Most African languages are spoken by communities as one of several languages present on a daily basis. The persistence of multilingualism and the linguistic creativity manifest in the playful use of different languages are striking, especially against the backdrop of language death and expanding monolingualism elsewhere in the world. The effortless mastery of several languages is disturbing, however, for those who take essentialist perspectives that see it as a problem rather than a resource, and for the dominating, conflictual, sociolinguistic model of multilingualism. This volume investigates African minority languages in the context of changing patterns of multilingualism, and also assesses the status of African languages in terms of existing influential vitality scales. An important aspect of multilingual praxis is the speakers' agency in making choices, their repertoires of registers and the multiplicity of language ideology associated with different ways of speaking. The volume represents a new and original contribution to the ethnography of speaking of multilingual practices and the cultural ideas associated with them.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
1;Preface;7 2;List of Tables, Maps and Figures;15 3;List of Languages;21 4;List of figures with cited and archived web pages;19 5;Copyrights for reproduced photographs;19 6;Abbreviations;27 7;Introduction;29 7.1;1 What this book is about;29 7.2;2 Structure of the book;38 8;1 Multilingualism on the ground;41 8.1;1.1 Societal multilingualism in Senegal;42 8.2;1.2 Individual repertoires: six case studies;50 8.2.1;1.2.1 Localist identities for moving targets;50 8.2.2;1.2.2 Purposeful alienation: the ethnolinguistic chameleon;52 8.2.3;1.2.3 The rhetorical return to lost roots;56 8.2.4;1.2.4 A return to what roots?;57 8.2.5;1.2.5 I am what I speak?;59 8.2.6;1.2.6 Well, Im not what I speak;60 8.3;1.3 Societal practices nurturing multilingualism;61 8.3.1;1.3.1 Exogynous marriage patterns and movement of daughters;62 8.3.2;1.3.2 Language acquisition in peer groups and age classes;64 8.3.3;1.3.3 Fostering;67 8.3.4;1.3.4 Professional, ritual and crisis mobility and migration;69 8.3.5;1.3.5 Joking relationships;73 8.4;1.4 Written languages and the interaction of written and spoken repertoires;76 8.4.1;1.4.1 The ecology of writing in Senegal;77 8.4.2;1.4.2 The making of guilty illiterates;82 8.4.3;1.4.3 African writing: what scope, which languages and scripts?;89 8.4.3.1;1.4.3.1 Grapho- and eurocentric ideologies and restricted literacies;89 8.4.3.2;1.4.3.2 Some literacies are more visible than others;91 8.4.3.3;1.4.3.3 Ajami literacies;93 8.4.3.4;1.4.3.4 The Geez script;98 8.4.3.5;1.4.3.5 The Bamun syllabary;99 8.4.3.6;1.4.3.6 Nko;100 8.4.3.7;1.4.3.7 The Tifinagh script;101 8.4.3.8;1.4.3.8 The Vai syllabary;103 8.5;1.5 For an integrated view of spoken and written multilingual and multiscriptal practices;103 9;2 Doing things with words;105 9.1;2.1 Some symbolic dimensions of language;107 9.2;2.2 A complete language;114 9.3;2.3 Speech registers;117 9.3.1;2.3.1 Play languages;119 9.3.2;2.3.2 Youth languages;122 9.3.3;2.3.3 Respect languages and other examples of paralexification;1
25 9.3.4;2.3.4 Special purpose languages;132 9.3.5;2.3.5 Avoidance languages;134 9.3.6;2.3.6 Ritual languages;137 9.3.7;2.3.7 Spirit languages;144 9.4;2.4 What we can learn from users of speech registers;148 10;3 Language and ideology;151 10.1;3.1 Language and power;153 10.1.1;3.1.1 Missionary activities and literacy development efforts;156 10.1.2;3.1.2 Power relationships;161 10.1.3;3.1.3 Conflicting language ideologies;162 10.2;3.2 Reducing diversity and creating standards;164 10.3;3.3 Constructing linguistic deficits and reacting to language obsolescence;169 10.3.1;3.3.1 Lack of words, abundance of sounds;170 10.3.2;3.3.2 The visible and the invisible;179 10.4;3.4 Remaining who we are: local theories and concepts of translation;183 10.4.1;3.4.1 Socio-historical background;184 10.4.2;3.4.2 Foreign text in womens tales;186 10.4.3;3.4.3 Translating silence;188 10.5;3.5 Ways of making history;190 10.5.1;3.5.1 Eastern origins;192 10.5.2;3.5.2 Hone interpretations of Kisra traditions;195 10.5.3;3.5.3 Spirits of the past;200 10.5.4;3.5.4 Where people think (and dont think) they come from;202 10.6;3.6 Ideologies, semiotics and multilingualism;203 11;4 Language and knowledge;209 11.1;4.1 Creation of knowledge;209 11.1.1;4.1.1 The invention of tradition;209 11.1.2;4.1.2 The view from within;224 11.1.3;4.1.3 Essentialization vs. inclusion;234 11.2;4.2 Invention of evolution: colonial encounters;236 11.2.1;4.2.1 Why collect, count and classify African languages?;238 11.2.2;4.2.2 Linguistics as science, and language as evolution;239 11.2.3;4.2.3 The origin of data;242 11.2.4;4.2.4 Borders based on typology: noun class ideologies;247 11.3;4.3 Epistemes and the expression of knowledge;251 11.3.1;4.3.1 Terminologies;252 11.3.2;4.3.2 Categories and the power of tradition;257 11.3.3;4.3.3 Emic and etic perspectives: Baïnounk noun classes;261 11.4;4.4 The language of knowledge;272 11.4.1;4.4.1 Evidentials and perception;273 11.4.2;4.4.2 When knowledge systems converge: Atlantic nou
n classes again;281 11.5;4.5 Endangered knowledge;285 12;5 Language dynamics;295 12.1;5.1 A glance at linguistic diversity;295 12.2;5.2 Africa in the context of global endangerment discourses;296 12.2.1;5.2.1 African languages as the marginalized among the marginalized;296 12.2.2;5.2.2 Inapplicable global endangerment criteria;298 12.2.3;5.2.3 Ignoring multilingualism and real language dynamics;303 12.3;5.3 Linguistic rhetoric surrounding endangered languages;307 12.3.1;5.3.1 The misleading equation of rare with small or endangered;307 12.3.2;5.3.2 Sociohistorical versus biologistic reasoning surrounding endangered languages;311 12.4;5.4 Where and why African languages are vital or dying;319 12.4.1;5.4.1 Language death in the literal sense;319 12.4.2;5.4.2 Languages and climate change;321 12.4.3;5.4.3 Languages and civil unrest;326 12.4.4;5.4.4 Urbanization;329 12.5;5.5 Africa-specific vitality and endangerment criteria;335 12.5.1;5.5.1 The existence of communities of practice and social networks for language socialization in a given language ecology;336 12.5.2;5.5.2 A home base providing the opportunities for maintaining and creating communities of practice and social networks in a given language ecology;337 12.5.3;5.5.3 Socioeconomic and political stability in the language ecology in question;337 12.5.4;5.5.4 Attitudes by speakers and non-speakers to the language ecology;338 12.5.5;5.5.5 The reification of languages in the ecology as named languages and their authentication as fully-fledged languages;339 12.6;5.6 Responses to language endangerment and marginalization in Africa;340 12.6.1;5.6.1 Overcoming colonial language policies?;340 12.6.2;5.6.2 Continuing imbalanced power relationships;341 12.6.3;5.6.3 The mimesis of mimesis: mimetic excess;343 12.6.4;5.6.4 Outsiders as the owners of African languages;350 12.6.5;5.6.5 Linguists as failing to inform discourses of endangerment;351 12.7;5.7 Language as a thing versus language as flexible social practice;355 12.8;
5.8 Consequences for the relationships of documentation with maintenance and revitalization;360 12.9;5.9 Revitalization in the future;367 13;6 Not languages: repertoires as lived and living experience;373 13.1;6.1 Lessons from Africa;373 13.2;6.2 Changing our metaphors;375 13.3;6.3 The promise of a different approach;377 13.4;6.4 On the way, obstacles;379 13.4.1;6.4.1 Hegemonic northern discourses;379 13.4.2;6.4.2 The canon of descriptive linguistics: power relations in a small field;379 13.4.3;6.4.3 Researchers and communities as generic pawns on a competitive playing field;380 13.5;6.5 Finally, a vision;381 13.5.1;6.5.1 First of all: more time and freedom;382 13.5.2;6.5.2 Then: the notion of quality;382 13.5.3;6.5.3 The result: open-ended collaborative projects;383 13.6;6.6 Paradigms as they shift and shuffle;384 13.6.1;6.6.1 African languages as agency - awake or sleeping;384 13.6.2;6.6.2 The tangible realm of language;386 14;References;388 15;Language Index;419 16;Subject Index;422 17;Author Index;427
