Choices in language accommodation at the crossroads: convergence, divergence, and mixing

This article seeks to explain a community's unique collective pronunciation of an otherwise shared word form through the lens of indexical field (Silverstein 2003). Three groups of speakers physically converge at an area in south-western Senegal dubbed ‘the crossroads'. Those familiar with the area regard each group as speaking a separate language, two of which are closely related genetically. Although there are areas of overlap and clear borrowings, despite close proximity and long-term language contact among the speakers, the languages remain grammatically and phonetically distinct. Specifically, one community pronounces all (corresponding and otherwise) words with initial velar plosives as voiced [ɡ], whereas one other uses [k], and the third uses [ɡ] in some instances and [k] in others. An example of this potential for phonetic convergence or divergence across the three languages occurs in the word for ‘peace', [kə- ~ ɡə-ssumay]. Unexpectedly, if viewed through the lens of ethnic identity, the community that is of a more distantly related grouping, the Baïnounk of Djibonker, more often aligns itself with the pronunciation of the Jóola of Brin, while that of the closer genetically (but geographically remoter) group uses the uncommon [ɡə-] form heard among the Jóola of Essil. It is postulated here that the groupings of Djibonker and Brin are indexing an identity that is mutually aligned with a broader, pan-Jóola identity, whereas those from Essil are distancing themselves from this identity, which, ironically, they interpret as being indexical of the Baïnounk identity

ASPECTS OF BANGIME PHONOLOGY, MORPHOLOGY, AND MORPHOSYNTAX

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Indiana University, Linguistics, 2013This dissertation provides a description of aspects of the phonology, morphology, and morphosyntax of Bangime. Bangime is a language isolate spoken in the Dogon language speaking area of Central Eastern Mali. Although the Bangande, the speakers of Bangime, self-identify with the Dogon, their language bears practically no resemblance to the surrounding Dogon languages. Bangime has limited productive morphological processes whereas Dogon languages are agglutinating, with productive morphemes to indicate inflectional and derivational verbal and nominal processes. Bangime has a complex tonal system. General tendencies of the tonal patterns are described, with the many exceptions which frequently occur also outlined. Nominal tonal melodies are apparent in plural forms. Objects in verb phrases receive tonal agreement with tones on the verb in accordance with the subject of the sentence. The tense, aspect, and mood system of the language is also complicated. Inflectional marking on the verb, auxiliaries, and the word order of the sentence all contribute to the indication of the tense, aspect or mood of the sentence. An overview of these multifaceted phonological and morphological processes is provided in this dissertation with hypotheses as to how the language may have evolved

Bangime: secret language, language isolate, or language island? A computer‐assisted case study

We report the results of a qualitative and quantitative lexical comparison between Bangime and neighboring languages. Our results indicate that the status of the language as an isolate remains viable, and that Bangime speakers have had different levels of language contact with other Malian populations at various points throughout their history. Bangime speakers, the Bangande, claim Dogon ancestry. The Bangande portray this connection to Dogon through the fact that the language has both recent borrowings from neighboring Dogon varieties and more rooted vocabulary from Dogon languages spoken to the east from whence the Bangande claim to have come. Evidence of multilayered long‐term contact is clear: lexical items have even permeated even core vocabulary. However, strikingly, the Bangande are seemingly unaware that their language is not intelligible with any Dogon variety. We hope that our fiindings will influence future studies on the reconstruction of the Dogon languages and other neighboring language varieties to shed light on the mysterious history of Bangime and its speakers

Aspects of Bangime Phonology, Morphology, and Morphosyntax

This dissertation provides a description of aspects of the phonology, morphology, and morphosyntax of Bangime. Bangime is a language isolate spoken in the Dogon language speaking area of Central Eastern Mali. Although the Bangande, the speakers of Bangime, selfidentify with the Dogon, their language bears practically no resemblance to the surrounding Dogon languages. Bangime has limited productive morphological processes whereas Dogon languages are agglutinating, with productive morphemes to indicate inflectional and derivational verbal and nominal processes. Bangime has a complex tonal system. General tendencies of the tonal patterns are described, with the many exceptions which frequently occur also outlined. Nominal tonal melodies are apparent in plural forms. Objects in verb phrases receive tonal agreement with tones on the verb in accordance with the subject of the sentence. The tense, aspect, and mood system of the language is also complicated. Inflectional marking on the verb, auxiliaries, and the word order all contribute to the indication of the tense, aspect or mood of the sentence. An overview of these multifaceted phonological and morphological processes is provided in this dissertation with hypotheses as to how the language might have evolved

Choices in Language Accommodation at the Crossroads: Convergence, Divergence, and Mixing

This article seeks to explain a community's unique collective pronunciation of an otherwise shared word form through the lens of indexical field (Silverstein 2003). Three groups of speakers physically converge at an area in south-western Senegal dubbed ‘the crossroads'. Those familiar with the area regard each group as speaking a separate language, two of which are closely related genetically. Although there are areas of overlap and clear borrowings, despite close proximity and long-term language contact among the speakers, the languages remain grammatically and phonetically distinct. Specifically, one community pronounces all (corresponding and otherwise) words with initial velar plosives as voiced [ɡ], whereas one other uses [k], and the third uses [ɡ] in some instances and [k] in others. An example of this potential for phonetic convergence or divergence across the three languages occurs in the word for ‘peace', [kə- ~ ɡə-ssumay]. Unexpectedly, if viewed through the lens of ethnic identity, the community that is of a more distantly related grouping, the Baïnounk of Djibonker, more often aligns itself with the pronunciation of the Jóola of Brin, while that of the closer genetically (but geographically remoter) group uses the uncommon [ɡə-] form heard among the Jóola of Essil. It is postulated here that the groupings of Djibonker and Brin are indexing an identity that is mutually aligned with a broader, pan-Jóola identity, whereas those from Essil are distancing themselves from this identity, which, ironically, they interpret as being indexical of the Baïnounk identity

The Abstract Nature of the Bondu Vowel System: Evidence from [ATR] Harmony

The Abstract Nature of the Bondu Vowel System:  Evidence from [ATR] Harmon

First steps towards the detection of contact layers in Bangime: A multi-disciplinary, computer-assisted approach

We present a computer-assisted, multidisciplinary, first approach to addressing this problem of detecting the layers of contact in Bangime. First, we assemble lexical evidence of contact between Bangime speakers with their neighboring languages, using a computer-assisted technique, followed by an evaluation of the materials by contrasting them with genetic findings. Specifically, we propose trajectories for Bangande settlement patterns. With this study, we lay the foundation of future collaborative work that will improve, correct, and enhance the results of this study. The original data used for the study are made available so that additional researchers may follow up on and test our hypotheses concerning contact layers in Bangime

The Database of Cross-Linguistic Colexifications, reproducible analysis of cross-linguistic polysemies

Advances in computer-assisted linguistic research have been greatly infuential in reshaping linguistic research. With the increasing availability of interconnected datasets created and curated by researchers, more and more interwoven questions can now be investigated. Such advances, however, are bringing high requirements in terms of rigorousness for preparing and curating datasets. Here we present CLICS, a Database of Cross-Linguistic Colexifcations (CLICS). CLICS tackles interconnected interdisciplinary research questions about the colexifcation of words across semantic categories in the world's languages, and show-cases best practices for preparing data for cross-linguistic research. This is done by addressing shortcomings of an earlier version of the database, CLICS2, and by supplying an updated version with CLICS3, which massively increases the size and scope of the project. We provide tools and guidelines for this purpose and discuss insights resulting from organizing student tasks for database updatesTT, MSW, NES, YL, and JML were funded by the the ERC Starting Grant 715618 Computer-Assisted Language Comparison (http://calc.digling.org). SJG was supported by the Australian Research Council’s Discovery Projects funding scheme (project number DE 120101954) and the ARC Center of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language grant (CE140100041). MKT was supported by the Riksbankens Jubileums Fond (Grant SAB17-0588:1). TB was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, P2BEP1_181779, “Reconstruction of Proto-Western Kho-Bwa”

African linguistics on the prairie: Selected papers from the 45th Annual Conference on African Linguistics

African Linguistics on the Prairie features select revised peer-reviewed papers from the 45th Annual Conference on African Linguistics, held at the University of Kansas. The articles in this volume reflect the enormous diversity of African languages, as they focus on languages from all of the major African language phyla.  The articles here also reflect the many different research perspectives that frame the work of linguists in the Association for Contemporary African Linguistics. The diversity of views presented in this volume are thus indicative of the vitality of current African linguistics research. The work presented in this volume represents both descriptive and theoretical methodologies and covers fields ranging from phonetics, phonology, morphology, typology, syntax, and semantics to sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, language acquisition, computational linguistics and beyond.  This broad scope and the quality of the articles contained within holds out the promise of continued advancement in linguistic research on African languages

African linguistics on the prairie: Selected papers from the 45th Annual Conference on African Linguistics

African Linguistics on the Prairie features select revised peer-reviewed papers from the 45th Annual Conference on African Linguistics, held at the University of Kansas. The articles in this volume reflect the enormous diversity of African languages, as they focus on languages from all of the major African language phyla.  The articles here also reflect the many different research perspectives that frame the work of linguists in the Association for Contemporary African Linguistics. The diversity of views presented in this volume are thus indicative of the vitality of current African linguistics research. The work presented in this volume represents both descriptive and theoretical methodologies and covers fields ranging from phonetics, phonology, morphology, typology, syntax, and semantics to sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, language acquisition, computational linguistics and beyond.  This broad scope and the quality of the articles contained within holds out the promise of continued advancement in linguistic research on African languages