ATrA 3. Cultural and Linguistic Transition explored

CONTENTS / SOMMARIO

Micheli Ilaria

Cultural and Linguistic Transition explored. Proceedings of the ATrA closing workshop Trieste, May 25-26, 2016

Micheli Ilaria

Introduction

Howell Signe Lise

Cause: a category of the human mind? Some social consequences of Chewong (Malaysian rainforest hunter-gatherers) ontological understanding

Micheli Ilaria

Women's lives: childhood, adolescence, marriage and motherhood among the Ogiek of Mariashoni (Kenya) and the Kulango of Nassian (Ivory Coast)

Mazzei Lorenza

Continuity and Innovation in the Ethiopian illustrated manuscripts: the case of Geometric Art

Elsaeed Essam, El Kabbani Shereen

The Documentation of the Pilgrimage Arts in Upper Egypt – A comparative Study between Ancient and Islamic Egypt

Lane Paul J.

People, Pots, Words and Genes: Multiple sources and recon-structions of the transition to food production in eastern Africa

Incordino Ilaria

The analysis of determinatives of Egyptian words for aromatic products

Manzo Andrea

Bi3w Pwnt in the archaeological record. Preliminary results and perspective of research

Nappo Dario

Roman attempts to control Eastern Africa

Zazzaro Chiara

Maritime cultural traditions and transitions in the Red Sea

Baldi Marco

The king Amanikhareqerem and the Meroitic world: an account after the last discoveries

Elsaeed Essam, Khalifa Hoda

A Comparative Study of Modified Animal Horns in Ancient Egypt & Modern African Tribes

Adam Ahmed

The Archaeology and Heritage of the Sudanese Red Sea Region: Importance, findings, and challenges

Veiga Paula

Opium: was it used as a recreational drug in ancient Egypt?

Mous Maarten

Language and Identity among marginal people in East Africa

Tosco Mauro

On counting languages, diversity-wise

Savà Graziano

Bayso, Haro and the “paucal” number: history of contact around the Abbaya and C'amo Lakes of South Ethiopia

Crevatin Franco

Due note tipologiche sulla lingua bawlé (Kwa)

Lusini Gianfrancesco

The Costs of the Linguistic Transitions: Traces of Disappeared Languages in Ethiopia

Mauri Simone

Clause chaining across the Sahara

Wright Kelly E.

Accounting for Vox Populi. Adjusting the Cost-Benefit Model of Language Planning by Incorporating Network Analysis in the Ghanaian Context

Avram Andrei

An Early 20th-Century Arabic Vocabulary as Evidence of Language Contacts in the Uele district and the Redjaf-Lado Enclave

Details

The ATrA Workshop was held in Trieste (Italy) on May 24-26, 2016 with the aim of discussing the possible dimensions and varieties related to phenomena of cultural and linguistic transition in Africa. Identity negotiation, ethnicity and cultural affiliation, cases of contact, creolization, integration, urbanization, climate or cultural changes, language and cultural switch, market exchanges and human migration have been put on the table, generating a very concrete and fruitful discussion. The case studies collected in this miscellaneous book, give an idea of the multi-faceted dimensions of the debate, which ranges by necessity from anthropology to archaeology and from philology to linguistics, in a continuous alternation of disciplines, voices and styles. Mechanisms of resilience and adaptation to new situations and contexts are described through an investigation which in many cases has the flavour of an intimate research, aimed above all at finding out the very essence of “being human”.

Ilaria Micheli, PhD in African Studies (2005) and expert in linguistic anthropology, is a researcher in the Department of Legal, Linguistic, Interpreting and Translation Studies at the University of Trieste. Since 2001 she has been working on the language and culture of the Kulango (Gur – Niger‑Congo) in Côte d’Ivoire, and more recently on the Ogiek (Kalenjin – Nilo‑Saharan) in Kenya. Material culture, oral tradition and traditional medicine are her main research areas. She teaches African Languages and Cultures at the University of Venice “Caʼ Foscari” as well as traditional and modern African literature and social anthropology at the University of Trieste.

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  • Publication
    An Early 20th-Century Arabic Vocabulary as Evidence of Language Contacts in the Uele district and the Redjaf-Lado Enclave
    (EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste, 2017)
    Avram, Andrei
    Abstract: The paper examines the Arabic component of a five-language vocabulary published at the beginning of the 20th century (Wtterwulghe 1904). The aims of the analysis are: (i) to illustrate the multiple sources of this variety of Arabic; (ii) to establish the nature of the variety of Arabic represented in the vocabulary, which Luffin (2004) calls “arabe véhiculaire”. The comparison made with other contemporary sources on African Arabic-lexified pidgins and creoles (Cook 1905, Jenkins 1909, Meldon 1913, Owen & Keane 1915, Muraz 1926) suggests that the variety illustrated is a pidgin-like mix, with input from a wide range of sources, including Egyptian, Sudanese and Moroccan Arabic as well as several African languages, e.g. Bari, Luganda, Swahili, and Zande. It is also shown that the Wtterwulghe’s (1904) vocabulary contains some of the earliest attestations of features also found in the African Arabic-lexified creoles Nubi and Juba Arabic.
      309  668
  • Publication
    Accounting for Vox Populi. Adjusting the Cost-Benefit Model of Language Planning by Incorporating Network Analysis in the Ghanaian Context
    (EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste, 2017)
    Wright, Kelly E.
    Language planning is a formal or informal problem-solving administrative activity which “advocate[s for] either expanding or restricting the resources of a language” and is aimed at total adoption of a language-use strategy on a national level (Haugen 1966a; Kloss 1969; Haarman 1990). This activity has often relied on a cost-benefit analysis structure to choose and eventually implement an official language on a national level. This work investigates such choices made during the independence period in Ghana and advocates for editing the cost-benefit strategy going forward by incorporating network analysis to provide government leaders with a cohesive sociolinguistic valuation of alternatives for their consideration.
      301  448
  • Publication
    Clause chaining across the Sahara
    (EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste, 2017)
    Mauri, Simone
    Clause chaining is a clause-linking strategy which stands in between coordination and subordination, combining the lack of embeddedness of the former with the dependence of the latter (Foley and Van Valin, 1984). A finite verb form may be either preceded or followed by one or several less-finite forms: these two options are referred to as medial-final and initial-medial clause chaining, respectively. While medial-final chaining is attested all over the world, initial-medial chaining was until recently deemed to be unattested; however, recent research has demonstrated its existence in several Niger-Congo and Nilo-Saharan languages. While Berber (Afroasiatic) was long neglected in the relevant typological literature, Mauri (in press) has shown that Berber’s Chained-Aorist construction is an instance of initial-medial clause chaining. This paper highlights the similarities between Berber’s Chained Aorist and the clause-chaining constructions of some genetically-unrelated sub-Saharan languages. These similarities might support an interpretation of initial-medial clause chaining in these languages as an areal feature.
      276  483
  • Publication
    The Costs of the Linguistic Transitions: Traces of Disappeared Languages in Ethiopia
    (EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste, 2017)
    Lusini, Gianfrancesco
    For the most part, the linguistic history of the Ethio-Eritrean highlands in ancient and mediaeval times cannot be reconstructed because of the lack of direct sources. The hegemonic role played by a few cultural centers and the prevalence of the ‘dominant’ languages caused the disappearance of a number of unknown idioms. Therefore, in order to raise a reliable reconstruction, the modern historical research must take into account also the scanty philological traces of languages used by peoples that lost their linguistic identities as a consequence of the cultural assimilation. Particularly, the etymological interpretation of some royal names allows one to cast a light on the linguistic origin of the members of ancient dynasties ruling between the 3rd and the 13th c.
      264  660
  • Publication
    Due note tipologiche sulla lingua bawlé (Kwa)
    (EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste, 2017)
    Crevatin, Franco
    In the paper are discussed two problems of Bawlé morpho-syntax, the existence of a real relative pronoun and the non-canonical passive of some verbs
      203  221