Radical analyticity and radical pro-drop scenarios of diachronic change in East and mainland Southeast Asia, West Africa and Pidgins and Creoles

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-70
Author(s):  
Walter Bisang
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Thought Experiment ◽  
West African ◽  
Alternative View ◽  
Inflectional Morphology ◽  
African Languages ◽  
Diachronic Change ◽  
Verbal Arguments ◽  
Asian Languages

Abstract The paucity or absence of inflectional morphology (radical analyticity) and the omission of verbal arguments with no concomitant agreement (radical pro-drop) are well-known characteristics of East and mainland Southeast Asian languages (EMSEA). Both of them have a special status in typology and linguistic theory. Radical analyticity is known under the term of ‘morphological isolation’ and has recently been described as ‘diachronically anomalous’ (McWhorter 2016), while radical pro-drop is a theoretical challenge since Rizzi (1986). The present paper offers an alternative view on these characteristics based on data from EMSEA languages, radically analytic West African languages and pidgins and creoles. It develops diachronic evolutionary scenarios combining the specific properties of languages in their diachronic and geographic situations with two different notions of complexity (hidden vs. overt complexity) and factors which tend to block the development of inflectional morphological paradigms. From such a perspective, radical analyticity and radical pro-drop are by no means extraordinary. Given the enormous size of the task, the paper is a thought experiment based on available data and discussions on the above languages for stimulating further research.

West African Manuscripts in Arabic and African Languages and Digital Preservation

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fallou Ngom
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Digital Preservation ◽  
West African ◽  
Writing System ◽  
African Languages ◽  
Digital Repositories ◽  
World Regions ◽  
Arabic Script ◽  
Other World

West African manuscripts are numerous and varied in forms and contents. There are thousands of them across West Africa. A significant portion of them are documents written in Arabic and Ajami (African languages written in Arabic script). They deal with both religious and nonreligious subjects. The development of these manuscript traditions dates back to the early days of Islam in West Africa, in the 11th century. In addition to these Arabic and Ajami manuscripts, there have been others written in indigenous scripts. These include those in the Vai script invented in Liberia; Tifinagh, the traditional writing system of the Amazigh (Berber) people; and the N’KO script invented in Guinea for Mande languages. While the writings in indigenous scripts are rare less numerous and widespread, they nonetheless constitute an important component of West Africa’s written heritage. Though the efforts devoted to the preservation of West African manuscripts are limited compared to other world regions, interest in preserving them has increased. Some of the initial preservation efforts of West African manuscripts are the collections of colonial officers. Academics later supplemented these collections. These efforts resulted in important print and digital repositories of West African manuscripts in Africa, Europe, and America. Until recently, most of the cataloguing and digital preservation efforts of West African manuscripts have focused on those written in Arabic. However, there has been an increasing interest in West African manuscripts written in Ajami and indigenous scripts. Important West African manuscripts in Arabic, Ajami, and indigenous scripts have now been digitized and preserved, though the bulk remain uncatalogued and unknown beyond the communities of their owners.

scholarly journals West African languages. Linguistic theory and communication

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Language Development ◽  
West Africa ◽  
West African ◽  
Linguistic Theory ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
Refugee Camps ◽  
Sign Languages ◽  
Structural Patterns ◽  
African Languages ◽  
Structural Differences

The monograph covers the main aspects of studies on West African languages related to the diversity of structural patterns and complexity of their linguistic assignment. It includes various topics ranging from linguistic description and conceptualization patterns to the sociolinguistics of contemporary refugee camps. Typological diversity is enriched with the presentation of pidgin structures and sign languages. Structural differences between languages are seen from a comparative perspective, which also indicates the areal dimension of linguistic processes. The presentations of linguists from both Europe and Africa develop the idea of convergence area in West Africa, which is motivated by the contact between languages of different affiliations to language families and common cultural basis of language development.

scholarly journals The Spread of Revealed Religions in West Africa and Its Implications for the Development of Translation

2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 29-34
Author(s):  
Adewuni Salawu
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
West African ◽  
Native Languages ◽  
International Standard ◽  
African Languages ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Islam And Christianity ◽  
Roman Script ◽  
Regional Languages ◽  
Local Languages

This study attempts to look at the metamorphoses of West African languages into written status and subsequently the acquisition of translation skills by West Africans during the spread of Islam and Christianity. With the trans-Saharan and Atlantic contacts, literacy spread in the sub-region and native languages became written, facilitating the translation of the Bible and the Qur’an into local languages, especially with Roman script. Africans who participated in the translations of the Scriptures became skillful translators and experts in both English and regional languages. This study concludes that the enthusiasm and dedication of the missionaries who developed local languages should be emulated to further enrich African languages to a competitive and international standard.

French Lexicography in Africa: a Three-Dimensional Project

1982 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 353-359 ◽  
Author(s):  
Conrad Max Benedict Brann
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Ford Foundation ◽  
West African ◽  
The West ◽  
African Languages ◽  
The Past ◽  
English Speaking

Few English-speaking scholars realise that a francophone network of scholars has powerfully developed the study of contact between French and African languages over the past decade, and that this is currently being synthesised in the form of an Inventaire des particularités lexicales du français en Afrique noire. This corporate work, sponsored by the Association des universités partiellement ou entièrement de langue française (A.U.P.E.L.F.) and the Agence de coopération culturelle et technique (A.C.C.T.),1 is of considerable linguistic, educational, and sociopolitical significance, and deserves to be widely known in Africa. Indeed, it will be remembered that at the founding of the West African Linguistic Society in 1961 two surveys were mooted: West African languages and, later, English in West Africa, of which the former was accomplished with the help of the International African Institute and the Ford Foundation, while the latter was forgotten. With the ‘Inventory of French in Africa’, the francophone network of scholars has certainly stolen a march on English-speaking Africa.

The Coin of the African Realm

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Herbst
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
West Africa ◽  
West African ◽  
Regional Economies ◽  
African Countries ◽  
New Strategies

This chapter examines the politics of the currency in West Africa from the beginning of the twentieth century. A public series of debates over the nature of the currency occurred in West Africa during both the colonial and independence periods. Since 1983, West African countries have been pioneers in Africa in developing new strategies to combat overvaluation of the currency and reduce the control of government over the currency supply. The chapter charts the evolution of West African currencies as boundaries and explores their relationship to state consolidation. It shows that leaders in African capitals managed to make the units they ruled increasingly distinct from the international and regional economies, but the greater salience of the currency did not end up promoting state consolidation. Rather, winning the ability to determine the value of the currency led to a series of disastrous decisions that severely weakened the states themselves.

scholarly journals Hybrid insolation forcing of Pliocene monsoon dynamics in West Africa

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rony R. Kuechler ◽  
Lydie M. Dupont ◽  
Enno Schefuß
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Climate Changes ◽  
West African Monsoon ◽  
West African ◽  
Latitudinal Gradients ◽  
Glacial Cycle ◽  
Time Intervals ◽  
Continental Hydrology ◽  
Insolation Forcing ◽  
The Last Glacial

Abstract. The Pliocene is regarded as a potential analogue for future climate with conditions generally warmer-than-today and higher-than-preindustrial atmospheric CO2 levels. Here we present the first orbitally resolved records of continental hydrology and vegetation changes from West Africa for two Pliocene time intervals (5.0–4.6 Ma, 3.6–3.0 Ma), which we compare with records from the last glacial cycle (Kuechler et al., 2013). Our results indicate that changes in local insolation alone are insufficient to explain the full degree of hydrologic variations. Generally two modes of interacting insolation forcings are observed: during eccentricity maxima, when precession was strong, the West African monsoon was driven by summer insolation; during eccentricity minima, when precession-driven variations in local insolation were minimal, obliquity-driven changes in the summer latitudinal insolation gradient became dominant. This hybrid monsoonal forcing concept explains orbitally controlled tropical climate changes, incorporating the forcing mechanism of latitudinal gradients for the Pliocene, which probably increased in importance during subsequent Northern Hemisphere glaciations.

scholarly journals Promoting research to improve maternal, neonatal, infant and adolescent health in West Africa: the role of the West African Health Organisation

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (S1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Issiaka Sombie ◽  
Aissa Bouwayé ◽  
Yves Mongbo ◽  
Namoudou Keita ◽  
Virgil Lokossou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Adolescent Health ◽  
West African ◽  
The West ◽  
African Health

A curious case of nematode parasitism in a West African Hadada, Gevonticus hagedash

1945 ◽  
Vol 21 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 99-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phyllis A. Clapham
Keyword(s):  
Small Intestine ◽  
West Africa ◽  
West Coast ◽  
West African ◽  
The West ◽  
The Family ◽  
Nematode Parasitism

In the following article is described an interesting parasitic condition which is difficult to interpret. The small intestine of an Hadada, Geronticus hagedash, was brought back from the West Coast of Africa by Major T. A. Cockburn, M.D., R.A.M.C, who kindly passed it to me for further examination. The bird is a member of the family Plataleidae, living in wooded districts in West Africa in the neighbourhood of water and feeding on invertebrates, mainly annelids and small crustaceans which it finds at the bottom of ponds and streams in the mud.

scholarly journals On What Scale Can We Predict the Agronomic Onset of the West African Monsoon?

2016 ◽  
Vol 144 (4) ◽  
pp. 1571-1589 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rory G. J. Fitzpatrick ◽  
Caroline L. Bain ◽  
Peter Knippertz ◽  
John H. Marsham ◽  
Douglas J. Parker
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Noise Analysis ◽  
West African Monsoon ◽  
West African ◽  
New Method ◽  
The West ◽  
African Monsoon ◽  
Spatial Consistency ◽  
Local Stakeholders ◽  
Local Rainfall

Abstract Accurate prediction of the commencement of local rainfall over West Africa can provide vital information for local stakeholders and regional planners. However, in comparison with analysis of the regional onset of the West African monsoon, the spatial variability of the local monsoon onset has not been extensively explored. One of the main reasons behind the lack of local onset forecast analysis is the spatial noisiness of local rainfall. A new method that evaluates the spatial scale at which local onsets are coherent across West Africa is presented. This new method can be thought of as analogous to a regional signal against local noise analysis of onset. This method highlights regions where local onsets exhibit a quantifiable degree of spatial consistency (denoted local onset regions or LORs). It is found that local onsets exhibit a useful amount of spatial agreement, with LORs apparent across the entire studied domain; this is in contrast to previously found results. Identifying local onset regions and understanding their variability can provide important insight into the spatial limit of monsoon predictability. While local onset regions can be found over West Africa, their size is much smaller than the scale found for seasonal rainfall homogeneity. A potential use of local onset regions is presented that shows the link between the annual intertropical front progression and local agronomic onset.

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