Anti-contiguity

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Kandybowicz
Keyword(s):  
West African ◽  
African Languages ◽  
Item Distribution

This book develops a theory of wh- prosody according to which wh- expressions must avoid forming prosodic constituents with overt complementizers at the level of Intonational Phrase. The theory is inspired by Richards’s (2010, 2016) Contiguity Theory and is based empirically on asymmetries in the distribution of wh- items in five West African languages: Krachi (Kwa: Ghana), Bono (Kwa: Ghana), Wasa (Kwa: Ghana), Asante Twi (Kwa: Ghana), and Nupe (Benue-Congo: Nigeria). The observations and analyses stem from original fieldwork on all five languages and represent some of the first prosodic descriptions of the languages. The theory is shown to successfully derive a number of famous and less well-known asymmetries in wh- in-situ distribution in a variety of languages unrelated to those the theory was originally designed to analyze. Against the backdrop of data from eighteen languages, the theory is parameterized to account for wh- item distribution across typologically diverse languages.

Anti-contiguity Crosslinguistically

2020 ◽  
pp. 100-122
Author(s):  
Jason Kandybowicz
Keyword(s):  
West African ◽  
Linguistic Context ◽  
The West ◽  
African Languages

This chapter concludes the book by considering Anti-contiguity in a cross-linguistic context. It is shown that the proposal can be successfully applied to derive asymmetries in wh- in-situ distribution beyond the West African languages considered in Chapters 2–4. The chapter focuses on thirteen languages from diverse language families (Romance, Bantu, and Indo-Aryan, among others) and considers the implications of data from these languages for the final formulation of the Anti-contiguity condition. On the basis of these considerations, the Anti-contiguity constraint is parameterized. Among the languages considered against the backdrop of the Anti-contiguity proposal in this chapter are French; Spanish; Catalan; Zulu; Bàsàá; Duala; Shona; Lubukusu; Kiitharaka; Hindi-Urdu; Bangla; Iraqi Arabic; and Malayalam.

Swell Genesis, Modelling and Measurements in West Africa

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Prevosto ◽  
Kevin Ewans ◽  
George Z. Forristall ◽  
Michel Olagnon
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Numerical Models ◽  
Austral Summer ◽  
In Situ Measurements ◽  
West African ◽  
The South ◽  
West African Coast ◽  
Westerly Direction ◽  
Propagation Of Waves

Swell events show a large variety of configurations when they arrive at sites off West Africa after generation and propagation of waves across the Atlantic Ocean. Within the West Africa Swell Project (WASP JIP), these different configurations have been described and discussed and the ability of numerical models to reproduce faithfully their properties has been assessed from comparisons with in-situ measurements. During the austral winter months, swells approach West African coast from the south to south-westerly direction. These swells are generated by storms in the South Atlantic mainly between 40°S and 60°S. But during austral summer, north-westerly swells are also observed coming from North Atlantic. Typical situations of superposition of these different swells are illustrated in the paper. In spite of a poor overlapping between numerical and in-situ measurements databases at the time of the WASP project, and of reduced durations of measurement campaigns, comparisons between in situ measurements and hindcast models permitted identification of the limitations of the different numerical models available. Three sites have been used for this study, one in the Gulf of Guinea with directional Waverider and Wavescan buoys, a second one off Namibia with a directional Waverider and one last instrumented with two wavestaffs off Cabinda (Angola). In addition, the existence of infra-gravity waves in shallow water measurements has been investigated.

Lexical Conflation as a Basis for Relexification

1989 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 351-376 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alain Kihm
Keyword(s):  
Language Change ◽  
West African ◽  
The West ◽  
African Languages ◽  
The Caribbean

Substratal influences as an explanation for creolization (and language change generally) often fail to convince for one major reason, namely that, in most cases, the possible substratum for a given creole language is now separated from the site where creolization took place by a wide historical and geographical gap. This, for example, is the case of the West African languages vis-à-vis the Caribbean Creoles.

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.

West African Languages Congress

1963 ◽  
Vol 6 (03) ◽  
pp. 30-31
Author(s):  
Joseph Greenberg
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Leone ◽  
The United States ◽  
West African ◽  
Financial Assistance ◽  
The Other ◽  
Substantial Portion ◽  
The West ◽  
African Languages ◽  
The Third ◽  
First Time

The Third West African Languages Congress took place in Freetown, Sierra Leone, from March 26 to April 1, 1963. This was the third of the annual meetings of those interested in West African languages sponsored by the West African Languages Survey, previous meetings having been held in Accra (1961) and Dakar (1962). The West African Languages Survey is a Ford Foundation project. Additional financial assistance from UNESCO and other sources contributed materially to the scope and success of the meeting. This meeting was larger than previous ones both in attendance and in number of papers presented and, it may be said, in regard to the scientific level of the papers presented. The official participants, seventy-two in number, came from virtually every country in West Africa, from Western European countries and from the United States. The linguistic theme of the meeting was the syntax of West African languages, and a substantial portion of the papers presented were on this topic. In addition, there was for the first time at these meetings a symposium on the teaching of English, French and African languages in Africa. The papers of this symposium will be published in the forthcoming series of monographs planned as a supplement to the new Journal of West African Languages. The other papers are to appear in the Journal of African Languages edited by Jack Berry of the School of Oriental and African Studies.

scholarly journals West African Summer Monsoon Precipitation Variability as Represented by Reanalysis Datasets

Climate ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
pp. 111
Author(s):  
Kwesi Akumenyi Quagraine ◽  
Francis Nkrumah ◽  
Cornelia Klein ◽  
Nana Ama Browne Klutse ◽  
Kwesi Twentwewa Quagraine
Keyword(s):  
Summer Monsoon ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
West African Monsoon ◽  
West African ◽  
Positive Trend ◽  
In Situ Data ◽  
Dry Conditions ◽  
Long Term Trends

Focusing on West Africa, a region riddled with in situ data scarcity, we evaluate the summer monsoon monthly rainfall characteristics of five global reanalysis datasets: ERA5, ERA-Interim, JRA-55, MERRA2, and NCEP-R2. Their performance in reproducing the West African monsoon (WAM) climatology, interannual variability, and long-term trends for the main monsoon months are compared to gauge-only and satellite products. We further examine their ability to reproduce teleconnections between sea surface temperatures and monsoon rainfall. All reanalyses are able to represent the average rainfall patterns and seasonal cycle; however, regional biases can be marked. ERA5, ERA-Interim, and NCEP-R2 underestimate rainfall over areas of peak rainfall, with ERA5 showing the strongest underestimation, particularly over the Guinea Highlands. The meridional northward extent of the monsoon rainband is well captured by JRA-55 and MERRA2 but is too narrow in ERA-Interim, for which rainfall stays close to the Guinea Coast. Differences in rainband displacement become particularly evident when comparing strong El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) years, where all reanalyses except ERA-Interim reproduce wetter Sahelian conditions for La Niña, while overestimating dry conditions at the coast except for NCEP-R2. Precipitation trends are not coherent across reanalyses and magnitudes are generally overestimated compared to observations, with only JRA-55 and NCEP-R2 displaying the expected positive trend in the Sahel. ERA5 generally outperforms ERA-Interim, highlighting clear improvements over its predecessor. Ultimately, we find the strengths of reanalyses to strongly vary across the region.

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