The Sierra Leone Language Review is the African Language Journal of Fourah Bay College, the University College of Sierra Leone. The Journal is devoted to the detailed study of languages in Sierra Leone and neighbouring areas of West Africa, and also to the more general study and discussion of African languages and language-problems.

Wm. E. Welmers surveys a wide range of structural characteristics, both phonological and grammatical, of the languages of sub-Saharan Africa. Drawing on thirty years of experience in the analysis and teaching of African languages, and on work done on some seventy spoken languages, Welmers has organized the volume by linguistic topic. Thus there are extensive discussions of tonal systems in languages from all over sub-Saharan Africa, of noun classes and concord in the Bantu and other Niger-Kordofanian languages, and of the varieties of verbal constructions found in representative languages. African Language Structures emphasizes the organization of language data rather than the technicalities of theoretical linguistics. The material is presented in such a way that students working on the analysis of other languages can be guided in their procedures; Welmers suggests not only what types of structures may be expected, but also how they may be discovered and described. This work is unique in the depth of its linguistic insight over the entire spectrum of language structure and in the breadth of its language coverage. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1973.

This book developed out of a survey course on African languages that Uriel Weinreich invited the author to teach at Columbia University. The focus of the course changed considerably in the years that the author taught the course (1964-1968), in large part to accommodate the interests of many students without a background in linguistics but registered for the course. The one thing African languages have in common, setting them off from all the other languages in the world, is the fact that they are spoken in Africa.

Africa’s diversity is best illustrated linguistically. Thousands of endogenous and exogenous languages are linked to and central to the identity and reality of Africans. Language is a vital lens for analyzing these multifaceted challenges in Africa, where a deeper understanding of the entire linguistic landscape is germane to understanding sociopolitical and cultural systems. Concentrating on instrumental and emblematic functions of language in Africa, Language, Society, and Empowerment in Africa and Its Diaspora argues for the critical value of African languages beyond functionality into philosophical consideration of their importance for African unity and advancement. Akinloyè Òjó calls for the development and empowerment of African languages to serve in various domains, including the support of basic literacy and daily survival of their users. Òjó propagates ways to empower African languages for African sociocultural and economic development in the twenty-first century. The author productively engages works by linguists and language pedagogues to provide an ardent case for the empowerment of African languages in the renewed era of globalization, the internet, and an emergent Global Africa. Òjó posits and accentuates some of the notable modalities for empowering African languages in specialized domains for national and continental development.

This book outlines how African language media is affected by politics, technology, culture, and the economy and how this media is creatively produced and appropriated by audiences across cultures and contexts. African language media can be considered as a tool for communication, socialization, and community that defines the various identities of indigenous people in Africa. This book shows how vernacular media outlets including radio and television, as well as native formats such as festivals, rituals and dance, can be used to influence all facets of local peoples’ experience and understanding of community. The book also explores the relationship between African language media sources and contemporary issues including the digitalization conundrum, peace and conflict resolution, identity formation, hate speech and fake news. Furthermore, it shows how local media can be used for development communication purposes during health and environmental crises. The book includes cases studies demonstrating the uses, experiences and activities related to various forms of media available in African languages. This book will be of interest to scholars in the field of communication and media studies, health and environmental communication, journalism, African studies and anthropology.

This edited volume considers why the African language press is unstable and what can be done to develop quality African language journalism into a sustainable business. Providing an overview of the African language journalism landscape, this book examines the challenges of operating sustainable African language media businesses. The chapters explore the political economy and management of African language media and consider case studies of the successes and failures of African language newspapers, as well as the challenges of developing quality journalism. Covering print and digital newspapers and broadcast journalism, this book will be of interest to scholars of media and journalism in Africa.

While some academic attention has been paid to the impact of new digital technologies on African media in the colonial languages of English, French and Portuguese, there is a dearth of research into African language digital communication. This book analyses the online presence of African language media. The chapters in the book focus on the speed, structure, content, navigation and interactivity, operations and performance, and audience of the online media. They also pay particular attention to how social media such as Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp have been appropriated by African language media. Using a wide range of case studies, the contributors assess the challenges of adopting digital technologies by the media, and how the technologies have impacted journalistic practice and media operations. Examining the ability of the African language press to adopt new technologies, this book will be of interest to scholars of media, journalism, communication, social media and culture in Africa.

Language Contact in Africa and the African Diaspora in the Americas brings together the original research of nineteen leading scholars on language contact and pidgin/creole genesis. In recent decades, increasing attention has been paid to the role of historical, cultural and demographic factors in language contact situations. John Victor Singler’s body of work, a model of what such a research paradigm should look like, strikes a careful balance between sociohistorical and linguistic analysis. The case studies in this volume present investigations into the sociohistorical matrix of language contact and critical insights into the sociolinguistic consequences of language contact within Africa and the African Diaspora. Additionally, they contribute to ongoing debates about pidgin/creole genesis and language contact by examining and comparing analyses and linguistic outcomes of particular sociohistorical and cultural contexts, and considering less-studied factors such as speaker agency and identity in the emergence, nativization, and stabilization of contact varieties.

Language in South Africa (LiSA) debates the role of language and language planning in the reconstruction, development and transformation of post-apartheid democratic South Africa. The 1996 constitution of South Africa is founded on the political philosophy of pluralism and is directed at promoting democratic values, equity and non-discrimination, human rights, national unity and the development of all the country’s communities. The question asked in LiSA is how language planning can contribute towards the attainment of these national ideals. Set against the language political realities of the country — the a-symmetric power relations between the languages; the striking differences in the structural; functional and symbolic adaptation of the official languages; and the many language-related problems in the country — it debates the role of language in state administration, national integration, educational development and economic development. The volume concludes with a discussion of language development and language management.