honour of Sergio Baldi. (Topics in interdisciplinary African studies, 46.) Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag

Language maps and sociolinguistic data: Developing linguistic cartography of Bantoid languages

Drawing language maps is not normally considered an important part of linguists’ work. Nonetheless, language maps influence their users’ perceptions and understandings of the characteristics of the languages that they represent. Therefore, given their communicative power, wide accessibility, and generalized use for educational purposes, attention must be paid as to what messages language maps convey about the languages that they visualize since different cartographic styles can be suited to representing some language ecologies better than others. However, decisions at this level are not normally made explicit by cartographers, and the ways in which certain ideologies surface in language maps can escape the attention of both linguists and cartographers alike. This article clarifies why these issues are especially relevant in a domain such as that of the study of Bantoid languages and proposes some novel cartographic models that have been used for representing the languages of Lower Fungom in western Cameroon. These include some cartographic strategies for the representation of the language ideologies of speaker communities and of individual multilingualism. The latter is both a key and under-researched feature in Bantoid sociolinguistics and the article suggests how scholars who are not sociolinguists may nevertheless contribute to its exploration

An overview of the Bantoid languages

The Bantoid languages are a body of some 150-200 languages positioned geographically between Nigeria and Cameroun. They do not form a genetic group, but all are in some way related to Bantu more closely than other branches of Benue-Congo. The most well-known branches are Dakoid, Mambiloid, Tivoid, Beboid, Grassfields, and Ekoid. Bendi, formerly Cross River, may be Bantoid, while Jarawan is probably Narrow Bantu. Their classification is controversial. Due to their inaccessibility, many are poorly described. The article summarises the literature on their classification and main linguistic features, and in particular how these relate to Bantu. It also includes a brief survey of endangerment of smaller languages and the state of literacy development.Their main typological characteristics include S (AUX) OV word order, functioning or fossilised nominal affixing and concord (sometimes alliterative), suffixed verbal extensions, ATR vowel harmony and labial-velars in the phonology. Some languages have developed highly complex tone-systems as a result of extreme erosion of segmental material

Balbiani, Florian. 2023. Mission – Kolonialismus – Nationalsozialismus. Ernst Dammann und die Hamburger Afrikanistik, 1930 – 1937. (Hamburger postkoloniale Studien 8). München: Allitera.

Die Rezension von Florian Balbianis Studie „Mission – Kolonialismus – Nationalsozialismus. Ernst Dammann und die Hamburger Afrikanistik, 1930 – 1937“ macht deutlich, dass der gewählte Forschungsansatz  innovativ und hilfreich für diesen unterbelichteten Teil der Geschichtswissenschaft ist. Die Fokussierung auf die Entstehung der Afrikanistik nach dem Ende der deutschen Kolonialherrschaft zeigt deren ideologische Fundamente auf. So wird argumentiert, dass die Sprachforschungen Ernst Dammans, beispielhaft für die Afrikanistik, sehr eng mit einer rassistisch-biologistischen Ideologie verknüpft waren, wofür viele Belege angeführt werden. Dabei hätte sich der Autor der Besprechung von Balbianis Studie allerdings mehr Tiefe gewünscht. In Bezug auf den Erkenntnisgewinn weist die Rezension auf einige Schwachstellen hin. Das wenig gründliche Quellenstudium würde eher wiedergeben „was andere vor ihm herausgefunden haben“. Zudem kritisiert die Rezension, dass sich Balbianis Studie häufig auf eine deskriptive Ebene beschränkt und eine kritische Auseinandersetzung mit dem Wissenschaftsbegriff fehlt.Review of Balbiani, Florian. 2023. Mission – Kolonialismus – Nationalsozialismus. Ernst Dammann und die Hamburger Afrikanistik, 1930 – 1937. (Hamburger postkoloniale Studien 8). München: Allitera

The fate of the Benue-Congo velar nasal in Bantoid

Proto-Benue-Congo has been reconstructed both with a simple velar nasal *ŋ and with the velar nasal as part of a *ŋg structure. The loss of the simple velar nasal has been noticed as a feature of Bantu languages but has not been studied in other Bantoid groups. This paper considers the lexemes for which this phoneme has been reconstructed and then examines the subsequent development of the velar nasal in several groups. The results vary from preservation in Ekoid to near absence in Bantu. The phonological loss of velar nasals is not surprising, as parallels demonstrate. Rather the question arises of why certain languages only preserve remnants of the original velar nasal, and a partial answer is connected to suffixation and cluster formation

Numeral mutation and ablaut in Lower Fungom languages

This paper provides new information on patterns of consonant mutation and vowel ablaut found in the numeral systems of four language varieties of the Lower Fungom region of Cameroon. This phenomenon is of interest in the context of the comparative investigation of noun class marking in Niger-Congo languages, and a particularly noteworthy pattern found in some of the varieties are apparent cases of mutated numeral roots being analogically extended to contexts where they would not be predicted to be found on the basis of regular patterns of sound change

Information structure in Nda\u27nda\u27

This paper describes how a syntactic constituent can be manipulated within the structure of a sentence in Nda’nda’ in order to give it pragmatic prominence. To achieve this, attention has to be paid to the various means used by Nda’nda’ speakers to bring listeners to focus their attention on the constituent bearing the special information they want to pass across. Two main categories of prominence in information structure are usually differentiated in language generally: topic and focus. Focus in Nda’nda’ is encoded by cleft constructions, pseudo-cleft constructions and the adverbial ndɑ̀ʔ ‘only’. While analyzing focus via cleft construction we argue that there is similarity between the object cleft construction and the relative clause. The focus marker ndaʔ marks restrictive focus with concomitant morphosyntactic changes. Topic constructions are restricted to noun phrases and are achieved essentially through left-dislocation to mark contrastive topic with an additional pronoun in resumptive function whose form varies depending on whether the topicalized element is human or non-human

Breyer, Francis. 2022. Schrift und Sprache in Nubien. Studien zum Napatanischen Meroitischen und Altnubischen. (Meroitica 29). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.

Review of Breyer, Francis. 2022. Schrift und Sprache in Nubien. Studien zum Napatanischen Meroitischen und Altnubischen