Petr Zima (ed.) in cooperation with Norbert Cyffer, M.Holubová, Herrmann Jungraithmayr, Rudolf Leger, Henning Schreiber, Anne Storch, Ullrike Zoch

This volume brings the results of international research, the roots of which were already laid in the volume, published as No 47 of Lincom Studies in African Linguistics (Areal and Genetic Factors in Language Classification and Description: Africa South of the Sahara), some time ago.

More recently, a preliminary questionnaire regarding further research in the areal distribution of TAM paradigms and functions was proposed on p. 10 of the volume Sprachbund in the West African Sahel , (published in Paris by Bernard Caron and Petr Zima, Eds., 2006). Several related non-verbal criteria suggested to complement the original questionnaire were added to the list since 2007, within the framework of the currently running Czech Science Foundation Project No 405/07/0277, and discussed at an international workshop organised in cooperation with the Prague Linguistic Circle in October, 2008. Data from languages of differing genetic origins spoken West of Lake Chad, be they such sociolinguistically important languages as Kanuri, Hausa, Fula, Songhay, etc., or be they sociolinguistically minor languages from the Chadic, Mande or Niger-Congo genetic contexts, served for attempts at a theoretical generalisation.

Table of Contents

Areal Features and their Limits Petr Zima

Operator Second and its Variations in Mande Languages Thomas Bearth

The Structure of the Kanuri Verb Phrase Norbert Cyffer

Non-Verbal Predication in Kanuri - The Crux of Negation and Focus Norbert Cyffer

The Verbal Systems of Ron, Mushere and Tangale – Three Southwestern Chadic Fringe Languages Herrmann Jungraithmayr

Ngas (Angas): The Verbal System Herrmann Jungraithmayr, Miroslava Holubová

Verbal Classes in the Southern Bole-Tangale Languages Rudolf Leger

Areal Features and Language Contact: The Volta Basin as a Linguistic Convergence Area? Henning Schreiber

How to Keep Languages Apart: Chadic and Jukunoid in Contact Anne Storch

Areal Features in Northern Nigeria – Towards a Linguistic Area Georg Ziegelmeyer

The Mutual Interplay of the Hausa Verbal Categories Expressed in the SP+VC Complexes Petr Zima

Hausa in Kumasi – an Overview Ulrike Zoch