A review of the book, An Introduction to African Languages, is available at http://linguistlist.org/issues/15/15-2513.html . Excerpts below. The announcement of the book's publication was posted on AfricanLanguages last February (message 174).
Don Osborn Bisharat.net Date: Thu, 9 Sep 2004 18:24:53 -0400 (EDT) From: Pius Tamanji <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: An Introduction to African Languages AUTHOR: Childs, Tucker G. TITLE: An Introduction to African Languages YEAR: 2004 PUBLISHER: John Benjamins Announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/15/15-313.html Pius N. Tamanji, African Studies Centre, University of Cologne and Department of African languages and Linguistics, University of Yaounde I, Cameroon. An Introduction to African Languages is an introductory book in which the author introduces the reader to some of the fascination and controversy involved in African linguistics. The book handles the major sub-domains of the study of African languages and for each domain, the author enters the fray and introduces the reader to a variety of features of African languages from the simple and common to the unusual, complex, typologically distinctive and/or widespread linguistic phenomena on the African continent. The author usually does not enter into much detail. He provides an overview of the relevant phenomenon and presents a subset of what is out there to be uncovered. Given this orientation, the book might therefore not be very useful to researchers in search of in-depth discussions on particular aspects of African languages. It rather serves as a starting point introducing the simplicity versus complexity of the phenomena and leading the reader to primary sources and to the (family of) languages that exhibit the phenomenon in question. Researchers such as language typologists will find the book very useful in tracking down primary sources and to students and teachers; the book could also serve as a valuable reference for a field methods course. [ . . . ] Overall, the book is excellently structured, clearly written and reader oriented. The author does a great job in pointing out the wealth of issues that characterise the study of African languages. However, although it is clear from the general orientation of the book that the discussions only give an overview of each phenomenon, the reader cannot help feeling frustrated at the lack of depth in the discussion of the issues. This lack of depth is however compensated for by the wide range of references and languages from which illustrations are drawn. Linguists will find this valuable in tracking down primary sources and in keeping their research focused. The absence of strongly biased theoretical approaches to language study and the presence of many examples make the book suitable for non-linguists as well. [ . . . ] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free! http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSIIAA/yQLSAA/TpIolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AfricanLanguages/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
