Article2008

Language Ecology and Linguistic Diversity on the African Continent

159 citations0/0 files storedLanguage and Linguistics Compass

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Linguistic and Sociocultural Studies Language and Culture Language and cultural evolution

Abstract

Abstract Africanists have been criticized by comparative linguists working on language families in other parts of the world for being lumpers. The present contribution reviews current views among specialists on genetic diversity on the African continent. In addition, some of the causal mechanisms behind this language diversity are investigated. More specifically, the role played by innovations in subsistence economies and climatological changes is discussed. Special emphasis, however, is put on attitudes towards the role of language as a marker of social identity and their effect on language diversity.

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References

1988Language Contact, Creolization, and Genetic Linguistics 1997The Rise and Fall of Languages 1994The Archaeology of Africa: food, metals and towns 1995New Linguistic Evidence and ‘The Bantu Expansion’2001Areal Diffusion versus Genetic Inheritance: An African Perspective 2005Gurindji Kriol: A Mixed Language Emerges from Code-switching 2001Contact-Induced Change in Oceanic Languages in North-West Melanesia 1956Studies in African linguistic classification . By Joseph H. Greenberg. (Reprinted from the Southwestern journal of anthropology for The Language and Communication Research Center, Columbia University, & The Program of African Studies, Northwestern University.) Pp. [v], 116, with folding map. New Haven: Compass Publishing Company, 1955.

Cited by

2010MULTILINGUALISM AND LANGUAGE CONTACT IN WEST AFRICA: TOWARDS A HOLISTIC PERSPECTIVE 2013Historical Linguistics 2018Indigenous multilingualisms past and present 2010Differential Object Marking in Nilo-Saharan 2019Language Endangerment and Language Documentation in Africa 2017

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