This volume contains a selection of the papers presented at the 28th Annual Conference on African Linguistics, which took place at Cornell University from July 18–22, 1997. The editors have sought to include works which make both theoretical and descriptive contributions to this rich area of study.

The volume is in five sections. Section I consists of Kay Williamson’s plenary paper “Reconstructing Proto-Igboid Obstruents.” Section II contains papers on aspects of African language syntax. Section III is devoted to phonology and morphology of African languages. Papers on phonetics make up Section IV, and Section V contains sociolinguistic studies.

Among the contributors to this volume are E. O. Aboh who presents evidence from Gungbe for articulated IP and CP structure; L. Bickmore who proposes an account of how glides affect tonal behavior; A. Ngunga proposes an account of how Bantu verbal extensions are ordered, and D. Mengara who argues that French, as used in Africa, is genuinely an African language.

CATEGORY

Cultural Studies, Language/Linguistics, AFRICA