Essential reference for this particular linguistic community, as well as for linguists working on typology and syntax.

This reference work delivers an interdisciplinary, applied spatial and geographical approach to the study of languages and linguistics. This work includes chapters and sections related to language origins, diffusion, conflicts, policies, education/instruction, representation, technology, regions, and mapping. Also addressed is the mapping of languages and linguistic diversity, on language in the context of politics, on the relevance of language to cultural identity, on language minorities and endangered languages, and also on language and the arts and non-human language and communication. This reference work looks at the subject matter and contributors to the disciplines and programs in the social sciences and humanities, and the dearth of materials on languages and linguistics. The topics covered are not only discipline-centered, but in the cutting-edge fields that intersect several disciplines and also cut across the social sciences and humanities. These include gender studies, sustainability and development, technology and social media impacts, law and human rights, climate change, public health and epidemiology, architecture, religion, visual representation and mapping. These new and emerging research directions and other intersecting fields are not traditionally discipline-bounded, but cut across numerous fields. The volumes will appeal to those within existing fields and disciplines and those working the intersections at local, regional and global scales.

This book introduces beginning students and non-specialists to the diversity and richness of African languages. In addition to providing a solid background to the study of African languages, the book presents linguistic phenomena not found in European languages. A goal of this book is to stimulate interest in African languages and address the question: What makes African languages so fascinating? The orientation adopted throughout the book is a descriptive one, which seeks to characterize African languages in a relatively succinct and neutral manner, and to make the facts accessible to a wide variety of readers. The author’s lengthy acquaintance with the continent and field experiences in western, eastern, and southern Africa allow for both a broad perspective and considerable depth in selected areas. The original examples are often the author’s own but also come from other sources and languages not often referenced in the literature. This text also includes a set of sound files illustrating the phenomena under discussion, be they the clicks of Khoisan, talking drums, or the ideophones (words like English lickety-split) found almost everywhere, which will make this book a valuable resource for teacher and student alike.

This book is an introduction to African languages and linguistics, covering typology, structure and sociolinguistics. The twelve chapters are written by a team of fifteen eminent Africanists, and their topics include the four major language groupings (Niger-Congo, Nilo-Saharan, Afroasiatic and Khoisan), the core areas of modern theoretical linguistics (phonology, morphology, syntax), typology, sociolinguistics, comparative linguistics, and language, history and society. Basic concepts and terminology are explained for undergraduates and non-specialist readers, but each chapter also provides an overview of the state of the art in its field, and as such will be referred to also by more advanced students and general linguists. The book brings this range of material together in accessible form for anyone wishing to learn more about this challenging and fascinating field.

The linker introduces ("links") a variety of expressions into the verb phrase, including locatives, the second object of a double object construction, the second object of a causative, instruments, subject matter arguments, and adverbs. This volume collects together Chris Collins's published work on the linker in the Khoisan languages. Here, Collins offers a systematic description of the linker in [lHoã, Ju|'hoan, N|uu, and to a lesser extent !Xoõ and |Xam. For each language, Collins illustrates various uses of the linker, drawing attention to cross-linguistic generalizations as well as to variation between the languages. The work presented in this volume should be of interest to researchers working in a wide variety of syntactic frameworks on different languages of the world.