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This book examines the development of the Arabic novel in post-independence Algeria. It focuses on novels by Tahar Wattar, Abdelhamid Benhadouga, and Rachid Boudjedra, between 1972 and 1988, considering the possibilities for critical expression within the state, which emerged from colonial rule and anti-colonial struggle. When I first read al-Tahir Wattar's novels, The Earthquake and A Mule's Wedding, in the 1980s, I realised that this was a unique voice in the Arabic language. Although these were primarily allegorical novels with a deep vein of satire, they gave me what I felt to be an insight into Algerian society and psychology which was not apparent in books of social and political analysis. They were also unique in what seemed to an Eastern Arab to be an eccentric and ironic use of language. I was, therefore, excited when subsequently meeting Debbie Cox and learning that she was writing a thesis on Wattar among other Algerian writers in Arabic. Eventually I read this thesis carefully as External Examiner, and had the pleasure of discussing it with the author as well as an eminent and erudite French colleague, Jean-Claude Vatin, at the viva.The thesis was a brilliant success, and so is the book. This book regales the reader with analyses and insights into Algerian culture, politics and society in the recent history of that country. But its implications go further than Algeria: it illustrates the dilemma of Arab leftist intellectuals in relation to the post-colonial state appropriating the national project and itself colonizing all aspects of culture and society. Critiques of corruption and tyranny are tempered by regard for that national project which the state had appropriated. The authoritarianism and pomposity of the state discourse can be subverted and satirized only so far, without being open to accusations of complicity in reaction, and threatened with suppression and banishment. And when the state gives up its socialism and associated rhetoric, the leftist intellectual is left exposed and isolated, with dented credibility. This is precisely the complex that facilitated the success of the Islamic critique, seemingly uncontaminated by the state discourse, whether of socialism or of capitalist 'opening'. The Algerian situation is complicated by the language issue, which is central to this book.Arabic and Arabization are symbolic issues of ideological and political contestation. As the book shows, the association of Arabic with conservative and religious discourses makes its adoption as the medium of writing by leftist and modernist, even experimental, writers problematic: they miss their natural audience who are predominantly Francophone, and face special problems of writing for an Ar ... Read more

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The book represents the results of a synchronic and diachronic cross-African survey of quotative indexes. These are linguistic expressions that signal in the ongoing discourse the presence of a quote (often called ""direct reported speech""). For this purpose, 39 African languages were selected to represent the genealogical and geographical diversity of the continent. The study is based primarily on this language sample, in particular on the analysis of quotative indexes and related expressions from a text corpus of each sample language, but also includes a wide range of data from the published literature on other African as well as non- African languages. It is the first typological investigation of direct reported discourse of this magnitude in a large group of languages. The book may thus serve as a starting point of similar studies in other geographical areas or even with a global scope, as well as stimulate more detailed investigations of particular languages. The results of the African survey challenge several prevailing cross-linguistic generalizations regarding quotative indexes and reported discourse constructions as a whole, of which two are of particular interest. In the syntactic domain, where reported discourse has mostly been dealt with under so- called sentential complementation, the study supports the minority view that direct reported discourse and also a large portion of indirect reported discourse show hardly any evidence for the claim that the reported clause is a syntactic object complement of some matrix verb. With respect to grammaticalization, the work concludes that speech verbs are, against common belief, not a frequent source of quotatives, complementizers, and other related markers. Far more frequent sources are markers of similarity and manner; generic verbs of equation, inchoativity, and action; and pronominals referring to the quote or th ... Read more

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Over the last two decades, focus has become a prominent topic in major fields in linguistic research (syntax, semantics, phonology). Focus Strategies in African Languages contributes to the ongoing discussion of focus by investigating focus-related phenomena in a range of African languages, most of which have been under-represented in the theoretical literature on focus. The articles in the volume look at focus strategies in Niger-Congo and Afro-Asiatic languages from several theoretical and methodological perspectives, ranging from detailed generative analysis to careful typological generalization across languages. Their common aim is to deepen our understanding of whether and how the information-structural category of focus is represented and marked in natural language. Topics investigated are, among others, the relation of focus and prosody, the effects of information structure on word order, ex situ versus in situ strategies of focus marking, the inventory of focus marking devices, focus and related constructions, focus-sensitive particles. The present inquiry into the focus systems of African languages has repercussions on existing theories of focus. It reveals new focus strategies as well as fine-tuned focus distinctions that are not discussed in the theoretical literature, which is almost exclusively based on well-documented intonation languages. ... Read more

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When it was first published in 1968, this monograph was among the most important contributions to the area of phonetic research in Africa since the publication of Westermann and Ward's Practical Phonetics for Students of African Languages in 1933. Drawing from a sample of sixty-one West African languages, Dr Ladefoged offers a description of the phonetic elements that cause differences in lexical and grammatical meaning. In particular, he focuses on unusual sounds, highlighting their linguistic function and providing a detailed account of their application in the languages concerned. Supplementing Dr Ladefoged's analyses are a number of helpful diagrams and illustrations as well as two appendices and a bibliography. ... Read more

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This provocative volume investigates the origins of contemporary African American Vernacular English (AAVE), one of the oldest, yet unsolved, questions in sociolinguistics.

Exploring the hypothesis that contemporary AAVE is a direct descendant of colonial British English rather than of a widespread Creole precursor, this volume presents a comprehensive analysis of tense and aspect as manifested in recorded conversations with 101 former slaves and their descendants. The study is staged in three distinct "diaspora" enclaves in Canada and the Caribbean, whose language has evolved independently of AAVE, modern Creoles and neighboring speech varieties.

Advanced quantitative methodology, combined with linguistically precise analyses of English dialects in historical context, make this an essential text for researchers and students of linguistics, the history of English and African American Studies. ... Read more

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Globalisation and African Languages intends to link African language studies to the concept of 'globalisation'. However, even in the linguistic sense often conflicting and overlapping particularistic interests exist which have a constructive as well as destructive potential. Hence, the contributions to this volume by well-known linguists aim at portraying different aspects/areas of research, i.e. (a) Language Use And Attitudes, addressing some of the burning issues in sociolinguistic research; (b) Language Policy And Education, investigating the educational domain, and (c) Language Description And Classification demonstrating which parts of different language systems are affected through contact under historical and modern conditions. ... Read more