Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
List of maps, figures, and tables
The contributors
1: Gerrit J. Dimmendaal and Rainer Vossen: Introduction
Part I: Domains of Grammar
2: Michael J. Kenstowicz: Phonology and phonetics
3: David Odden: Tone
4: Klaus Beyer: Morphology
5: Jochen Zeller: Syntax
Part II: Language Comparison
6: Rainer Vossen: African language types
7: Mena Lafkioui: Dialectology and linguistic geography
8: Ludwig Gerhardt: Reflections on the history of African language classification
Part III: Language Phyla and Families
9: Jeff Good: Niger-Congo, with a special focus on Benue-Congo
10: Friederike Lüpke: Atlantic
11: Henning Schreiber: Mande
12: Mary Esther Kropp Dakubu: Kwa
13: Gudrun Miehe: Gur
14: Lutz Marten: Bantu and Bantoid
15: Ulrich Kleinewillinghöfer: Adamawa
16: Helma Pasch: Ubangi
17: Nicolas Quint: Kordofanian
18: Victor Porkhomovsky: Afro-Asiatic overview
19: Balázs J. Irsay-Nagy: Egyptian
20: Maarten Kossmann: Berber
21: Mauro Tosco: East Cushitic
22: Martine Vanhove: North Cushitic
23: Zelealem Leyew: Central Cushitic
24: Roland Kießling: South Cushitic
25: Bernhard Köhler: Omotic
26: Bernard Caron: Chadic
27: Victor Porkhomovsky: Ethio-Semitic
28: Gerrit J. Dimmendaal: Nilo-Saharan and its limits
29: Norbert Cyffer: Saharan
30: Gerrit J. Dimmendaal and Angelika Jakobi: Eastern Sudanic
31: Pascal Boyeldieu: Central Sudanic
32: Henry Honken: Khoisan
33: Gerrit J. Dimmendaal: Linguistic isolates
Part IV: Languages Structures: Case Studies
34: Tucker G. Childs: Bom-Kim
35: Valentin Vydrin: Dan
36: Coffi Sambiéni: Biali
37: Rose-Juliet Anyanwu: Yukuben
38: Yuko Abe: Bende
39: Ulrich Kleinewillinghöfer: Waja
40: Helma Pasch: Zande
41: Catherine Taine-Cheikh: Zenaga
42: Kazuhiro Kawachi: Sidaama
43: Zelealem Leyew: Kolisi
44: Maarten Mous: Iraqw
45: Zygmunt Frajzyngier: Wandala
46: Osamu Hieda: Kumam
47: Gerrit J. Dimmendaal: Baale
48: Lameen Souag: Songhay languages
49: Rainer Vossen: Cara
50: Henry Honken: ǁ?X'egwi
51: Helen Eaton: Sandawe
Part V: Language, Cognition, and Culture
52: Christa Kilian-Hatz: Ideophones
53: Doris L. Payne: Colour term systems: Genetic vs areal distribution in Sub-Saharan Africa
54: Ulrike Zoch: Experiencer constructions
55: Karsten Legère: Language and ethnobotany
56: Patricia Friedrich: Distinctive languages
57: Maren Rüsch: Conversation analysis
58: Axel Fleisch: Cognition and language
Part VI: Language and Society
59: Andrij Rovenchak and Solomija Buk: Indigenous African scripts
60: Kembo Sure: Language policy and politics
61: Ingse Skattum: Language and education
62: James Essegbey: Language endangerment, documentation, and revitalization
63: Ellen Hurst: Language birth: youth/town language
64: Klaus Beyer: Language contact
65: Maarten Mous: Mixed languages: The case of Ma'á/Mbugu
66: Andrea Hollington: African languages in the Diaspora
67: Gabriele Sommer: Pidgin and creole languages
68: Victoria A.S. Nyst: Sign languages
69: Jonathan Owens: Arabic in Africa
70: Elke Karan and David Roberts: Orthography standardization
71: Thomas Bearth: Pragmatics and communication
72: Kristin Vold Lexander: African languages in information and communication technology
Part VII: Language and History
73: David L. Schoenbrun: Words, things, and meaning: Linguistics as a tool for historical reconstruction
74: Koen Bostoen: Language and archaeology
Part VIII: Language and Orature
75: Wilhelm J.G. Möhlig: Narratives
76: Sebastian K. Bemile: Proverbs
77: Clarissa Vierke: Poetry
Language index
Author index
Subject index

About the Author

Rainer Vossen is Professor Emeritus of African Studies at Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main. He has published descriptive and comparative studies on Khoisan, Nilotic, Bantu, and Mande languages as well as on dialectological, sociolinguistic, and historical topics. His recent books include the edited volumes The Khoesan Languages (Routledge, 2013), and African Sociolinguistic and Sociocultural Studies (Rüdiger Köppe, 2014).
Gerrit J. Dimmendaal is Professor of African Studies at the University of Cologne. He has published descriptive and comparative studies on languages belonging to three different language families, Afroasiatic, Niger-Congo, and Nilo-Saharan, as well as on anthropological linguistics. His more recent monographs include Historical Linguistics and the Comparative Study of African Languages (Benjamins, 2011) and The Leopard's Spots: Essays on Language, Cognition and Culture (Brill,
2015).

Reviews

...is a state-of-the-art luxury liner of a reference work on all aspects of African linguistics. Many scholars of African languages will consult it frequently and repeatedly for the foreseeable future as one of the major monuments of scholarship in this multidisciplinary field.
*Paul D Fallon, University of Mary Washington, LINGUIST List*

The Oxford Hanbook of African Languages is an outstanding up-to-date introduction to the languages of the continent...the book is a useful tool for readers interested in languages and linguistics.
*Gian Claudio Batic, Orientalistische Literaturzeitung 2023*