African Linguistics on the Prairie features select revised peer-reviewed papers from the 45th Annual Conference on African Linguistics, held at the University of Kansas. The articles in this volume reflect the enormous diversity of African languages, as they focus on languages from all of the major African language phyla. The articles here also reflect the many different research perspectives that frame the work of linguists in the Association for Contemporary African Linguistics. The diversity of views presented in this volume are thus indicative of the vitality of current African linguistics research. The work presented in this volume represents both descriptive and theoretical methodologies and covers fields ranging from phonetics, phonology, morphology, typology, syntax, and semantics to sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, language acquisition, computational linguistics and beyond. This broad scope and the quality of the articles contained within holds out the promise of continued advancement in linguistic research on African languages.

The papers in this volume were presented at the 47th Annual Conference on African Linguistics at UC Berkeley in 2016. The papers offer new descriptions of African languages and propose novel theoretical analyses of them. The contributions span topics in phonetics, phonology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics and reflect the typological and genetic diversity of languages in Africa. Four papers in the volume examine Areal Features and Linguistic Reconstruction in Africa, and were presented at a special workshop on this topic held alongside the general session of ACAL.

Since the hiring of its first Africanist linguist Carleton Hodge in 1964, Indiana University’s Department of Linguistics has had a strong and continuing presence in the study of African languages and linguistics through the work of its faculty and of its graduates on the faculties of many other universities. Research on African linguistics at IU has covered some of the major language groups spoken on the African continent. Carleton Hodge’s work on Ancient Egyptian and Hausa, Paul Newman’s work on Hausa and Chadic languages, and Roxanna Ma Newman’s work on Hausa language structure and pedagogy have been some of the most important studies on Afro-Asiatic linguistics. With respect to Niger-Congo languages, the work of Charles Bird on Bambara and the Mande languages, Robert Botne’s work on Bantu structure (especially tense and aspect), Samuel Obeng and Colin Painter’s work on Ghanaian Languages (phonetics, phonology, and pragmatics), Robert Port’s studies on Swahili, and Erhard Voeltz's studies on Bantu linguistics are considered some of the most influential studies in the sub-field. On Nilo Saharan languages, the work of Tim Shopen on Songhay stands out. IU Linguistics has also forwarded theoretical work on African languages, such as John Goldsmith’s seminal research on tone in African languages. The African linguistics faculty at IU have either founded or edited important journals in African Studies, African languages, and African linguistics, including Africa Today, Studies in African Linguistics, and Journal of African Languages and Linguistics. In 1972, the Indiana University Department of Linguistics hosted the Third Annual Conference of African Linguistics. Proceedings of that conference were published by Indiana University Publications (African Series, vol. 7). In 1986, IU hosted the Seventeenth Annual Conference of African Linguistics with Paul Newman and Robert Botne editing the proceedings in a volume entitled Current Approaches to African Linguistics, vol. 5. In 2016, Indiana University hosted the 48th Annual Conference on African Linguistics with the theme African Linguistics Across the Disciplines. Proceedings of that meeting are published in this volume. The papers presented in this volume reflect the diversity of opportunities for language study in Africa. This collection of descriptive and theoretical work is the fruit of data gathering both in-country and abroad by researchers of languages spoken across the continent, from Sereer-sin in the west to Somali in the northeast to Ikalanga in the south. The range of topics in this volume is also broad, representative of the varied field work in country and abroad that inspires research in African linguistics. This collection of papers spans the disciplines of phonology (both segmental and suprasegmental), morphology (both morphophonological and morphosyntactic), syntax, semantics, and language policy. The data and analyses presented in this volume offer a cross-disciplinary view of linguistic topics from the many under-resourced languages of Africa.

The first of a new series devoted to the study of African linguistics, this study presents papers on a wide range of disciplines pertinent to the field that will be of interest to students and researchers. This first volume includes work on Niger Congo languages such as Yoruba and Igbo, and several Bantu languages.

The 16 papers in this volume are revised versions of papers presented at the conference; they represent the state of the art in various subfields of African linguistics into which the book is organized: (1) morphosyntax, (2) semantics, (3) phonology, and (4) language contact. The last part covers topics such as code-switching and mixing, pidginization/creolization, and language planning.The papers in Part I: Morphosyntax focus particularly on the verb and verb phrase in a variety of Niger-Congo languages, discussing several aspects of the verb morphology. The specific languages discussed include Kinande, Kilega, Kinyarwanda (Larry Hyman), Kikongo-Kituba (M. Ngalasso), Duala (E. Bilao), Yoruba (S.A. Lawal), Ewe (A.S. Allen), and Gbaya 'Bodoe (P. Roulon-Doko). The papers in Part II: Semantics discuss foundational questions regarding the proper/common noun distinction in two geographically very distant African languages, Gborbo Krahn (Janet Bing) in the west and Luo (Ben G. Blount) in the east, which follow yet very similar principles. And, despite differences in the titles, the papers on Kivunjo (Lioba Moshi) and Emai (Schaefer and Egbokhare) address the question of the semantic basis for assigning property concepts to different lexical categories. There are two papers in Part III: Phonology, which are mostly on the prosodic features of Chiyao (Al Mtenje) and Manding (J. Tourville). In Part IV: Language Contact, Eyamba Bokamba's and C. Meyers-Scotton's papers discuss speech variation and mostly formal constraints associated with them, while Helma Pasch compares segmental features of Sango and Yakoma in the Central African Republic to determine whether the former is a creole. Edmun Richmond focuses on the choice of national official language in sub-Saharan Africa. Except for Pasch all of them cover several languages and geographical areas.

The 16 papers in this volume are revised versions of papers presented at the conference; they represent the state of the art in various subfields of African linguistics into which the book is organized: (1) morphosyntax, (2) semantics, (3) phonology, and (4) language contact. The last part covers topics such as code-switching and mixing, pidginization/creolization, and language planning.The papers in Part I: Morphosyntax focus particularly on the verb and verb phrase in a variety of Niger-Congo languages, discussing several aspects of the verb morphology. The specific languages discussed include Kinande, Kilega, Kinyarwanda (Larry Hyman), Kikongo-Kituba (M. Ngalasso), Duala (E. Bilao), Yoruba (S.A. Lawal), Ewe (A.S. Allen), and Gbaya 'Bodoe (P. Roulon-Doko). The papers in Part II: Semantics discuss foundational questions regarding the proper/common noun distinction in two geographically very distant African languages, Gborbo Krahn (Janet Bing) in the west and Luo (Ben G. Blount) in the east, which follow yet very similar principles. And, despite differences in the titles, the papers on Kivunjo (Lioba Moshi) and Emai (Schaefer and Egbokhare) address the question of the semantic basis for assigning property concepts to different lexical categories. There are two papers in Part III: Phonology, which are mostly on the prosodic features of Chiyao (Al Mtenje) and Manding (J. Tourville). In Part IV: Language Contact, Eyamba Bokamba's and C. Meyers-Scotton's papers discuss speech variation and mostly formal constraints associated with them, while Helma Pasch compares segmental features of Sango and Yakoma in the Central African Republic to determine whether the former is a creole. Edmun Richmond focuses on the choice of national official language in sub-Saharan Africa. Except for Pasch all of them cover several languages and geographical areas.

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.