Native sons take on native tongues

African students need texts on African linguistics set in their own context. Robin Thelwall and Helma Pasch welcome three attempts to do just that

African linguistics for the needs of African students in Africa: this is the worthy goal of these three very different introductory books. Although each is a welcome addition to the field, none fully hits the mark. The strength of the first-world traditions is still evident in the contribution of German, Dutch, French, British and US scholars. There is general awareness of the significance of African language data for theoretical work; but the future, if not the present, rests in African hands. Two of the books reflect this African involvement.

African Languages: An Introduction is a high-quality handbook in the best academic tradition, a collective effort by western scholars. Embodying up-to-date research findings, it aims to be "a bookI accessible to undergraduates worldwide, and especially in Africa". The latter are said to be "easy to characterise as they acquire one or more African languages well as they grow up and come to linguistics later". This is true, if simplistic. The problem is that the book sets its sights very high and assumes too much background knowledge in linguistics and in African-language studies.

Introductory books are difficult to write well, and one of the crucial issues is how linguistics is taught in non-western contexts. African Languages seems well suited for sophisticated students, especially in a well-staffed department, but it would require a degree of supplementation in other, especially African, contexts.

Perhaps the strongest chapter is Gerrit Dimmendaal's, on "Morphology", a masterpiece of marrying pedagogy with theoretical and analytical tools. His masterful exploitation of examples is a most effective, yet concise presentation of complex linguistic issues. Perhaps the most disappointing is Chris Ehret's chapter on "Language and history", which seems unsuitable either for an introductory or a handbook-style textbook. The data presented are largely unattributed, he cites himself predominantly, and significant recent work on the topic goes unmentioned. The language phyla trees are controversial, to say the least, and the so-called dating procedures unsupported by argument, especially for non-initiates. One could characterise it as mostly thesis without anti-thesis. But this volume as a whole is an important contribution, and it should especially be read by linguists unaware of the solidity of the foundations of historical linguistics in Africa.

African Voices: An Introduction to the Languages and Linguistics of Africa leads us to paraphrase Brecht: that radical political and development undertakings require their own remedies. This book is an attempt to provide a politically motivated linguistics for Africa, with a focus on southern Africa and Kenya. That the book is fatally flawed should not detract from the endeavour. A polemical approach is justified in a southern African context - but the theory and facts must be correct, and cogent examples should be used to teach necessary skills.

Editors Vic Webb and Kembo-Sure offer what looks like a new approach from inside Africa, involving a collaboration of southern and east African authors. This attempt at " une linguistique engagée " is a welcome and timely reminder that linguists cannot stand idly by when their profession can provide insights into political and social issues and can contribute to policy solutions. That said, one must agree with the authors' caveat:

" African Voices is an experimental ventureI therefore highly unlikely... (to) be without serious shortcomings."

It is indeed a flawed book. On the one hand, its polemical stance runs away with itself and ignores the reminder that a language is a metaphor for its speakers. On the other hand, there is real confusion in the presentation of basic linguistics and in emulating the form of user-friendly textbooks with "Expected outcomes" and "Question boxes" that are often quite unrealistic. The references also indicate some isolation from current scholarship.

To balance the matter, there are very welcome African examples. For example, one of Webb and Kembo-Sure's chapters, "Languages in competition", makes a rocky start in "Expected outcomes" but goes on to a very effective anecdotal exemplification.

This is what this book should be about, with examples that can be used to show the manifold layers of linguistic analysis and to display the wonders in the linguists' toolbox. Dimmendaal, cited above, provides a fine model for how this can be done.

Here, however, the authors often assume their conclusion before the problem has been fully analysed. The chapter's main weakness is that the metaphorical notion of languages warring with one another - "linguicide" - overtakes the authors' initial caveat that it is the decisions and behaviour of people, not languages, that result in language death. Overkill is also evident in such statements as: "these events [the 19th-century notion of one language, one nation] have led to the demise of the concept of the nation-state, and the realisation that it is not a viable model for Africa." Would that it were so simple. Also, "greater use of African languages will lead to the growth of more balanced citizens" - we wish this might be the case.

The contribution on "Lexicons in Africa", by Danie Prinsloo, Albina Chuwa and Elisabe Taljard, contains numerous naive or downright wrong statements:

"The only wayI lexical items can be reconstructed is byI the phenomenon of sound shift." The discussion of Bantu noun classes, which is clearly important for the structure of a dictionary of those languages, may purport to be classificatory agnosticism, but it reveals crypto-semantic leanings.

The sections on lexicographical method are just weird, given the number of good collections of articles and books on the subject. Problematic assertions include: "The most basicI method is [for] lexicographers [to] enter words as they encounter them," and the so-called "enter-them-all syndrome". The example under computer compilation shows a concordance but does not mention the term, and yet ends with an unnecessarily technical mention of SGML.

The final chapter, Jane Kembo's "Language in education and language learning in Africa", is perhaps the strongest. One can understand the enormous frustration of teacher trainers in Africa, especially in the field of language, since language enters into the whole enterprise of education. This is compounded by lack of materials in indigenous languages, which depends on money for research, and for relevancy in publications based on that research. We empathise with Kembo, and are left wondering where to put our energies. Her conclusion - "It is unlikely, however, that any of these suggestions and discussions can be implemented effectively in the short term" - puts a heavy burden on us linguists, who have to earn a crust and may be "para-employed", to apply our talents where they may be helpful. Bob Dixon puts out a challenge to descriptive linguists to "Go! Describe!". We might modify this and suggest that we need a " linguistes sans frontières " to support the needs of the writers of this book and the next.

This is Introduction to African Linguistics by Ngessimo Mutaka, with a contribution by P. N. Tamanji. African students of linguistics deserve books written with their needs in mind - and who better to do this than one of their own? Mutaka has made a brave attempt to fill this need, and, despite some technical problems, his book has many merits. On balance, it is more of a success, not least because of the exercises and examples.

The book has a strong Cameroon perspective, although the author is Congolese. Writing for African students who will be interested in the results of classifications, Mutaka begins with the languages themselves, with Bantu in particular. He provides a fairly uncritical account of selected founding fathers of African language classification Carl Meinhof, Diedrich Westermann and Joseph Greenberg), which does at least introduce material that is not easily accessible in introductory English-language textbooks. Where Mutaka really transcends his weaknesses is with his exemplification and his exercises. These alone are a goldmine for teachers.

Sometimes, however, the ideas are muddled or just erroneous. The chapter "Trade languages, pidgins and creoles" should carry a linguists' health warning. For example: "A pidgin is a consciously simplified form of a language." To write "consciously" is unjustifiable. Further: "The vocabulary is almost exclusively derived from the European (colonialist) language." This is true for Wes Kos, but not for the others: Kisettla is Swahili-based, Lingala is Boloki-based, and in no way a pidgin; Pidgin A70 is based on Ewondo and Bulu. "The infinitives never appear with an -ing or an -ed in Pidgin English of Cameroon." Do they in any variety of English?

At times, Mutaka seems to be analysing African languages through Eurolinguistic eyes. He states that in Kivunjo-Chaga some adjectives look like verbs because they have the same agreement marking. Most Bantu languages have few adjectives, and those that allegedly look like verbs are verbs. In sum, we would primarily recommend this book to anyone seeking examples and exercises on African languages.

In appearance, African Languages and African Voices are well produced. Neither has many noticeable misprints, and the maps in the former are excellent. The bibliography in African Languages is faulty mainly in the Niger-Congo references, otherwise we noted few errors. African Voices puts references at the end of each chapter, which is fine in this style of textbook. In spite of computerisation, it seems that indexing remains a black art; the subject index in all three volumes needs addressing. Mutaka's Introduction is a cheap offset production and the typeface and the layout are inadequate. The book also lacks any good maps.

Robin Thelwall is a researcher on Nilo-Saharan and Afro-Asiatic languages, and editor of Language in the Sudan . Helma Pasch researches Sango and other African languages and was until recently research associate, University of Pretoria, South Africa.