Book reviews in JALL 42

Joseph Lovestrand has sent the following message:

The latest JALL has two reviews of works on Chadic languages:

• Allison, Sean. 2020. A grammar of Makary Kotoko. (Grammars and Sketches of the World’s Languages, Africa 12). Leiden/Boston: Brill. XVIII+502 pages. ISBN: 978-90-04-42251-3. EUR 149. (Reviewed by: Abdoulaye, Mahamane L.). In: Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 42(2). 279–285. https://doi.org/10.1515/jall-2021-2022
• Newman, Paul & Roxana Ma Newman. 2020. Hausa Dictionary: Hausa-English/English-Hausa, Ƙamusun Hausa: Hausa-Ingilishi/Ingilishi-Hausa. Kano: Bayero University Press, Kano, Nigeria. (Reviewed by: Leben, William R.). In: Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 42(2). 287–290. https://doi.org/10.1515/jall-2021-2023

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Skype Talk on “The Determiner in Makary Kotoko Narrative Discourse”

Joseph Lovestrand has sent the following invitation to another Skype Talk:

The Chadic Languages & Cultures group, run by Cameroonian linguists, is meeting online Saturday 29 May, 5 PM, Cameroon time (GMT+1). All are welcome to join the discussion (in French and English)!

Chadic Languages & Cultures
Saturday, 29 May, 2021
5-6 PM (Cameroon time, GMT+1)
*Note the later time compared to previous sessions*
Join via Skype: https://join.skype.com/YTdz8ale1BIF

Hannah Olney
Trinity Western University (Canada)

THE DETERMINER IN MAKARY KOTOKO NARRATIVE DISCOURSE:
ATTENTION GUIDANCE AND SALIENCE

The Makary Kotoko [Chadic] determiner is not a grammatically obligatory marker. Although constrained by the identifiability of the referent, speakers are not required to use the determiner in any particular instance. In narrative texts, the distribution of the determiner can be understood through the principles of attention guidance and salience. The primary pattern of distribution is “salience tracking”, where referents receive determiner marking any time they are directly involved in the narrative. Exceptions to this pattern still contribute to the narrator’s overall goal of attention guidance. In addition, two texts displayed a different distribution pattern, “salience flagging”, where the determiner occurred less frequently but still for the purpose of attention guidance. Finally, I propose that the difference between these two patterns may be a result of the process of determiner grammaticalization.

[The presentation will be in English.]

New website: Kotoko resources

Kotoko resources is a website of resources for the Kotoko languages mainly geared toward speakers of the language, but also contains an up-to-date bibliography in the domain of linguistics and also archaeology/history/anthropology.

New Publication: A Grammar of Makary Kotoko

A Grammar of Makary Kotoko by Sean Allison has been published by Brill in their series Grammars and Sketches of the World’s Languages, Africa, Volume: 12

The following description is found on the Brill website (Link)

In A Grammar of Makary Kotoko, Sean Allison provides a thorough description and analysis of Makary Kotoko – a Central Chadic language of Cameroon, framing the discussion within R.M.W. Dixon’s (2010a, 2010b, 2012) Basic Linguistic Theory. Working with an extensive corpus of recorded texts supplemented by interactions with native speakers of the language, the author provides the first full grammar of a Kotoko language. The detailed analysis of the phonology, morphology, syntax, and discourse features of Makary Kotoko is from a functional/typological perspective. Being based on a large number of oral texts, the analysis provides an example-rich description showing the range of variation of the constructions presented while giving insights into Kotoko culture.

The publication has more than 500 pages and is available in print and as E-Book (PDF).

 

New Publication: Topics in Chadic Linguistics X

Topics in Chadic Linguistics X – Papers from the 9th Biennial International Colloquium on the Chadic Languages, Villejuif, September 7-8, 2017, edited by Henry Tourneux and Yvonne Treis, has just appeared at Rüdiger Köppe Verlag.

The following papers are contained:

Paul Newman:
Russell G. Schuh – An overview of his Chadic scholarship

Umma Aliyu Musa / Esther Morgenthal / Henning Schreiber:
Less commonly documented literacy practices – Secular Hausa Ajami as situated social literacy

Sergio Baldi / Rudolf Leger:
Animal names in Hausa and Kupto – Their specific characteristics mirrored in proverbs, epithets and sayings

Gian Claudio Batic:
Verb classes and TAM system in Kushi (Nigeria)

Roger Blench:
Current research on the A3 West Chadic languages

Philippe Cassuto / Victor Porkhomovsky:
Les stratégies de traduction de l’Ancien Testament dans les trois versions haoussa de la Bible – Un problème d’interprétation ?

Emma Kuipers:
Verb classification in Mogum (Eastern Chadic)

Joseph Lovestrand:
Ideophones in Barayin

Joseph McIntyre:
Patterns of organisation in the Hausa grade system

Nina Pawlak / Joseph McIntyre:
Semantic and pragmatic motivations of gender assignment in Hausa

James Roberts / Albert Camus Soulokadi:
On ideophones in Musey

Olga Stolbova:
Lexical links between Chadic, Cushitic and Omotic languages

Henry Tourneux:
Le syntagme nominal dans le parler « kotoko » de Kousseri

Melanie Viljoen:
Gavar verb morphology

Topics in Chadic Linguistics V has appeared

Currently, the Fifth Biennial International Colloquium on the Chadic Languages (BICCL) is taking place in Leipzig. Yesterday, Rüdiger Köppe (left) arrived and brought a box containing the conference volume of BICCL 4, which has just appeared. Eva Rothmaler (right) has edited this publication. Here is more information about the book:

4th BICCL: Conference report

The Fourth Biennial International Colloquium on the Chadic Languages BICCL has just taken place from 30th – 31st October 2007, at the University of Bayreuth. Here is a report on this event from a participant’s (my own) perspective.