Archives

  • Vol. 97 (2024)

    The present volume of Afrika und Übersee assembles selected contributions to the “1st Conference on Bantoid Languages and Linguistics (Banto1d)”, that was held at the University of Hamburg from March 23–25, 2022.
    Roger Blench sets the frame with his general overview of the Bantoid languages and the state of the art of their exploration. Jeffrey Wills tracks down the Proto-Benue-Congo velar nasal, providing evidence of either its preservation or loss in various Bantoid language groups. Pierpaolo Di Carlo explores the possibilities of sociolinguistic cartography to Bantoid languages of the Lower Fungom area. Nelson Tschonghongei and Jeff Good work towards a typology of consonant mutations and vowel ablaut patterns in numerals of the Yemne-Kimbi subgroup. Hugues Gueche Fotso Carlos provides an overview of the strategies employed for marking major categories in information structure, i.e. focus and topic, in Nda’nda’. The two remaining contributions target the emergence of numeral classifier systems in two branches of Bantoid under different perspectives. Solange Mekamgoum and Roland Kießling discuss the concurrency of the newly emergent numeral classifier system and the inherited gender system in Eastern Grassfields Ngəmba, while Michael Terhemen Angitso and Roland Kießling explore the extent to which an incipient numeral classifier system can be reconstructed for Proto-Tivoid.

  • Vol. 96 (2023)

    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.

  • Vol. 95 (2022)

    Issue 95 of Afrika und Übersee combines five articles and two reviews: Shamsuddeen Bello delves into the analysis of Hausa praise epithets of the kirari genre, providing an in-depth descriptive study of setting, props and poetic elements of Saka Cira, a piece performed by the hunter-performer Ummaru Usman Malalo. A series of photographs by Sani Maikatanga supplements the article.

    All other articles focus on phonology: Klaus Beyer and Janika Kunzmann trace labial-velar consonants in Mbum, Adamawa, in support of their reconstruction on Proto-Kebi-Benue level. Ekkehard Wolff traces the internal development of velar nasals and prenasalised obstruents in Chadic and demonstrates that there is no need for their reconstruction at Proto-Chadic level. Christopher Green discusses moraic mismatches in Somali phonology, and Elaine Scherrer provides a first descriptive outline of the phonology of Naba (Central Sudanic).

    The volume closes with two reviews: Ludwig Gerhardt on an anthology on minority language research in Nigeria, edited by Roger Blench and Stuart McGill, and Gardy Stein on Ellen Hurst-Harosh’s sociolinguistic study of the South African “stylect” Tsotsitaal.

  • Vol. 94 (2021)

    The articles assembled in volume 94 of Afrika und Übersee, its second online issue, cover topics ranging from semantics and morphosyntax to quoting standards. Akumbu and Kießling explore the “Literal and metaphorical usages of eat and drink verbs in Babanki”, a Grassfields Bantu language spoken in the Northwest Region of Cameroon. Ibirahim gives a comprehensive overview of “Aspects of Negation in Makaa (A83)”, a Bantu language spoken in the East Region in Cameroon. Meyer and Treis provide a practical guideline for authors and editors on “How to quote Ethiopian authors in linguistic publications”. Two further articles are based on contributions to the “10th Biennal International Colloquium on the Chadic languages (BICCL)” that took place in Hamburg in 2019: Harley discusses “Nominal and verbal plurality in the Mandara and Ɓata subgroups of Central Chadic” and Roberts presents “Initial findings on the Boor language”, spoken in south-eastern Chad.

  • Vol. 93 (2020)

    The first online volume of Afrika und Übersee covers a wide range of topics in African linguistics. It contains three sections: the first one is dedicated to articles from the symposium “Endangered languages in contact: Nigeria’s Plateau languages” which took place on the 25th and 26th of March 2004 in honor of Prof. Ludwig Gerhardt on the occasion of his retirement. The authors explore various phenomena of contact shared by Niger Congo languages of the Plateau branch and Afroasiatic languages of the Chadic branch.

    The second section contains selected papers from the 23rd Afrikanistentag which took place on the 25th and 26th of May 2018 in Hamburg. The conference spawned a set of thematically diverse contributions including a semantic analysis of the lexeme juju in Cameroonian English and a group of papers on different aspects of the Amharic language.

    The third section presents papers recently submitted to Afrika und Übersee. Two papers provide primary data on little researched languages of Western and Central Africa, i.e. Saba (East Chadic) and Akum (Southern Jukunoid). One paper is dedicated to the expression of diminutivity in Central Ring Grassfields Bantu languages with a focus on Babanki.