The Lingua Franca of the Middle Congo

Africa ◽  
1943 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 118-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malcolm Guthrie
Keyword(s):  
Central Section ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Bantu Languages ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphFrom time to time there have appeared in this journal notes on the lingua franca spoken along the central section of the River Congo. On the usual principle of discarding the prefix in referring to the names of Bantu languages, this lingua franca has been called Ngala. In this case, however, we are obliged to retain the prefix to avoid confusion, as there exists in this area more than one language whose name is derived from this stem.

Early Bantu Ethnography from a Philological Point of View

Africa ◽  
1930 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. J. v. Warmelo
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
The Other ◽  
Bantu Languages ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Compact Body ◽  
The One ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphFew of the secrets that Africa still holds from us to-day have, I think, such an absorbing interest as the problem of Bantu in its relation to the neighbouring families and types of speech. Taking the continent of Africa as a whole, we find on the one hand the huge, yet marvellously homogeneous and compact body of the Bantu languages, clear-cut in structure, simple and transparent in phonology, and, at the back of much apparent diversity, exceptionally uniform in vocabulary. On the other hand there are in Africa numerous other languages of various type, which differ so much amongst each other that they have not yet been brought under any but the very broadest of classifications. The essential points of these are as follows.

Inzuikizi

Africa ◽  
1935 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 473-480
Author(s):  
Edwin W. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Bantu Languages ◽  
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Opening ParagraphIf we are to understand the firm belief in witchcraft we must first investigate the African's conception of ‘medicine’. In many Bantu languages the word for ‘medicine’ is identical with, or similar to, the word for ‘tree’, e.g. Zulu umuthi, Herero omuti, Lamba umuti, mean both ‘tree’ and ‘medicine’ ; in Ila musamo (plural misamo) is ‘medicine’ and isamo is ‘tree’. This points, I imagine, to the fact that most medicines are of vegetal origin.

The Moon as a Symbol of Life and Fertility in Sandawe Thought

Africa ◽  
1969 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Ten Raa
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
The Other ◽  
Central Position ◽  
The Sun ◽  
The Moon ◽  
Bantu Languages ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Good And Evil

Opening ParagraphThe Sandawe of central Tanzania speak a click language which shows no relationship with the languages of their Bantu-speaking neighbours, nor with any of the other non-Bantu languages in the neighbourhood; rather, it may be remotely related to the Khoisan languages of South Africa, in particular to Nama Hottentot. Physically the Sandawe differ to a degree from their neighbours, and their closest affinities may again be with Hottentot peoples. Sandawe material culture also differs to a degree from the cultures of their neighbours; like them, the Sandawe have an economy which largely depends on cattle-keeping and horticulture, but it is less sophisticated and their reliance on food-gathering and hunting is still considerably greater. Considering this difference in background it would be not at all surprising if their system of beliefs also showed differences. Comparisons cannot yet be profitably made, however, because little has so far been published about Sandawe religion, except a paper by van de Kimmenade and some details which can be found in the writings of Dempwolff and Bagshawe. In his ethnographic survey Huntingford draws our attention to the lack of knowledge of Sandawe religious beliefs, pointing out that these have been imperfectly recorded; yet he recognizes that the moon (láb′so or !áoso) and the sun (//′akásu) occupy a central position in Sandawe religion, which he summarizes as follows:It appears that the sun and the moon are regarded as supreme beings, and that propitiatory sacrifices are made to the ancestral spirits who can do both good and evil to mankind.

Thomas Decker and the death of Boss Coker

Africa ◽  
1987 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 531-545
Author(s):  
Neville Shrimpton
Keyword(s):  
Civil Servant ◽  
Full Potential ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Small Measure ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Senior Civil Servant

Opening ParagraphThomas Alexander Leighton Decker, o.b.e., teacher, journalist, broadcaster, poet, dramatist, linguist and senior civil servant—to name only some of the major occupations or preoccupations of his busy life—was the man who, more than any other, crusaded for the acceptance of Krio as a language in its own right. At a time when others dismissed Sierra Leone's main lingua franca as a debased or corrupt form of English and failed to recognise its distinct identity and full potential, Thomas Decker never once faltered in his conviction that it was as good a language as any other. He spent much of his life trying to convince others of the truth of this, and the fact that Krio has at last begun to gain the acceptance he sought for it is in no small measure due to him and his efforts on its behalf.

European and Bantu Languages in South Africa

Africa ◽  
1939 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 308-319
Author(s):  
C. M. Doke
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
The Other ◽  
Bantu Languages ◽  
Cultural Aspects ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Subject ◽  
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Opening ParagraphThe future of the Bantu languages in South Africa is a question often discussed both by Europeans interested in them and by thinking Natives who use them. The ideas and views expressed on this question are extremely varied, for the subject has its economic and political aspects as well as its natural and cultural aspects, and to-day there is a tendency, particularly among the educated and semi-educated Natives, to stress the economic and political at the expense of the other aspects.

Kinship Terminology and the Initial Vowel

Africa ◽  
1959 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 253-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. H. Whiteley
Keyword(s):  
Personal Relationships ◽  
Bantu Languages ◽  
Full Study ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Kinship Terminology

Opening ParagraphAmong a number of interlacustrine Bantu languages the nominal prefix is commonly of a shape V1CV2 (vowel, consonant, vowel). It is convenient to refer to V1 as the ‘initial vowel’ of the prefix, even where—as in Class 9—the prefix comprises only a single vowel or a vowel followed by a nasal. In certain contexts the prefix has been noted to occur without this initial vowel, and while no full study of such contexts has yet been made, the recently published Luganda Grammar establishes a number of practical rules for the omission of the ‘Initial Vowel’. Here, there is a reference to the ‘…loss of the I(nitial) V(owel)…to distinguish certain nouns when indicating close personal relationships…’, but there is no further reference to the important series of contexts provided by kinship terminology.

The Linguistic Prehistory of Southern Africa: Bush, Kwadi, Hottentot, and Bantu Linguistic Relationships

Africa ◽  
1963 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 237-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. O. J. Westphal
Keyword(s):  
Southern Africa ◽  
Bantu Languages ◽  
Bantu Language ◽  
Language Groups ◽  
Traditional Language ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Language Areas ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

Opening ParagraphThe languages dealt with in this paper are Bush ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’, and ‘D’, Kwadi, Hottentot, and about 20 Bantu language groups, comprising more than 50 distinct dialects. It is concerned with pre-Bantu history and the Bush, Kwadi, and Hottentot languages, but material on Bantu is included for the following reasons: (a) The information relevant to a discussion of the peopling of Southern Africa by Bantu-speaking peoples is scattered in the available literature or is not available at all, and, (b) Bantu traditional lore has something to say on the subject of pre-Bantu indigenous peoples of Southern Africa, and there must therefore be some evaluation of the relationship of modern and early Bantu languages and an attempt must be made to define their recent and early traditional language areas.

The Present Linguistic Situation in Ibo Country

Africa ◽  
1936 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 508-523 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margaret M. Green
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
The Face ◽  
Opening Paragraph ◽  
Mitigating Factor

Opening ParagraphA Bird's eye view of the present Ibo linguistic situation is not in one sense an inspiriting prospect. A rich profusion of dialects makes intercommunication a problem both for the 3 1/4 million Ibo-speaking people themselves and for the Europeans who live among them. The European attempt—a gallant effort in the face of extreme difficulty—to produce a lingua franca known as Union Ibo will be regarded either as a mitigating factor or an added complication according to the onlooker's point of view. In any case it has become to some extent a bone of contention as has also the question of orthography. Two different scripts are at present in use in the country, adding thus to the difficulty of the Ibo who wants to read and write his own language and of the European who wishes to learn it. And the lot of the Europeans faced by a difficult tonal and dialect-riven language is made harder by the fact that few if any of them get adequate linguistic training before going to the country or enough time to work at the language after arriving in it.

The Tones of Prefixes in Common Bantu

Africa ◽  
1954 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-54
Author(s):  
A. E. Meeussen
Keyword(s):  
Special Form ◽  
Personal Pronoun ◽  
Bantu Languages ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Class 1 ◽  
Opening Paragraph

Opening ParagraphThose Bantu languages which show the greatest number of correspondences in their concord systems have three kinds of prefixes:1. Nominal prefixes, with m- in classes 1, 3, 4 and 6; they are used in nouns, locatives (as pre-prefixes), and adjectives.2. Pronominal prefixes, usually without m- in classes 1, 3, 4, 6 and without forms for 1st and 2nd person (except in the personal pronoun); they appear in all other concording words except principal (i.e. non-relative) verb forms.3. Verbal prefixes, usually without m- in classes 1, 3, 4, 6, with forms for 1st and 2nd person, and often with a special form in class 1 (e.g. a- as opposed to the pronominal prefix u- or yu-); they obtain as subject-prefixes in the principal verb forms.

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