Grammar of Location and Motion in Zande

In Zande expressions of position and motion are arranged on a gamut in correlation with increasing syntactic complexity. Topological relations, expressed by basic locative construction are at the left end, directed motion at the right end. Directed translational motion is marked by the preposition ku, which also marks angular location. Topological relations, in situ motion and undirected translational motion do not get a specific marking. This indicates the interrelatedness of stasis and motion on the one hand and undirected and directed motion on the other hand

Two multifunctional locative and directional prepositions in Zande

In Pasch (2007: 174ff) I observed that the direction of self-induced or caused motion towards a location is usually expressed by the preposition ku ((1), (2)). Ku is frequently used to mark DIRECTION in a journey of which the starting point has been mentioned ((3), (4)). In this case the verb describing the motion away from the starting point is gapped. These observations are in agreement with Gore & Gore (1952: 78), who translate ku as ‘towards’ and add “that it always implies motion”. The situation of the speaker may optionally be indicated by the distal adverb yo ‘there’ (more frequent) or by the proximal adverb no (less frequent) ‘here’ in clause-final position

Mündü language and culture: the current state of research

The article outlines the ethnography and the socio-linguistic situation of the Mündü with focus on the sociolinguistic situation and on the endangerment of their language. The Mündü are a little known ethnic group living in several non-contiguous areas in the border triangle of Sudan, DR Congo and Uganda. Data on the history and the culture of the Mündü are scant and scattered in small pieces in the reports of the early European travellers in the region, in ethnographic descriptions of the neighbouring peoples, in particular on the Zande, in ethnographic surveys of Africa and ethnographic handbooks. All pieces of information on the cultural, economic and political situation of the Mündü from the latter second half the 20th century until now are published online on the websites of various organisations. Data on the current situation of the Mündü result partly from my own observations in Arua/Uganda

From anaphoric pronoun to copula in Zande

In Zande there is a particle ni which has two syntactic functions. The first one is that of an ana¬phoric pronoun (cf. ex. 1. for its use as a possessive pronoun) which is neutral with regard to gender, number, and syntactic function. The second function is that of a copula (ex. 2. and 3.). My hypothesis is that this copula has developed in a process of grammaticalisation from the anaphoric pronoun. The aim of the present paper is to outline this development and the conditions which allowed for it to take place

New Roles for African Languages with the New Electronic Media

Mass communication is not new in Africa. Until the mid-20th century aural surrogate languages were used to convey messages which would immediately reach many listeners and which could even be transmitted when the telephone line was interrupted, in particular in Western and Central Africa. The comprehension of these languages depended on the mastership of the spoken language and basically all speakers could understand messages transferred by drum, gong or whistle. With the introduction of writing and printed literature a division emerged according to which certain types of written/printed information were restricted to non-African languages or available also in African languages. While basically all types of literature can be printed or imported in English or French, the production (or import) of literature in African languages is basically restricted to religious texts and to fiction, but hardly any non-fiction. Letter-writing to family members overseas was for a long time the only type of written communication carried out � if at all � in African languages. The new media bring the chances of significant changes in the choice of languages for written information. While making books is expensive, the production of websites is fairly cheap. This offers the chance to produce written texts in African languages which formerly could not be published for economy reasons

Expressions of Cardinal Directions in Nilotic and in Ubangian Languages

In the Nilotic and Ubangian languages expressions for cardinal directions have been created on the basis of a wide range of conceptual sources: primarily cosmological, geographical and atmospheric concepts. But also names of neighbouring ethnic groups and even historical events are used as such. Borrowing of naming systems, however, do not occur

Embodiment in Zande

A number of body part terms of Zande have a wide range of metaphorical meanings. Most of these are purely lexical, only a few result from grammaticalization. Specific subsets of usages are linked to restricted sets of body part terms. Specific types of usages are carried out by restricted sets of bodypart terms. Purely lexical metaphors of the denotations for ‘heart’, ‘head’ and ‘eye’, are used for the expression of emotions, the term for ‘eye’ being by far the most frequent. Compound of the terms for ‘side’ and ‘belly’ plus a numeral indicate the number of sides or corners respectively that designate geometrical shapes such as rectangles and cuboids. Animal bodies or their body parts are found in two compounds used as allegoric designations for certain architectural shapes. Some of the uses of the term for ‘hand’, be are quite exceptional among the languages of the world. While it is not uncommon to express possession of an item as holding it in the hand, the term be has acquired additional specific functions in Zande by further grammaticalization. The first one is that of marking origin from a powerful, often dangerous animate source, and the second is the marking of the (usually negative) effect of an action or from an inanimate object. The use of body part terms to denote the five spatial concepts of Heine’s scale is also important. Eight body part terms are used with this function, next to five terms that have landmarks as their conceptual sources. This means that each landmark based term is used for only one specific concept, and – in addition – all concepts, with the exception of DOWN, are expressed by several body part terms, of which bangiri ‘eye’ can even express three concepts, Four body part terms are extremely frequent: bangiri, 'eye' having the widest range of spatial notions (‘in the middle’, ‘in front’, ‘on top’), ri 'head' gi 'back' and sa 'tail'. Another four are less frequent: rumburu 'buttocks', ngba 'mouth', ngbadu 'in' and vuru 'in'. Graph 2 shows the distribution of highly frequent and not frequent terms with respect to the different spatial concepts. The former are represented in large-size bold letters, the latter in small-size narrow letters. Body part terms are written in TNR-italics, landmark terms in ARIAL regular

Competing scripts: the introduction of the Roman alphabet in Africa

The introduction of the Roman script since the turn of the 20th century was the first attempt of mass alphabetization in Africa, and it has become the most important writing system. It was, however, not the first script on the continent. In Old Egypt and its successor states, writing systems were developed, transferred to other languages and modified, replaced by new systems, and occasionally became obsolete. In a number of northern and north-eastern African languages Latin replaced earlier scripts. Despite many efforts to alphabetize the population and graphize African languages only a few languages have become media of written communication and learning. For some languages, however, independent scripts were, some of which are used till today. The introduction of the internet enhanced the chances for the Latin script as a written medium for African languages. It is also the platform for a revival of the old scripts likeTifinagh and Ajami, and some of the independent African scripts