LINGUIST List 12.3173

Sat Dec 22 2001

Books: African Linguistics

Editor for this issue: Karen Milligan <karenlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. LINCOM EUROPA, African Linguistics
2. LINCOM EUROPA, African Linguistics

Bata phonology: a reappraisal
RAYMOND BOYD (ed.)
LACITO, CNRS

This study deals with the phonology of a Nigerian (Adamawa State)
Central Chadic language, Bata, of which another dialect is known as
"Bachama". In recent years, studies of Central and Eastern Chadic
languages have revealed that, in many cases, the vowel system may be
conceived as founded on phonological contrasts of height and length
alone. Phonetic frontness and backness are attributable to the influence
of separate, neighboring palatal and labial features. Other languages in
the same branches seem, however, to have vowel systems which have
incorporated front/back contrasts. The case of Bata is interesting
because, although it apparently belongs to the latter group, it might
also be analyzed as belonging to the former.
Raymond Boyd is a Charg� de Recherche with the French Centre National de
la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Unit� mixte 7594, Langage, Langues et
Cultures d'Afrique Noire (LLACAN), and has worked for the past fifteen
years on Chamba Daka and its neighbors.


ISBN 3 89586 364 5. 
Languages of the World 27.
60pp. USD 32 / EUR 29/ � 20. 


New: A Students' and course discount of 40% is offered to the above
title. 

Ordering information for individuals: Please give us your creditcard
no. / expiry date. Prices in this information include shipment
worldwide by airmail. A standing order for this series is available
with special discounts offered to individual subscribers.

NEW: LINCOM electronic n.e.w.s.l.e.t.t.e.r. Monthly up-dates. 
Go to http://www.lincom-europa.com


Free copies of LINCOM'S newsflashes 26 & 27 are now available from 
LINCOM.EUROPAt-online.de.

LINCOM EUROPA, Freibadstr. 3, D-81543 Muenchen, Germany;
FAX +49 89 62269404.

The Source of Degema Clitics 

 Ethelbert E. Kari 
 Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Japan 
 (ILCAA) 

The source of Degema clitics has not been given any attention. The
popular view about the source of clitics in human language is that they
developed from free lexical items, or from syntactic categories that
must appear without accent in various languages, and may become affixes
at a later stage (Zwicky 1977, Hopper and Traugott 1993, Bybee 1985,
Spencer 1991, among others). In this study, we will look critically at
these views that do not seem to account for the source of clitics in
Degema, and establish the source of Degema clitics from
language-internal and language-external pieces of evidence. This work
is divided into seven sections. Section 1 provides some background
information that is necessary for the discussion on clitics in Degema;
section 2 considers some general views about the source of clitics; in
section 3 we make some assumptions about the source of Degema clitics;
in section 4 we attempt to establish the source of Degema clitics from
language external facts; we examine deaffixation in other languages in
section 5; a modification of Hopper and Traugott's unidirectional cline
is proposed in section 6, we conclude the work in section 7.

 ISBN 3 89586 451 X 
 Languages of the World 25. 
 60pp. USD 23 / EUR 25 / � 18.

New: A Students' and course discount of 40% is offered to the above
title. 

Ordering information for individuals: Please give us your creditcard
no. / expiry date. Prices in this information include shipment
worldwide by airmail. A standing order for this series is available
with special discounts offered to individual subscribers.

NEW: LINCOM electronic n.e.w.s.l.e.t.t.e.r. Monthly up-dates. 
Go to http://www.lincom-europa.com


Free copies of LINCOM'S newsflashes 26 & 27 are now available from 
LINCOM.EUROPAt-online.de.

LINCOM EUROPA, Freibadstr. 3, D-81543 Muenchen, Germany;
FAX +49 89 62269404.