A historical phonology of Central Chadic : prosodies and lexical reconstruction / H. Ekkehard Wolff.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wolff, Ekkehard, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Chadic language--Phonology.

Chadic language.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxi, 472 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2022.

Summary:

Of all of the African language families, the Chadic languages belonging to the Afroasiatic macro-family are highly internally diverse due to a long history and various scenarios of language contact. This pioneering study explores the development of the sound systems of the 'Central Chadic' languages, a major branch of the Chadic family. Drawing on and comparing field data from about 60 different Central Chadic languages, H. Ekkehard Wolff unpacks the specific phonological principles that underpin the Chadic languages' diverse phonological evolution, arguing that their diversity results to no little extent from historical processes of 'prosodification' of reconstructable segments of the proto-language. The book offers meticulous historical analyses of some 60 words from Proto-Central Chadic, in up to 60 individual modern languages, including both consonants and vowels. Particular emphasis is on tracing the deep-rooted origin and impact of palatalisation and labialisation prosodies within a phonological system that, on its deepest level, recognises only one vowel phoneme */a/.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 07 Apr 2022).

Other Format:

Print version:

ISBN:

9781009024310 (ebook)

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.