Language Decline and Death in Africa

Language Decline and Death in Africa PDF Author: Herman Batibo
Publisher: Multilingual Matters
ISBN: 9781853598081
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description
The aim of this book is to inform both scholars and the public about the nature and extent of the problem of language decline and death in Africa. It resourcefully traces the main causes and circumstances of language endangerment, the processes and extent of language shift and death, and the consequences of language loss to the continent's rich linguistic and cultural heritage. The book outlines some of the challenges that have emerged out of the situation.

Language Decline and Death in Africa

Language Decline and Death in Africa PDF Author: Herman Batibo
Publisher: Multilingual Matters
ISBN: 9781853598081
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description
The aim of this book is to inform both scholars and the public about the nature and extent of the problem of language decline and death in Africa. It resourcefully traces the main causes and circumstances of language endangerment, the processes and extent of language shift and death, and the consequences of language loss to the continent's rich linguistic and cultural heritage. The book outlines some of the challenges that have emerged out of the situation.

Language Death

Language Death PDF Author: David Crystal
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521012713
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
The rapid endangerment and death of many minority languages across the world is a matter of widespread concern, not only among linguists and anthropologists but among all concerned with issues of cultural identity in an increasingly globalized culture. By some counts, only 600 of the 6,000 or so languages in the world are 'safe' from the threat of extinction. A leading commentator and popular writer on language issues, David Crystal asks the fundamental question, 'Why is language death so important?', reviews the reasons for the current crisis, and investigates what is being done to reduce its impact. This 2002 book contains not only intelligent argument, but moving descriptions of the decline and demise of particular languages, and practical advice for anyone interested in pursuing the subject further.

Africa's Endangered Languages

Africa's Endangered Languages PDF Author: Jason Kandybowicz
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190256346
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 521

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Book Description
This book examines the endangered languages of Africa from both documentary and theoretical perspectives, highlighting the threats of extinction many of them face and the challenges and implications each bring to bear on linguistic theory. It focuses on the symbiosis between documentary and theoretical methodologies, and its consequences for the preservation of endangered languages, both in the African context and more broadly.

Language Death

Language Death PDF Author: Nancy C. Dorian
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780812211115
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 206

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Book Description


When Languages Die

When Languages Die PDF Author: K. David Harrison
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195372069
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
It is commonly agreed by linguists and anthropologists that the majority of languages spoken now around the globe will likely disappear within our lifetime. This text focuses on the question: what is lost when a language dies?

A Grammar of Tommo So

A Grammar of Tommo So PDF Author: Laura McPherson
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110301075
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 648

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Book Description
Tommo So is a Dogon language with approximately 60,000 speakers in Mali, West Africa. As only the second full grammatical description of a Dogon language, this volume is a critical resource for solving the mystery of Dogon's genetic affiliation with other languages in Africa. Tommo So is an SOV language with isolating nominal morphology and agglutinative verbal morphology; suffixes on the verb mark tense/aspect/negation as well as subject agreement. The phonology is sensitive to levels of verbal morphology in that variable vowel harmony applies less frequently as one moves to outer layers of the morphology. The tone system of Tommo So is of typological interest in both its phonological and syntactic instantiations. Phonologically, it is a two-tone system of H and L, but these specified tones contrast with a surface-underspecified tone. Grammatically, the lexical tone of a word is often overwritten by syntactically-induced overlays. For example, an inalienable noun's tone will be replaced with L if it is possessed by a non-pronominal possessor, and by either H or HL if the possessor is pronominal. The language has also innovated a series of locative quasi-verbs and focus particles sensitive to pragmatic factors like certainty.

Language Endangerment

Language Endangerment PDF Author: David Bradley
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107041139
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 301

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Book Description
Investigates the endangerment of languages and the loss of traditional cultural diversity, and how to respond.

Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger PDF Author: Christopher Moseley
Publisher: UNESCO
ISBN: 9231040960
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 221

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Book Description
Languages are not only tools of communication, they also reflect a view of the world. Languages are vehicles of value systems and cultural expressions and are an essential component of the living heritage of humanity. Yet, many of them are in danger of disappearing. UNESCO's Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger tries to raise awareness on language endangerment. This third edition has been completely revised and expanded to include new series of maps and new points of view.

Globalization and Language Vitality

Globalization and Language Vitality PDF Author: Cécile B. Vigouroux
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 082649515X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 302

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Book Description
This book discusses the effects of globalization on languages in Africa. In contrast to previous studies, the contributors examine whether or not globalization is affecting African languages in the same ways and at the same rate in different countries, and how local experiences of language change vary from place to place. Rather than seeing English as the 'killer language' par excellence, the contributors probe ways in which languages are being used side by side to complement each other in some contexts while competing against European colonial languages in others. The result is a diverse canvas of language vitality in the African context, including matters of endangerment and loss, through the lense of globalization in its various interpretations. This book is a must read for students and researchers interested in language change and death and in the fate of European languages in the rest of the world.

Language Documentation and Endangerment in Africa

Language Documentation and Endangerment in Africa PDF Author: James Essegbey
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN: 9027268150
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
This volume brings together a number of important perspectives on language documentation and endangerment in Africa from an international cohort of scholars with vast experience in the field. Offering insights from rural and urban settings throughout the continent, these essays consider topics that range from the development of a writing system to ideologies of language endangerment, from working with displaced communities to the role of colonial languages in reshaping African repertoires, and from the insights of archeology to the challenges of language documentation as a doctoral project. The authors are concerned with both theoretical and practical aspects of language documentation as they address the ways in which the African context both differs from and resembles contexts of endangerment elsewhere in the world. This volume will be useful to fieldworkers and documentalists who work in Africa and beyond.