The Cambridge Handbook of African Linguistics Cambridge Handbooks in Language and Linguistics Series

This book provides an in-depth and comprehensive state-of-the-art study of 'African languages' and 'language in Africa' since its beginnings as a 'colonial science' at the turn of the twentieth century in Europe. Compiled by 56 internationally renowned scholars, this ground breaking study looks at past and current research on 'African languages' and 'language in Africa' under the impact of paradigmatic changes from 'colonial' to 'postcolonial' perspectives. It addresses current trends in the study of the role and functions of language, African and other, in pre- and postcolonial African societies. Highlighting the central role that the 'language factor' plays in postcolonial transformation processes of sociocultural modernization and economic development, it also addresses more recent, particularly urban, patterns of communication, and outlines applied dimensions of digitalization and human language technology.

Introduction; 1. African linguistics: conceptions and scope H. Ekkehard Wolff; Part I. Short Regional Histories of African Linguistics: 2. African linguistics in Europe Arvi Hurskainen, Roland Kießling, Nina Pawlak and Alexander Zheltov; 3. African linguistics in North and so-called Francophone Africa Abderrahman el Aissati, Yamina el Kirat el Allame and Philip Ngessimo Mathe Mutaka; 4. African linguistics in North-Eastern and so-called Anglophone Africa Akinbiyi Akinlabi, Bruce Connell, Angelika Jakobi, Amani Lusekelo, Ronny Meyer, Marie-Claude Simeone-Senelle and Wolbert Smidt; 5. African linguistics in so-called Lusophone and Hispanophone Africa, and in Southern Africa Sonja Bosch, Inge Kosch and Anne-Maria Fehn; 6. African linguistics in the Americas, Asia, and Australia G. Tucker Childs, Margarida Petter, Shigeki Kaji, John Hajek, Sun Xiaomeng and Yang Chul-Joon; Part II. Comparative and Descriptive African Linguistics: 7. Comparative African linguistics Gerrit J. Dimmendaal; 8. A typological and areal perspective on African languages Bernd Heine; 9. Niger-Congo linguistic features and typology Larry M. Hyman, Nicholas Rolle, Hannah Sande, Emily Clem, Peter S. E. Jenks, Florian Lionnet, John Merrill and Nicholas Baier; 10. Afroasiatic linguistic features and typologies Ronny Meyer and H. Ekkehard Wolff; 11. Linguistic features and typologies in languages commonly referred to as 'Nilo-Saharan' Gerrit J. Dimmendaal, Colleen Ahland, Angelika Jakobi and Constance Kutsch Lojenga; 12. Linguistic features and typologies in languages commonly referred to as 'Khoisan' Alena Witzlack-Makarevich and Hirosi Nakagawa; Part III. African Languages in Cultures and Societies: 13. Sociocultural and political settings of language in Africa Alamin Mazrui; 14. In and out of Africa: the sociolinguistics of European and Asian languages in Africa and of the African diaspora Rajend Mesthrie; 15. Language endangerment and language documentation in Africa Friederike Lüpke; 16. Situated language use in Africa Sigurd D'hondt; 17. Special-purpose registers of language in Africa Alice Mitchell and Ayu'nwi N. Neba; 18. African languages in urban contexts Andrea Hollington and Nico Nassenstein; 19. African languages and mobile communication: between constraint and creativity Ana Deumert, Ivan Panoviæ, Dorothy Agyepong and David Barasa; Part IV. Applied Perspectives in African Linguistics: 20. Multilingualism and education in Africa Kathleen Heugh; 21. Intellectualisation of African languages: past, present and future Russell H. Kaschula and Dion Nkomo: 22. African languages and human language technologies Justus C. Roux and H. Steve Ndinga-Koumba-Binza.

H. Ekkehard Wolff is Emeritus Professor and Chair of African Linguistics at Universität Leipzig. He publishes widely on descriptive, typological, comparative, and applied linguistics and sociolinguistics of African languages, and on oral literatures. He's published over 25 books including Language and Development in Africa (Cambridge, 2016), Multilingual Education for Africa: Concepts and Practices (2017) and Multilingualism and Intercultural Communication: A South African Perspective (2017).