Abstract Studies on diminutives have primarily focused on European languages and a few African languages. However, the forms and functions of diminutives in the Igbo language remain critically unexplored. This article examines the forms and functions of diminutives in Igbo, as well as accounts for the role of tone in the formation of diminutives in Igbo, using corpus-assisted data. The descriptive analysis reveals that the form of Igbo diminutives can be categorised into synthetic, analytic, and category incorporated. The results show that the suffix -tụ́ is the most productive diminutive marker in Igbo and is used when referring to the contact between entities, temporal shortness (short duration), spatial smallness, small featural differentiation, and politeness. I argue that tone generally does not govern Igbo diminutive constructions. The study contributes to the literature by identifying a third type of diminutives ‘category incorporated’, which refers to verbal constructions that do not prototypically have explicit diminutive forms or markers but have diminutive meanings. This research provides a distinct perspective on the important role of verbs in the formation of diminutives in the Igbo language.

Abstract The Zaghawa language, one of the Saharan languages spoken in western Sudan, specifically the Darfur region, and east-central Chad, is the subject of this descriptive study with special focus on Arabic borrowings. The paper investigates Sudanese Standard Arabic and Baggara Arabic borrowings that have entered Zaghawa through contact with speakers of Arabic. This will be accomplished by showcasing and analyzing the phonological and morphological characteristics of the recipient language, as well as by demonstrating how the Arabic words that were borrowed have been adapted into Zaghawa. The semantic fields of the lexical borrowings are also discussed. Zaghawa exists in a community which is greatly influenced by Islam and the Arabic language. The major dialects of Zaghawa are Wegi, Kube, and Tuba and there are two minor dialects, Dirong and Guruf. Wegi is considered one of the major dialects of Zaghawa wholly spoken in Sudan. The data for this contribution has been collected from speakers of the Wegi dialect living in Khartoum.

Abstract Pronominal systems of Grassfields Bantu languages stand out in a cross-linguistic perspective by their high degree of referential precision when it comes to specifying the internal composition of groups, as instantiated by the device of pronoun compounding. A comparison of available descriptions of Grassfields Bantu pronoun systems reveals a high degree of diversity with respect to categorical distinctions and compounding principles. Thus, cumulative pronoun compounding in which individual meanings of components are simply added on top of each other is attested side by side with incorporative compounding in which this is not the case, but rather the first pronominal component establishes a unifying bond by also incorporating the reference of the second component. Insights into the principles of pronoun compounding have rarely been exploited for the understanding of synchronic variation of pronoun systems across Grassfields and their historical dynamics. The present contribution seeks to remedy this situation for Babanki of the Central Ring group, following the descriptive lines of Gehling (2004. ‘Ich’, ‘du’ und andere: eine sprachtypologische Studie zu den grammatischen Kategorien “Person” und “Numerus”. Münster: Lit) and Cysouw (2009. The paradigmatic structure of person marking. Oxford University Press) and fertilizing the historical study of Grassfields pronoun systems by synchronic insights from compounding in Babanki.

Abstract Hunting gestures, i.e., gestures used to avoid scaring away prey or raising the attention of predators, are a central part of the hunter-gatherer lifestyle of many foragers. These gestures have been documented for several groups in Southern Africa. This article is dedicated to such gestures, specifically those used by the speakers of a moribund East Kalahari Khoe language – Tjwao. It documents the hunting gestures collected in the villages of Sanqinyana and Sifulasengwe in Western Zimbabwe and analyzes them by adopting a formal descriptive approach. The focus is on the phonology and semantics of the gestures. Regarding phonology, handshape, palm orientation, location of the gesture, movement, handedness, and any participation of other parts of the body in the production of a gesture are discussed. Concerning semantics, we examine the referents of the hunting gestures and the type and extent of iconic relationship each gesture entertains with its real-world referent. In light of the analysis, we conclude that the hunting gesture code used by Tjwao speakers largely complies with the profile exhibited by the other hunting gesture codes found across the area, although certain dissimilarities can also be observed. This provides further evidence supporting the existence of the Kalahari Basin Area Sprachbund.

Abstract Silozi is one of Zambia’s seven national languages, and is also spoken in parts of Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe. At its heart the language can fairly be characterized as a “Shift and Double” one, where an underlying High tone shifts to the following TBU and then doubles onto the next one in defined prosodic domains. Both infinitival forms as well as a range of finite forms in various TAMs are examined. The Obligatory Contour Principle (OCP) plays an interesting role in that while it motivates various processes of High tone deletion, it only rarely constrains the core processes of Tone Shift and Tone Doubling. Some of the High tone deletions are general while others only apply in specific TAMs. As in most Bantu tone languages, Silozi exhibits Melodic High tones which help express certain inflectional properties of the verb. They have two possible landing sites – the penult or the ultima. Once linked, they precipitate the deletion of various lexical High tones on the Subject Marker, Object Marker, or verb root. In all, eleven different tonal rules are described and analyzed.

Abstract This study deals with the grammaticalization of ġādi – i.e., the active participle form of a movement verb meaning ‘to go/leave/depart in the morning’ – in Moroccan Arabic, of which the relevant literature has evidenced its uses as a future marker, describing this case as an instance of the common path ‘go (to)’ > future. In the light of fresh data, we first review the already documented uses of ġādi as a future marker, and, secondly, present an original preliminary study of its emerging modal values. Finally, by analyzing the correlation between the future values and the modal values of ġādi, we focus on some issues related to its grammaticalization, including the importance of taking into account certain semantic features of the source lexeme so far underestimated, and of considering the co(n)text within which the whole grammaticalization takes place. Ultimately, we argue that a secondary grammaticalization towards epistemic modality is in progress.

Abstract The paper reports on generalisations drawn from the author’s historical analysis of a sample of some five thousand words, which reflect more than two hundred lexical items from up to sixty-six Central Chadic languages and language varieties. The paper provides illustrative examples from present-day languages with explicit diachronic analyses of the evolution of their synchronic segmental and ‘prosodic’ suprasegmental structures. Four typologically characteristic prosodies (i.e., palatalisation, labialisation, nasalisation, glottalisation) operate across words, which are – in synchronic perspective – mostly monomorphemic, while in diachronic perspective they are mostly polymorphemic. The paper shows that, and how the four reconstructed prosodies lead to the diachronic emergence of innovative phonemes in the modern languages, which were not part of the segmental phonological inventories of the common proto-language. This empirical fact poses considerable challenges to the application of the well-established ‘comparative method’ as originally developed by the Neogrammarian school of historical linguistics.

Abstract Left peripheral topics and foci often differ with respect to resumption: in languages such as Italian, Tzotzil Maya, and Warlpiri, while fronted topics may be co-indexed with a pronominal form in the corresponding argument position, fronted foci correspond to a gap. However, this contrast does not universally apply. In languages such as Anyi and Baule, two Kwa languages of Côte d’Ivoire, subjects and animate objects must be resumed by a pronoun whenever they appear in the left periphery – independent of information structure. The question is whether this instance of cross-linguistic variation arises through differences in the syntax of left peripheral positions in various languages or in the conditions of resumption. The present study examines data from Kwa languages and concludes that the difference lies in the conditions of resumption, which are orthogonal to the syntactic differences between topics and foci. Resumptives have a dual nature in these languages, serving as anaphoric constants (true resumptives) in topicalization and as bound variables (apparent resumptives) in focus constructions. A survey of the relevant facts in further Kwa languages reveals that resumption is determined by factors that are independent from information structure and relate to the recoverability of empty argument positions.