The Languages of Africa

The Languages of Africa is a seminal 1963 book of essays by Joseph Greenberg, in which he sets forth a genetic classification of African languages that, with some changes, continues to be the most commonly used one today. It is an expanded and extensively revised version of his 1955 work Studies in African Linguistic Classification, which was itself a compilation of eight articles which Greenberg had published in the Southwestern Journal of Anthropology between 1949 and 1954. It was first published in 1963 as Part II of the International Journal of American Linguistics, Vol. 29, No. 1; however, its second edition of 1966, in which it was published (by Indiana University, Bloomington: Mouton & Co., The Hague) as an independent work, is more commonly cited.

Related Topics:
1963 - Joseph Greenberg - African languages - Indiana University

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Its author describes it as based on three fundamentals of method:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• "The sole relevance in comparison of resemblances involving both sound and meaning in specific forms."
• "Mass comparison as against isolated comparisons between pairs of languages."
• "Only linguistic evidence is relevant in drawing conclusions about classification."

The second point, mass comparison, is controversial in historical linguistics, particularly as practiced by Greenberg. The third is completely uncontroversial in modern times, and is directed against previous African linguists (notably Meinhof) who had classified languages on typological and even racial grounds.

Related Topics:
Historical linguistics - Meinhof - Typological - Racial

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 
The Languages of Africa: Novelties ►