Afroasiatic languages are spoken by some 300 million people in Northern, Central and Eastern Africa and the Middle East. This book is the first typological study of these languages, which are comprised of around 375 living and extinct varieties. They are an important object of study because of their typological diversity in the areas of phonology (some have tone; others do not), morphology (some have extensive inflectional systems; others do not), position of the verb in the clause (some are verb-initial, some are verb-medial, and some are verb-final) and in the semantic functions they encode. This book documents this typological diversity and the typological similarities across the languages and includes information on endangered and little-known languages. Requiring no previous knowledge of the specific language families, it will be welcomed by linguists interested in linguistic theory, typology, historical linguistics and endangered languages, as well as scholars of Africa and the Middle East.

This volume presents new findings based on the analysis of spoken corpora in thirteen different Afro-Asiatic languages – a unique endeavor in the domain of lesser-described languages. It will be of interest to corpus linguists, general linguists, typologists, and linguists specializing in Afro-Asiatic languages. In addition to the rarity of corpus studies based on endangered and lesser-described languages, the volume is remarkable due to its focus on the role of prosody in interaction with several other phenomena, including code-switching and borrowing. Phonology, syntax, and information structure are explored, and the issue of the elaboration of strategies for the typological comparison of corpora is addressed in several papers. The volume also contains a presentation of software development conducted within the scope of the CorpAfroAs project and based upon the widely used ELAN. The sound-indexed, and morphosyntactically-annotated corpora, with their OLAC metadata and several other deliverables can be accessed and searched at http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/scl.68.website.

This volume presents the key examples of morphological correspondences between Indo-European and Semitic languages, afforded by nouns, verbal roots, pronouns, prepositions, and numerals. Its focus is on shared morphology embodied in the cognate vocabulary. The facts that are brought out in this volume do not fit comfortably within either the Indo-Europeanists’ or the Semitists’ conception of the prehistoric development of their languages. Nonetheless they are so fundamental that many would take them for evidence of a single original source, ‘Proto-Nostratic’. In this book, however, it is considered unsettled whether proto-IE and proto-Semitic had a common forerunner. But the IE-Semitic combinations testify at least to prehistoric language communities in truly intimate contact.

This work provides the first truly comprehensive and systematic reconstruction of proto-Afroasiatic (proto-Afrasian). It rigorously applies, throughout, the established canon and techniques of the historical-comparative method. It also fully incorporates the most up-to-date evidence from the distinctive African branches of the family, Cushitic, Chadic, and Omotic. Using concrete and specific evidence and argument, the author proposes full vowel and consonant reconstructions and a provisional reckoning of tone. Each aspect of these reconstructions is substantiated in detail in an extensive etymological vocabulary of more than 1000 roots. The results, while confirming some previous views on proto-Afroasiatic (proto-Afrasian), revise or overturn many others, and add much that is new.

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.

In 1997, Eisenbrauns published the highly-regarded two-volume Phonologies of Asia and Africa, edited by Alan Kaye with the assistance of Peter T. Daniels, and the book rapidly became the standard reference for the phonologies of the Afro-Asiatic languages. Now the concept has been extended, and Kaye has assembled nearly 50 scholars to write essays on the morphologies of the same language group. The coverage is complete, copious, and again will likely become the standard work in the field. Contributors are an international Who’s Who of Afro-Asiatic linguistics, from Appleyard to Leslau to Voigt. It is with great sadness that we report the death of Alan Kaye on May 31, 2007, while these volumes were in the final stages of preparation for the press. Alan was diagnosed with bone cancer on May 1 while on research leave in the United Arab Emirates and was brought home to Fullerton by his son on May 22.

Somali is spoken by more than nine million people in the Horn of Africa and by expatriate communities in the Middle East, Europe and North America. It is the official language of Somalia and an important regional language in Ethiopia and Kenya. As a Cushitic language Somali is part of the great Afroasiatic language family whose other branches include Semitic, Berber, Chadic and Ancient Egyptian. This book provides a comprehensive description of the grammar of the language that will be of interest to non-specialists and linguists interested in typology and language comparison. The author’s accessible investigation of the phonology, morphology, syntax and discourse structure allows the reader a clear view of the linguistic character of Somali and, through Somali, of a Cushitic language. A further important feature of the book is its use of authentic data from a range of sources, including prose, poetry and proverbs.

This book is an introduction to African languages and linguistics, covering typology, structure and sociolinguistics. The twelve chapters are written by a team of fifteen eminent Africanists, and their topics include the four major language groupings (Niger-Congo, Nilo-Saharan, Afroasiatic and Khoisan), the core areas of modern theoretical linguistics (phonology, morphology, syntax), typology, sociolinguistics, comparative linguistics, and language, history and society. Basic concepts and terminology are explained for undergraduates and non-specialist readers, but each chapter also provides an overview of the state of the art in its field, and as such will be referred to also by more advanced students and general linguists. The book brings this range of material together in accessible form for anyone wishing to learn more about this challenging and fascinating field.

The present volume deals with hitherto unexplored issues on the interaction of morphology and syntax. These selected and invited papers mainly concern Cushitic and Chadic languages, the least-described members of the Afroasiatic family. Three papers in the volume explore one or more typological characteristics across an entire language family or branch, while others focus on one or two languages within a family and the implications of their structures for the family, the phylum, or linguistic typology as a whole. The diversity of topics addressed within the present volume reflects the great diversity of language structures and functions within the Afroasiatic phylum.

Essays by Carleton Hodge on Semitics, Egyptian, Afroasiatic, Chadic, and Indo-European languages; edited by Drs. Scott Noegel and Alan S. Kaye, who have added a brief explanatory introduction to each.