The formation of regional and national features in African English pronunciation

2003 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Augustin Simo Bobda
Keyword(s):  
East Africa ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
West African ◽  
Positive Perception ◽  
Historical Experience ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
The Past ◽  
Sierra Leonean ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
English Pronunciation

Serious studies on English pronunciation in Africa, which are only beginning, have so far highlighted the regional and sociolinguistic distribution of some features on the continent. The present paper revisits some aspects of these studies and presents a sort of pronunciation atlas on the basis of some selected features. But more importantly, the paper examines how these features are formed. It considers, but goes beyond, the over-used theory of mother-tongue interference, and analyses a wide range of other factors: colonial input, shared historical experience, movement of populations, colonial and post-colonial opening to other continents, the psychological factor, speakers’ attitudes towards the various models of pronunciation in their community, etc. For example, the Krio connection accounts for some striking similarities between Nigerian, Sierra Leonean and Gambian Englishes despite the wide geographical distance between them. The positive perception of their accent, which they judge superior to the other West African accents, has, in the past three decades, shaped the English pronunciation of Ghanaians in a particular way. The northward movements of populations have disseminated to East Africa some typically Southern African features. Links between Southern and East Africa, and Asia, are reflected in the presence of some Asian features in East and Southern African Englishes. The paper shows how African accents of English result from the interaction between the influence of indigenous languages and Africans’ exposure to several colonial and post-colonial Englishes.

scholarly journals Giving shape to the past: Pre-columbia in nineteenth-century Mexican literary journals

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 359-375
Author(s):  
Adam T. Sellen
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Archaeological Investigation ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
The Past ◽  
Mexican Society ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Literary Journals ◽  
Mexican Nationalism ◽  
Literary Journal ◽  
The Grotesque

Abstract The literary journal “El Museo Mexicano” (1843-1845) marked a watershed in Mexican nationalism, and sought to shape aspirations of an elite segment of nineteenth-century Mexican society eager to claim a post-colonial identity by exploring the cultural and historical strands that were combined in the young Republic. The editors solicited contributions from Mexican authors on a wide range of subjects, from descriptions of contemporary provincial life to accounts of recent discoveries of pre-Hispanic monuments and artifacts. The aim was to provide a more complete and up-to-date image of Mexico, rich in anecdotal detail and lavishly illustrated. In this paper I will explore how this new literary platform argued for the validity of archaeological investigation in the American context, and ultimately shaped how Mexicans perceived their past. Though my focus is primarily on the articles in “El Museo Mexicano” I will also analyze some of the visual tropes and traditions, from the picturesque to the grotesque that inspired illustration in other Mexican journals of the same genre.

It's kuloo tu: recent developments in Kenya's Englishes

English Today ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christiane Meierkord
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
First Language ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Medium Of Instruction ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
The Past ◽  
Educational Domain ◽  
Speech Communities ◽  
Recent Developments

ABSTRACTIn most areas where English is spoken today, it is part of a multilingual context. English is one component of the sociolinguistic profile of many nations. In nations where English is a mother tongue or first language for the majority of the population, other speech communities contribute further languages to the linguistic environment. And in contexts where the majority speak a language other than English, it may serve as a language of administration or as a medium of instruction in the educational domain. Over the past few decades, speech communities have also increasingly been influenced by languages usually spoken outside the community. A particular case is the spread of English via music and films through the radio, television, and the internet. As a result, English is part of the linguistic repertoire of many nations and the individuals living in them. These multilingual contexts have in common the fact that individuals can draw on the various languages to meet their diverse communicative needs and to construct their identities. This article describes how this may result in changes to the English language and even in the emergence of new linguistic forms, with particular reference to the post-colonial nation of Kenya.

Toponymic Inscription as an Instrument of Power in Africa: The case of colonial and post-colonial Dakar and Nairobi

2016 ◽  
Vol 52 (8) ◽  
pp. 1174-1192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ambe J Njoh
Keyword(s):  
East Africa ◽  
West African ◽  
Place Names ◽  
Francophone Africa ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Western Power ◽  
British Colonial ◽  
Place Naming ◽  
African Nationalism

This study analyses toponymic inscription, the exercise of street/place naming, as a tool for articulating power in Anglophone and Francophone Africa. The focus is on Dakar, Senegal and Nairobi, Kenya, which were respectively indispensable for the colonial projects of France and Britain in Africa. Dakar was for France’s West African Federation what Nairobi was for Britain’s colonial East Africa. It is shown that toponymic inscription was used with equal zeal by French and British colonial authorities to express power in built space. Thus, both authorities used the occasion to christen streets and places as an opportunity to project Western power in Africa. With the demise of colonialism, indigenous authorities in Kenya inherited the Western vocabulary of spatiality but speedily moved to supplant Eurocentric with Afrocentric street/place-names. In contrast, post-colonial authorities in Senegal remain wedded to the colonial tradition of drawing most important street- and place-names from the Eurocentric cultural lexicon. Consequently, although the vocabulary of spatiality in Nairobi projects African nationalism and power, that of Dakar continues to express mainly Western power.

WRITING THE FRENCH NATIONAL NARRATIVE IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

2010 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 495-516 ◽  
Author(s):  
EMILE CHABAL
Keyword(s):  
Public Debate ◽  
First Century ◽  
French History ◽  
National Narrative ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
The Past ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Identite Nationale

ABSTRACTWith France currently in the midst of a fierce public debate over its identité nationale, now is a very appropriate time to revisit one of the most controversial questions in modern French history: the definition of the nation. Taking a wide range of French and foreign authors from a variety of disciplines, this article shows how debates around the national narrative in France have developed in the past twenty years, as the country's intellectual class has come to terms with, amongst other things, the ‘post-colonial turn’, and the disintegration of Marxism.

A Dagara Rebellion against Dagomba Rule? Contested Stories of Origin in North-Western Ghana

1994 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 457-492 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carola Lentz
Keyword(s):  
West African ◽  
Political Community ◽  
Historical Imagination ◽  
African History ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
Recent Debate ◽  
North Western

The article explores a neglected aspect of West African history, namely the historiography of ‘stateless’ peoples in north-western Ghana. At the same time, it is a contribution to the recent debate on the role of history in the construction of new ‘tribal’ identities in Africa in the colonial and post-colonial periods. After discussing local oral patrician accounts of migration and settlement, and the historical imagination of colonial officers, I analyse histories of tribal origins written recently by Dagara intellectuals, which draw upon hypotheses, evidence, tropes and narrative models from both colonial and indigenous sources. The concern is not with a conventional history of ideas, but with showing how authors with new requirements and interests can fuse disparate elements into new accounts of the past whose underlying intentions differ considerably from those of their sources. More specifically, the article discusses the claims of intellectuals' and villagers' stories with reference to different underlying political agendas, suggesting that they constitute different historiographic genres appealing to different audiences. The former are basically concerned with establishing the Dagara as a political community within a modern state, the latter with providing charters for local boundaries and rights.

scholarly journals WARISAN PENJAJAHAN BELANDA DI INDONESIA PASCA-KOLONIAL (PERSPEKTIF PERUBAHAN DAN KESINAMBUNGAN)

Diakronika ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 88
Author(s):  
Mestika Zed
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Historical Experience ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Learning History ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Impact

This paper is a preliminary exploration of the Netherlands colonial heritage in contemporary Indonesia (post-colonial). In this case there are three major issues that would like to set out one by one. First, about the degree of influence of colonization of the Netherlands in the Netherlands and Indonesia's relationship in the past. Second, about the impact of political and economic policies of the Netherlands colonial against the structure of the demographics of Indonesia. Third, an afterthought (reflection) about the importance of re-reading the historical experience of Netherlands colonial rule in the past and the legacy left behind, including the corpus of documents about the history of Indonesia and Netherlands’ relationship for research and learning history for the generation in the future. These three fundamental subjects will be viewed in the perspective of change and continuity. Finally, a cover blurb will spin back the important points set out in this paper.

Optical Properties of HVEM Accelerators

1975 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 180-181
Author(s):  
A. Strojnik ◽  
J.W. Scholl ◽  
V. Bevc
Keyword(s):  
Optical Properties ◽  
Electron Accelerator ◽  
Systematic Investigation ◽  
Electron Source ◽  
High Brightness ◽  
The Past ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Optical Behavior

The electron accelerator, as inserted between the electron source (injector) and the imaging column of the HVEM, is usually a strong lens and should be optimized in order to ensure high brightness over a wide range of accelerating voltages and illuminating conditions. This is especially true in the case of the STEM where the brightness directly determines the highest resolution attainable. In the past, the optical behavior of accelerators was usually determined for a particular configuration. During the development of the accelerator for the Arizona 1 MEV STEM, systematic investigation was made of the major optical properties for a variety of electrode configurations, number of stages N, accelerating voltages, 1 and 10 MEV, and a range of injection voltages ϕ0 = 1, 3, 10, 30, 100, 300 kV).

Pursuit of the Abscopal Effect

2020 ◽  
Vol 04 (04) ◽  
pp. 369-372
Author(s):  
Paul B. Romesser ◽  
Christopher H. Crane
Keyword(s):  
Tumor Immunology ◽  
Antitumor Immunity ◽  
Clinical Success ◽  
Immune Recognition ◽  
Immune Modulators ◽  
Cancer Subtypes ◽  
The Past ◽  
Tumor Irradiation ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Tumor Recognition

AbstractEvasion of immune recognition is a hallmark of cancer that facilitates tumorigenesis, maintenance, and progression. Systemic immune activation can incite tumor recognition and stimulate potent antitumor responses. While the concept of antitumor immunity is not new, there is renewed interest in tumor immunology given the clinical success of immune modulators in a wide range of cancer subtypes over the past decade. One particularly interesting, yet exceedingly rare phenomenon, is the abscopal response, characterized by a potent systemic antitumor response following localized tumor irradiation presumably attributed to reactivation of antitumor immunity.

Salvaging the Mother Tongue in Exile

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 187-204
Author(s):  
Tomás Espino Barrera
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
First Language ◽  
Language Attrition ◽  
The Past ◽  
Progressive Loss ◽  
First Language Attrition ◽  
Lost In Translation ◽  
Deliberate Effort ◽  
Deep Sense

The dramatic increase in the number of exiles and refugees in the past 100 years has generated a substantial amount of literature written in a second language as well as a heightened sensibility towards the progressive loss of fluency in the mother tongue. Confronted by what modern linguistics has termed ‘first-language attrition’, the writings of numerous exilic translingual authors exhibit a deep sense of trauma which is often expressed through metaphors of illness and death. At the same time, most of these writers make a deliberate effort to preserve what is left from the mother tongue by attempting to increase their exposure to poems, dictionaries or native speakers of the ‘dying’ language. The present paper examines a range of attitudes towards translingualism and first language attrition through the testimonies of several exilic authors and thinkers from different countries (Vladimir Nabokov's Speak, Memory, Hannah Arendt's interviews, Jorge Semprún's Quel beau dimanche! and Autobiografía de Federico Sánchez, and Eva Hoffman's Lost in Translation, among others). Special attention will be paid to the historical frameworks that encourage most of their salvaging operations by infusing the mother tongue with categories of affect and kinship.

The Many Pasts of Detective Fiction

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-172
Author(s):  
Thomas Leitch
Keyword(s):  
Detective Fiction ◽  
Golden Age ◽  
Public History ◽  
Detective Novel ◽  
Sherlock Holmes ◽  
Detective Story ◽  
The Past ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Detective Novels ◽  
The Many

Building on Tzvetan Todorov's observation that the detective novel ‘contains not one but two stories: the story of the crime and the story of the investigation’, this essay argues that detective novels display a remarkably wide range of attitudes toward the several pasts they represent: the pasts of the crime, the community, the criminal, the detective, and public history. It traces a series of defining shifts in these attitudes through the evolution of five distinct subgenres of detective fiction: exploits of a Great Detective like Sherlock Holmes, Golden Age whodunits that pose as intellectual puzzles to be solved, hardboiled stories that invoke a distant past that the present both breaks with and echoes, police procedurals that unfold in an indefinitely extended present, and historical mysteries that nostalgically fetishize the past. It concludes with a brief consideration of genre readers’ own ambivalent phenomenological investment in the past, present, and future each detective story projects.

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