Afrika und Übersee

The current 96th issue of Afrika und Übersee combines two major sections.

The first one has a general orientation and presents three articles that span a wide range both geographically and topic-wise. Torben Andersen discusses clause-chaining phenomena in Western Nilotic Dinka involving a conjunction kṳ̀ that unites co-ordinating and subordinating functions. Hilde Gunnink presents new insights into the linguistic outcomes of contact between Khoisan and Bantu, based on a rich corpus of new data from the little documented Kgalagadi variety Tjhauba in Botswana. Benjamin Suchard provides additional evidence of the historical sound changes *u > u and *a >ə in Classical Ethiopic (Ge‘ez).

The second section is dedicated to Bantoid linguistics. Solange Mekamgoum and Roland Kießling report an interrogative verb ghě ‘to what’ in the Eastern Grassfields Bantu language Ngəmba (West Cameroon). Ronald Schaefer and Francis O. Egbokhare embark on a cross-Benue Congo comparison of semantic concepts encoded in preverbal hybrid adverbials that tend to emerge in verbal serialisation, based on data from Grassfields Bantu and West Benue Congo Yoruboid and Edoid, originally presented at the “1st Conference on Bantoid Languages and Linguistics” (Hamburg, March 23–25, 2022).

Two obituaries commemorate two late colleagues: Alexander Neil Skinner whose merits as expert on West African languages are commemorated by Herrmann Jungraithmayr and Jürgen Zwernemann, long-term co-editor of Afrika und Übersee, is commemorated by Gudrun Miehe.

Finally, Uta Reuster-Jahn reviews Susanne Gehrmann’s monograph “Autobiographik in Afrika. Literaturgeschichte und Genrevielfalt” for a non-German-reading audience.