Christianity, language contact and language change

In this paper, I argued that conversion to Christianity and Christian practice provide a context for linguistic contact between the vernacular language of the converted population and the ecclesiastic language. This contact, as any other language contact, can trigger language change. Moreover, because religious affiliation often provokes the division of social space, it is responsible for the development of strong social-indexical characteristics of innovative features introduced through contact. I suggested a gradual model of language change which implies that the change will first occur and stabilize in ecclesiastic genres and only then spread to the standard or to other varieties. I also emphasized the role of translation in this process. I provided examples of several case studies of change in vocabulary (colonial Maya), morphology (European languages, Latin), and pragmatics (Bosavi). The discussion of examples of syntactic change in Mano, where certain innovations introduced in the situation of contact in Christian context failed to stabilize, suggests that the variability of the ecclesiastic register is the factor impeding the spread of innovations. The model of language change in contact applied in this paper which takes into account the sociolinguistic landscape, as well as such factors as distribution of variants in different registers, can contribute to the studies of language contact and change beyond the Christian context.Non peer reviewe

A sketch of dialectal variation in Mano

This paper gives a preliminary account of the dialectal situation of Mano, a South Mande language. Mano has at least three varieties in Guinea and three varieties in Liberia. The focus of the paper is a comparison between the central Guinean dialect, Maa, and the southernmost Liberian variety, with some additional information from other Guinean and Liberian varieties. Some patterns of variation in phonology, morphosyntax and lexicon are presented. The paper argues that some of the dialectal differences in Mano could be explained by different contact situations: while in the North, and especially in Guinea, Mano is influenced by Kpelle, which was in turn influenced by Manding, in the South of Liberia, Mano is influenced by Dan. The patterns of spread of common Mano – Kpelle – Manding vocabulary show a complex multilayered picture of horizontal contact between Mano and Kpelle and across different dialects, of old contact with Manding via trade and a more recent introduction of Manding borrowings intensified (or motivated) by the translation practices of the Guinean missionaries and limited by political borders between Guinea and Liberia.Peer reviewe

The Aorist and the Perfect in Mano

The foci of this paper are the semantic differences between two perfective constructions in the Mano language, the Aorist and the Perfect. The paper is based on Östen Dahl’s classic questionnaire, as well as various sources of natural speech data, including narratives, routine conversations, and ritual speech, Christian and traditional. The core semantic property of the Mano Perfect is event relevance, which isconfirmed by the annulled result test. The core function of the Aorist is being the narrative tense. The paper also includes discussion of two secondary functions of the Perfect and the Aorist, namely, anticipation of future events and transposition to the past. The secondary functions confirm the basic distinction between the Aorist and the Perfect, the latter maintaining a closer connection with the reference point.Peer reviewe

Common ground in demonstrative reference : the case of Mano (Mande)

That demonstratives often have endophoric functions marking referents outside the physical space of interaction accessible through cognition, especially memory, is well known. However, these functions are often classified as independent from exophoric ones and are typically seen as secondary with respect to spatial deixis. However, data from multiple languages shows that cognitive access to referents functions alongside with perceptual access, including vision. Cognitive access is enabled by prior interactions and prior familiarity with the referents. As a result of such interactions, the interlocutors share a great deal of knowledge about the referents which allows them locate even invisible objects but also facilitates reference to objects in the interactive field. Thus, in some languages, exophoric uses are not opposed to, but become routinely merged with endophoric ones and perceptual access gets merged with cognitive access. I illustrate this idea throughout the paper by using first-hand data from Mano. Adding another argument in favor of viewing demonstrative reference as a social, interactive process, the Mano data pushes the idea of salience of non-spatial parameters further and emphasized the importance of long-term interactional history both for the choice of demonstratives in exophoric reference and for the encoded distinctions in the demonstrative paradigm.Peer reviewe

From the Qur'an to Christianity Ethnolinguistic Contact and Religious Conversion in West Africa

The focus of the paper is a study of cultural and linguistic contact in West Africa, especially in the domain of religion. Through an analysis of historical layers of some Arabic borrowings in three languages of the region, Manding, Kpelle and Mano, as well as social contexts in which language contact and vocabulary transmission may have occurred, the paper presents a reconstruction of the way Arabic lexicon came to shape Christian (and especially Catholic) lexicon of Kpelle and Mano. This study argues that the influence of Islam on Christianity should be accounted for not only in terms of synchronic influence, but also in terms of influence on pre-Christian religious practice, some aspects of which have later been incorporated into the Christian practice. The paper provides evidence for the key role of the missionaries’ translation techniques in shaping the religious lexicon, and at the same time emphasizes the importance of local interethnic dynamics and language contact.Peer reviewe

Differential linguistic and social change: the role of translation

This article sketches a model of differential social and linguistic change as a result of interlinguistic and intercultural contact. In this model, specific settings and areas of social practice in which contact is most intense play a major role. One such area is Christian religious practice, which, typically as a result of conversion, often involves linguistic and cultural contact. One of the principal conduits of this contact is translation of church texts. The hypothesis is that since translation and contact may occur in a particular domain of habitual practice, initial transformation may also be circumscribed to particular – in this case, religious – registers which emerge as a result of contact and translation. These innovative registers are endowed with social value, indexing membership in the Christian community. Some features of the registers may affect a broader variety of repertoires used by a given linguistic community, but also channel a social transformation.Peer reviewe

Assessing (a)symmetry in multilingualism : The case of Mano and Kpelle in Guinea

Aims and objectives: The paper studies Kpelle–Mano bilingualism in the broader context of local multilingual repertoires and assesses symmetry in the patterns of language use. Methodology: We combine natural speech sampling with ethnographic observations, interviews, sociolinguistic surveys, and elicitation tasks. Data and analysis: The data analyzed includes 62 questionnaire responses, targeted elicitation with 21 individuals, as well as corpus collection and ethnographic observations over the course of fieldwork from 2008 onwards. Findings: Neither Mano nor Kpelle has an overt prestige value. Marriage patterns and economic activity are symmetrical, and both languages can be in certain cases chosen as a means of interethnic communication. However, bilingualism is typically unreciprocated, and the Mano speak Kpelle more often than the other way round. Contact-induced change is almost exclusively unidirectional, with Kpelle influencing Mano. We suggest relative population size as the main explanatory factor. In contrast, both Mano and Kpelle are in an asymmetric relationship with Maninka, which is frequently used by urban Mano and Kpelle speakers. Even if some Maninka claim to speak Kpelle to a certain extent, they rarely use it in real life. Originality: This paper is a report on a previously unstudied multilingual setting. We stress the theoretical and the empirical importance of the patrilect. In addition to its being the defining identity feature, the patrilect is also the main predictor defining the language choice in communication and the volume of the repertoire. Significance: We applied long-term participant observation in various social settings to obtain a fine-grained account of the rules governing language choice, which a typical background questionnaire would overlook. We also sampled natural and elicited speech of L1 and L2 speakers of Mano and Kpelle, a method that yields better results than proficiency tests because it captures interference in grammar, which has far-reaching consequences for contacting languages.Peer reviewe

Groupe verbal

Cet article est consacré au groupe verbal et à ses différentes composantes. Nous commençons par la structure argumentale et dérivation actancielle (§4.1). §4.2 porte sur la nominalisation. Il se trouve que le verbe en mano est marqué différemment en fonction de la position syntaxique du groupe verbal nominalisé, ainsi qu’en fonction de la présence de ses arguments. Nous discutons alors consécutivement ces différentes positions syntaxiques. Une autre conclusion importante est que les objets in..

Système prédicatif

La présente section, consacrée au système prédicatif, sera structurée de la manière suivante. Dans §5.1, la structure du système prédicatif sera expliquée. Nous commencerons par l’énumération des procédés principaux de l’expression des valeurs de tamp, y compris le système complet des marqueurs prédicatifs, mais aussi les copules. Ensuite, pour chaque série de marqueurs prédicatifs et pour chaque copule nous distinguerons une construction minimale. La construction minimale est constituée d’un..

Bibliographie

Akinlabi Akinbiyi, Urua Eno E., 2002, “Foot structure in the Ibibio verb”, Journal of African Languages and Linguistics, n° 23, p. 119-160. Baker Mark, 2003, Lexical categories: Verbs, nouns, and adjectives, Cambridge : Cambridge University Press. Beavogui Facinet, 2002, Les Toma (Guinée et Libéria) au temps des négriers et de la colonisation français (XVe-XXe s.), Paris : L’Harmattan. Becker-Donner Etta, 1965, Die sprache der Mano. Vienne : Hermann Böhlaus Nachf. Bellman Beryl, 1984, The la..