Download or read book Language Repertoires and State Construction in Africa written by David D. Laitin and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1992-04-24 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most African countries have a population composed of a multitude of language groups and most African citizens have a varied repertoire. David Laitin addresses the problem of language planning in Africa and the role of language politics in the process of state formation.
Download or read book African Languages Development and the State written by Richard Fardon and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2002-11-01 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This shows that multilingusim does not pose for Africans the problems of communication that Europeans imagine and that the mismatch between policy statements and their pragmatic outcomes is a far more serious problem for future development
Download or read book State Building and Multilingual Education in Africa written by Ericka A. Albaugh and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014-04-24 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do governments in Africa make decisions about language? What does language have to do with state-building, and what impact might it have on democracy? This manuscript provides a longue durée explanation for policies toward language in Africa, taking the reader through colonial, independence, and contemporary periods. It explains the growing trend toward the use of multiple languages in education as a result of new opportunities and incentives. The opportunities incorporate ideational relationships with former colonizers as well as the work of language NGOs on the ground. The incentives relate to the current requirements of democratic institutions, and the strategies leaders devise to win elections within these constraints. By contrasting the environment faced by African leaders with that faced by European state-builders, it explains the weakness of education and limited spread of standard languages on the continent. The work combines constructivist understanding about changing preferences with realist insights about the strategies leaders employ to maintain power.
Download or read book The Languages and Linguistics of Africa written by Tom Güldemann and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2018-09-10 with total page 1085 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This innovative handbook takes a fresh look at the currently underestimated linguistic diversity of Africa, the continent with the largest number of languages in the world. It covers the major domains of linguistics, offering both a representative picture of Africa’s linguistic landscape as well as new and at times unconventional perspectives. The focus is not so much on exhaustiveness as on the fruitful relationship between African and general linguistics and the contributions the two domains can make to each other. This volume is thus intended for readers with a specific interest in African languages and also for students and scholars within the greater discipline of linguistics.
Download or read book Tracing Language Movement in Africa written by Ericka A. Albaugh and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-01-10 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The great diversity of ethnicities and languages in Africa encourages a vision of Africa as a fragmented continent, with language maps only perpetuating this vision by drawing discrete language groups. In reality, however, most people can communicate with most others within and across linguistic boundaries, even if not in languages taught or learned in schools. Many disciplines have looked carefully at language movement and change on the continent, but their lack of interaction has prevented the emergence of a cohesive picture of African languages. Tracing Language Movement in Africa gathers eighteen scholars together to offer a truly multidisciplinary representation of language in Africa, combining insights from history, archaeology, religion, linguistics, political science, and philosophy. The resulting volume illuminates commonalities and distinctions in these disciplines' understanding of language change and movement in Africa. The volume is empirical -- aiming to represent language more accurately on the continent -- as well as theoretical. It identifies the theories that each discipline uses to make sense of language movement in Africa in plain terms and highlights the themes that cut across all disciplines: how scholars use data, understand boundaries, represent change, and conceptualize power. The volume is organized to reflect differing conceptions of language that arise from its discipline-specific contributions: that is, tendencies to study changes that consolidate language or those that splinter it, viewing languages as whole or in part. Each contribution includes a short explanation of a discipline's theoretical and methodological approaches to language movement and change to ensure that the chapters are accessible to non-specialists, followed by an illustrative empirical case study. This volume will inspire multidisciplinary conversations around the study of language change in Africa, opening new interdisciplinary dialogue and spurring scholars to adapt the questions, data, and method of other disciplines to the problems that animate their own fields.
Download or read book Language and National Identity in Africa written by Andrew Simpson and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2008-02-07 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book focuses on language, culture, and national identity in Africa. Leading specialists examine countries in every part of the continent - Egypt, Morocco, Sudan, Senegal, Mali, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Cameroon, Congo, Kenya, Tanzania, Zanbia, South Africa, and the nations of the Horn, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, and Somalia. Each chapter describes and examines the country's linguistic and political history and the relation of its languages to national, ethnic, and cultural identities, and assesses the relative status of majority and minority languages and the role of language in ethnic conflict. Of the book's authors, fifteen are from Africa and seven from Europe and the USA. Jargon-free, fully referenced, and illustrated with seventeen maps, this book will be of value to a wide range of readers in linguistics, politics, history, sociology, and anthropology. It will interest everyone wishing to understand the dynamic interactions between language and politics in Africa, in the past and now.
Download or read book Language Policy and Identity Construction written by Eric A. Anchimbe and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 2013-01-01 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The (dis)empowerment of languages through language policy in multilingual postcolonial communities often shapes speakers identification with these languages, their attitude towards other languages in the community, and their choices in interpersonal and intergroup communication. Focusing on the dynamics of Cameroon s multilingualism, this book contributes to current debates on the impact of politic language policy on daily language use in sociocultural and interpersonal interactions, multiple identity construction, indigenous language teaching and empowerment, the use of Cameroon Pidgin English in certain formal institutional domains initially dominated by the official languages, and linguistic patterns of social interaction for politeness, respect, and in-group bonding. Due to the multiple perspectives adopted, the book will be of interest to sociolinguists, applied linguists, pragmaticians, Afrikanists, and scholars of postcolonial linguistics."
Download or read book Languages in Africa written by Elizabeth C. Zsiga and published by Georgetown University Press. This book was released on 2015-03-03 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: People in many African communities live within a series of concentric circles when it comes to language. In a small group, a speaker uses an often unwritten and endangered mother tongue that is rarely used in school. A national indigenous language—written, widespread, sometimes used in school—surrounds it. An international language like French or English, a vestige of colonialism, carries prestige, is used in higher education, and promises mobility—and yet it will not be well known by its users. The essays in Languages in Africa explore the layers of African multilingualism as they affect language policy and education. Through case studies ranging across the continent, the contributors consider multilingualism in the classroom as well as in domains ranging from music and film to politics and figurative language. The contributors report on the widespread devaluing and even death of indigenous languages. They also investigate how poor teacher training leads to language-related failures in education. At the same time, they demonstrate that education in a mother tongue can work, linguists can use their expertise to provoke changes in language policies, and linguistic creativity thrives in these multilingual communities.
Download or read book Language History and Linguistic Description in Africa written by Ian Maddieson and published by Africa World Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For more than a quarter of a century the Annual conference on African Linguistics (ACAL) has provided a lively forum for the confrontation of ideas on theoretical linguistics with descriptive data on African languages.
Download or read book The Sociology of Nationalism written by David McCrone and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2002-05-03 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent years nationalism has emerged as one of the dominant issues of our time. In this lucid and balanced account, David McCrone lays out the key issues and debates around a subject which is too often obscured by polemic. Among topics covered are: * classical and contemporary theories of nationalism * nationalism and ethnicity * nationalism and the nation state * colonial and post-colonial nationalisms * neo nationalism and post communist nationalism.
Download or read book Prescription and Tradition in Language written by Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade and published by Multilingual Matters. This book was released on 2016-11-14 with total page 403 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book contextualises case studies across a wide variety of languages and cultures, crystallising key interrelationships between linguistic standardisation and prescriptivism, and between ideas and practices. It focuses on different traditions of standardisation and prescription throughout the world and addresses questions such as how nationalistic idealisations of ‘traditional’ language persist (or shift) amid language change, linguistic variation and multilingualism. The volume explores issues of standardisation and the sociolinguistic phenomenon of prescription as a formative influence on the notional standard language as well as the interconnections between these in a wide range of geographical contexts. It balances the otherwise strong emphasis on English in English language publications on prescriptivism and breaks new ground with its multilingual approach across languages and nations. The book will appeal to scholars working within different linguistic traditions interested in questions relating to all aspects of standardisation and prescriptivism.
Download or read book State Ideology and Language in Tanzania written by Jan Blommaert and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2014-07-16 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tanzania is often seen as an exceptional case of successful language planning in Africa, with Swahili being spread to all corners of the country. Yet, this objective success has always been accompanied by a culture of complaints proclaiming its utter failure. State Ideology and Language in Tanzania sets out to explore this paradox through a richly documented historical, sociolinguistic and anthropological approach covering the story of Swahili from the early days of independence until today. Focusing on the ways in which Swahili was swept up in the 'Ujamaa revolution' - the transition to socialism led by president Nyerere - Jan Blommaert demonstrates how the language became an emblem not just of the Tanzanian 'cultural' nation, but above all of the 'political' nation. Using Swahili meant the acceptance of socialism, and the spread of Swahili across the country should equal the spread of Ujamaa socialism. When this did not happen, the verdict of failure was proclaimed on Swahili, which did not prevent the language from becoming one of the most widely used and dynamic languages on the continent.This book is a thoroughly revised version of the 1999 edition, which was welcomed at the time as a classic. It now extends the period of coverage to 2012 and includes an entirely new chapter on current developments, making this updated edition an essential read for students and scholars in language, linguistics and African Studies.
Download or read book Korle Meets the Sea written by Mary Esther Kropp Dakubu and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1997-02-13 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ghana has played a key role in African/Western relations since medieval times. For this reason and others, Ghana has evolved into a linguistic quilt that contains forty-four indigenous languages and several exotic ones, of which most Ghanians speak at least two. Using Accra, Ghana's capital, as a microcosm, Dakubu conducts a linguistic, historical, and ethnographic investigation of the origins and durability of this multilingualism and how it has effected Ghanaian society.
Download or read book The State of the Nation written by John A. Hall and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1998-11-26 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An exceptional set of scholars assess every aspect of the most influential theory of nationalism.
Download or read book The Ashgate Research Companion to Federalism written by Ann Ward and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-01 with total page 688 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This comprehensive research companion examines the theory, practice and historical development of the principle of federalism from the ancient period to the contemporary world. It provides a range of interpretations and integrates theoretical and practical aspects of federalism studies more fully than is usually the case. The volume identifies and examines nascent conceptions of the federal idea in ancient and medieval history and political thought before considering the roots of modern federalism in the ideas of a number of important European political theorists of the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries. The contributors focus on the development and institutionalization of the principle of federalism in the American Republic and examine the historical development and central policy debates surrounding European federalism. The final sections investigate contemporary debates about theories of federalism and regional experiences of federalism in a global context including Africa, India, Australia, the Middle East, and North and South America. The scope and range of this volume is unparalleled; it will provide the reader with a firm understanding of federalism as issues of federalism promise to play an ever more important role in shaping our world.
Download or read book Identity and Territorial Autonomy in Plural Societies written by Ramón Máiz and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-01-14 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focusing on autonomy in countries whose societies are marked by ethnic diversity, this work examines the effects of territorial solutions to the safeguarding of cultural identities. Contributors distinguish among types of autonomy and their impact on pluralism, democracy and unity of the state.
Download or read book Vernacular Palaver written by Moradewun Adejunmobi and published by Multilingual Matters. This book was released on 2004-01-01 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Adejunmobi highlights the continuing appeal of local identities for participants in social networks where communication occurs in languages that are not mother tongues. He shows how in West Africa notions of localness & locality remain important despite the growing prominence of global languages.
