Academic Paper |
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| Title: | A Grammar of Digo (a Bantu language of Kenya and Tanzania) |
| Author: | Steve Nicolle |
| Email: | click here to access email |
| Institution: | Africa International University |
| Linguistic Field: | Language Documentation |
| Subject Language: |
Digo
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| Abstract: |
Digo, or Chidigo (Ethnologue code [dig]), is a Bantu language spoken in the coastal region of Kenya and Tanzania, and is classified as E73 (Maho 2003).
The emphasis in this grammar of Digo is on the structure of words, clauses, and larger units of language, and on the meanings and functions of these segments. Phonology and tonology are dealt with only briefly. As far as possible, all examples are taken from collected texts. This emphasis on the use of the language in context means that special attention is paid to features of the language that have significant textual functions. For example, Digo has a large number of demonstrative forms which play an important role in distinguishing major and minor participants, indicating the start of the main event line, maintaining continuity across episode boundaries, etc. Because of this, the description of Digo demonstratives runs to over thirty pages, whereas many grammars of Bantu languages deal with demonstratives in just a few paragraphs. Similarly, a complete chapter is devoted to describing the forms and functions of markers of tense, aspect, and movement. The final two chapters describe clause structure, including information structure, and non-verbal predicates. Because of the importance attached to the use of language in context, this volume includes an appendix containing two narrative texts, one hortatory text, and one expository text. The large number of Bantu languages and the many similarities that they share make the Bantu language sub-family a fruitful field of study for comparative linguistics. In light of this, common features such as the noun class system and verbal morphology have not been neglected. To aid comparative research I have also included as appendices the 1,700-item SIL Comparative African Wordlist (plus 113 botanical terms) and a discussion of the relation of Digo to Swahili (the language of wider communication spoken in the Digo area). |
| Type: | Collection |
| Status: | In Progress |
| Publication Info: | Dallas: SIL International |
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