Studies in African Comparative Linguistics With Special Focus on Bantu and Mende

About this book

In this period in which Africa is struggling for rehabilitation and revival on so many fronts, research on the history, cultures, and languages of this continent is all the more crucial. Linguists are making industrious attempts to reconstruct macrophyla, such as Nostratic, while the internal unity of purely African phyla, such as Niger-Congo, is still judged tentative, a fact which confirms the need for African comparative linguistics. In a broader perspective, historians, archaeologists, and even geneticists increasingly turn to African linguistic data for reconstructing the early history of this region and beyond.

Studies in African Comparative Linguistics offers 21 articles dealing with diverse topics in this domain of research. It comprises a representative selection of present-day Niger-Congo research, with a special focus on Bantu and Mande. The contributions are subdivided in 7 thematic chapters: 'Niger-Congo', 'Mande', 'Bantu: Classification', 'Bantu: Vocabulary', 'Bantu: Phonology', 'Bantu: Morphology', and 'Bantu: Syntax'. This publication celebrates the retirement of Yvonne Bastin and Claire Grégoire from the Linguistics Service of the Royal Museum for Central Africa. The contributions are dedicated to their career-long commitment to the study of African languages.

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