A501: Introduction to African Languages (3 cr)
Instructor: P. Newman
TR 2:30-3:45P
BH 333
Section 2896

Open to graduates only.  Meets with LING L480.

Description:
This course will cover the essentials of African linguistics from historical, typological,
and analytical perspectives.  First, we will study the history and current status of African
linguistic classification, with special attention paid to the substance and methodology of
Greenbergıs classification.  Then , we will look at typological characteristics of African
languages.  In the area of phonology, we will pay special attention to vowel harmony
and tone (including contour tones, polar tones, and segment-tone interaction) as well as
to two important historical sound laws.  The section on morphology will focus on
gender and noun classification, on nominal and verbal plurality, and on verbal
extensions.  Other topics to be covered include negation and the sound-symbolic words
known as ³ideophones².

Texts: (Both out of print.  Will be on reserve in the main library and in the Linguistics
reading room.)
(a) Welmers, William E. 1973.  African Language Structures.  Berkeley & Los Angeles:
University of California Press.
(b) Greenberg, Joseph H. 1963.  The Languages of Africa.  Bloomington: Indiana
University.