Nilo-Saharan Research Articles

Case inflection of construct-state constructions in Dinka

AbstractDinka, a Nilo-Saharan language, is largely monosyllabic, nevertheless it has a fairly rich morphology. Thus, most of its morphology is expressed by alternations in phonological material of the root. The inflectional categories of nouns manifested in this way include state and case in addition to number. The state category consists of an “absolute” state and two “construct” states. The case category includes a nominative, a genitive, an allative, and an essive/ablative. The present article shows how case inflection is manifested in complex noun phrases consisting of a noun in a construct state and a following modifier. It is demonstrated that the case inflection of such noun phrases is manifested almost exclusively by tonal overlays on the nominative (lexical) tones, and that such overlays may occur either in the head or in the modifier or in both the head and the modifier. In this way, a head noun may simultaneously carry state information and case information. Thus, the case inflection of construct-state constructions in Dinka adds yet another layer of nonlinear morphology to nouns in this language.

Diversity of lactase persistence in African milk drinkers.

The genetic trait of lactase persistence is attributable to allelic variants in an enhancer region upstream of the lactase gene, LCT. To date, five different functional alleles, −13910*T, −13907*G, −13915*G, −14009*G and −14010*C, have been identified. The co-occurrence of several of these alleles in Ethiopian lactose digesters leads to a pattern of sequence diversity characteristic of a ‘soft selective sweep’. Here we hypothesise that throughout Africa, where multiple functional alleles co-exist, the enhancer diversity will be greater in groups who are traditional milk drinkers than in non-milk drinkers, as the result of this sort of parallel selection. Samples from 23 distinct groups from 10 different countries were examined. Each group was classified ‘Yes ‘or ‘No’ for milk-drinking, and ethnicity, language spoken and geographic location were recorded. Predicted lactase persistence frequency and enhancer diversity were, as hypothesised, higher in the milk drinkers than the non-milk-drinkers, but this was almost entirely accounted for by the Afro-Asiatic language speaking peoples of east Africa. The other groups, including the ‘Nilo-Saharan language speaking’ milk-drinkers, show lower frequencies of LP and lower diversity, and there was a north-east to south-west decline in overall diversity. Amongst the Afro-Asiatic (Cushitic) language speaking Oromo, however, the geographic cline was not evident and the southern pastoralist Borana showed much higher LP frequency and enhancer diversity than the other groups. Together these results reflect the effects of parallel selection, the stochastic processes of the occurrence and spread of the mutations, and time depth of milk drinking tradition.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00439-015-1573-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Ethnolinguistic structuring of sorghum genetic diversity in Africa and the role of local seed systems.

Sorghum is a drought-tolerant crop with a vital role in the livelihoods of millions of people in marginal areas. We examined genetic structure in this diverse crop in Africa. On the continent-wide scale, we identified three major sorghum populations (Central, Southern, and Northern) that are associated with the distribution of ethnolinguistic groups on the continent. The codistribution of the Central sorghum population and the Nilo-Saharan language family supports a proposed hypothesis about a close and causal relationship between the distribution of sorghum and languages in the region between the Chari and the Nile rivers. The Southern sorghum population is associated with the Bantu languages of the Niger-Congo language family, in agreement with the farming-language codispersal hypothesis as it has been related to the Bantu expansion. The Northern sorghum population is distributed across early Niger-Congo and Afro-Asiatic language family areas with dry agroclimatic conditions. At a finer geographic scale, the genetic substructure within the Central sorghum population is associated with language-group expansions within the Nilo-Saharan language family. A case study of the seed system of the Pari people, a Western-Nilotic ethnolinguistic group, provides a window into the social and cultural factors involved in generating and maintaining the continent-wide diversity patterns. The age-grade system, a cultural institution important for the expansive success of this ethnolinguistic group in the past, plays a central role in the management of sorghum landraces and continues to underpin the resilience of their traditional seed system.

Ergative, antipassive and other verb derivational morphemes in Gaahmg

AbstractGaahmg has ergative traces in a predominately nominative-accusative system. Clauses with object focus demonstrate ergative case marking on postverbal noun and pronoun agents, and an ergative morpheme is also bound to verbs. Other evidence for ergativity is that the ergative morpheme is morphologically and syntactically distinct from the passive morpheme. Ergative morphemes and constructions in Gaahmg are similar to those of other Nilo-Saharan languages, including Luwo, Päri, and Shilluk. The Gaahmg antipassive also resembles that of other Nilo-Saharan languages. Yet, unlike other languages with ergativity and antipassives, Gaahmg readily combines the antipassive with ergative, passive, and causative morphemes in the same verb form. The Gaahmg antipassive occurs in nominative-accusative structures, as well as in object-focus clauses with ergative-absolutive structures. Further, the antipassive co-occurs with the passive, as if both the nominative-accusative and ergative-absolutive structures are simultaneously present in the same clause, and the language is currently shifting from one structure to the other.

Recent Acquisition of Helicobacter pylori by Baka Pygmies

Both anatomically modern humans and the gastric pathogen Helicobacter pylori originated in Africa, and both species have been associated for at least 100,000 years. Seven geographically distinct H. pylori populations exist, three of which are indigenous to Africa: hpAfrica1, hpAfrica2, and hpNEAfrica. The oldest and most divergent population, hpAfrica2, evolved within San hunter-gatherers, who represent one of the deepest branches of the human population tree. Anticipating the presence of ancient H. pylori lineages within all hunter-gatherer populations, we investigated the prevalence and population structure of H. pylori within Baka Pygmies in Cameroon. Gastric biopsies were obtained by esophagogastroduodenoscopy from 77 Baka from two geographically separated populations, and from 101 non-Baka individuals from neighboring agriculturalist populations, and subsequently cultured for H. pylori. Unexpectedly, Baka Pygmies showed a significantly lower H. pylori infection rate (20.8%) than non-Baka (80.2%). We generated multilocus haplotypes for each H. pylori isolate by DNA sequencing, but were not able to identify Baka-specific lineages, and most isolates in our sample were assigned to hpNEAfrica or hpAfrica1. The population hpNEAfrica, a marker for the expansion of the Nilo-Saharan language family, was divided into East African and Central West African subpopulations. Similarly, a new hpAfrica1 subpopulation, identified mainly among Cameroonians, supports eastern and western expansions of Bantu languages. An age-structured transmission model shows that the low H. pylori prevalence among Baka Pygmies is achievable within the timeframe of a few hundred years and suggests that demographic factors such as small population size and unusually low life expectancy can lead to the eradication of H. pylori from individual human populations. The Baka were thus either H. pylori-free or lost their ancient lineages during past demographic fluctuations. Using coalescent simulations and phylogenetic inference, we show that Baka almost certainly acquired their extant H. pylori through secondary contact with their agriculturalist neighbors.

Second person agreement allomorphy in Masarak

Masarak (also known as Masalit, sometimes spelled Massaleit), an endangered Nilo-Saharan language spoken in Darfur, is characterized by complex agreement patterns, particularly in the second person. This article outlines Masarak agreement patterns in the declarative, imperative and prohibitive verb forms, paying particular attention to second singular declarative allomorphy. In addition, this article describes a series of verb root-form alternations. Understanding these alternations is necessary in understanding the interpretation of different declarative, imperative and prohibitive verb forms.

Flavors of Division

The theoretical aim of this article is to integrate the singulative into the theory of division proposed by Borer (2005) and other theoretical linguists (e.g., Krifka 1995 , Doetjes 1996 , 1997 , Chierchia 1998 , Cheng and Sybesma 1999 ). To illustrate my claim, I offer a brief case study of Ojibwe, an Algonquian language, which I argue uses gender shift (from inanimate to animate) to mark singulativization. Singulatives, as morphological markers, are primarily known from Celtic, Afro-Asiatic, and Nilo-Saharan languages, but are not a known feature of Algonquian languages. Further support for my claim that the grammar of Algonquian languages embeds a singulative system comes from Fox (Mesquakie).

Notes on Gwama grammar

Based on original field work, the paper provides a preliminary characterization of the grammar of Gwama, a little-researched Nilo-Saharan language of western Ethiopia belonging to the Koman language cluster. Following a brief overview of the phonology, the article covers the major word classes and structures of the language. Special attention is given to the structure of nouns and verbs, including converbs. The article makes a unique contribution to the study of Gwama in that most of the analysis is based on collected elicited texts. Occasional references are made to discourse features. Copious examples from texts illustrate the grammatical points throughout the article. Two sample texts appear in an appendix.

Dual marking and kinship terms in Afitti

Afitti is part of the Eastern Sudanic branch of the Nilo-Saharan language family. It features dual and plural forms as part of its kinship terminology that have not been attested elsewhere in the language family. Kinship terminology in which possessive pronouns have merged with kinship terms is also known for a series of Eastern Sudanic languages. Nyimang, Afitti’s closest linguistic neighbor, features a dual form but it is limited to its verbal system. The dual in Nyimang supports the suggestion that Afitti’s kinship terminology with a dual form has a historical basis, since a regional influence of the Arabic system of duals can be largely ruled out. Morphological data on Afitti should further the analysis of its kinship terms in future studies.

Ethiopia and India

IntroductionThe relationship between Ethiopia and India is characterised by close cultural affinity, economic complimentarity and cordial political ties. Ethiopia is home to a mosaic of nations, nationalities and people with more than 80 different spoken languages. The vast majority of the languages are the Semitic, Cushitic and Omotic. Semitic language speakers live predominantly in the highlands and lowlands of the south-central region as well as in the north-central area. Omotic language speakers live predominantly in the south. The Nilo-Saharan super languages family accounts for about 2 percent of the population, and these languages are spoken near the Sudanese border. Amharic is used as a working language for the last 150 years and English is used as medium of instruction in secondary schools and universities (Embassy of Ethiopia, New Delhi, 2011).Ethiopia has some of the earliest hominid populations and possibly the region where Homo erectus evolved and expanded out of Africa. The most notable pale anthropological find in the country was 'Lucky' a female Australopithecus aphaeresis discovered in 1974 and referred to as Dinqnesh (you are marvelous) by Ethiopians. The Country is one of the oldest civilizations with a rich diversity of its people and culture which includes the unique letter of the alphabet, calendar and clock. Ethiopia was ruled by successive kings, emperors until 1974 where the military took over. In 1991, the military rule was ousted by the struggle of the Ethiopian people; hence in 1994 Ethiopia ratified a new constitution and declared a Federal Democratic Republic (Pankhurst, 1997).The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia is composed of nine Regional States that are; Tigray, Afar, Amhara, Oromia, Somali, Southern Nation Nationalities and Peoples Region (SNNPR), Benishangul-Gumuz, Gambella and Harari; and two City Administration council of Dire Dawa and Addis Ababa. The regional states and city administrations are subdivided into 817 administrative Woredas (districts). A Woreda/District is the basic decentralised administrative unit and has an administrative council composed of elected members. Following a democratic system, election is held every 5 years thus, the fourth election was held in May 2011. There are more than 50 National and Regional Political Parties as well as private media that enhances the democratisation process that is under way.As both Ethiopia and India are old civilizations with 3,000 and 5,000 years of history respectively, their relations go back to thousands of years. During the Aksumite Kingdom of Ethiopia, Indian traders used to bring to Abesenia (the former name of Ethiopia) spices and silk and take back gold and ivory (Ethiopian Embassy, UK, 2011). The present Ethiopia has embraced upon a development effort to eradicate poverty and democratise its society. In so doing it has recorded tremendous achievements in economic and social development as witnessed by the 2010 human development index.According to the 2010 Human Development Report (HDR), Ethiopia is rated among the 'top movers' at rank 11 out of the 135 which registered improvement in Human Development Index that stretched between 1970 and 2010. The achievement status of Ethiopia indicates that life expectancy at birth increased by almost 5 years, GNI per capita increased by 75 percent, expected years of schooling increased by 4 years. This progress would have been difficult if not impossible without the assistance and cooperation of friendly countries like India.RELATIONS BETWEEN ETHIOPIA AND INDIA - TODAYAccording to some historians, Indians came into direct contact with Ethiopia and exchange commodities between the two countries in ancient times. In 16th century, Indian technicians came to Ethiopia from Goa with Portuguese missionaries and contributed much in the fields of construction and craft. The influence of Indian Architecture is visible in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia (Rashidi, 2007). …

<i>The expression of possession</i> (review)

Reviewed by: The expression of possession Engin Arik William B. McGregor , ed. 2009. The expression of possession. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Pp. 435. US$137.00 (hardcover). New investigations continue to provide insights into the linguistic realization of possession. Stassen (2009) is one of the new typologically motivated studies of predicative possession. The current book is yet another which offers a variety of analyses to contribute to our knowledge of possession from typologically diverse language families. This book consists of an introduction, nine additional articles, a list of contributors, and indices of subjects, languages, and persons. In the introductory chapter (pp. 1-12), William B. McGregor overviews the concept of possessives and defines possessives as conceptual relations between entities, between people and their body parts and products, between people and their kin, between people and their representations (such as photographs), between people and their belongings, between people and things that they have control over (such as usership rights), between persons and cultural/intellectual products (such as copyrights), and so on. McGregor then summarizes the articles in the volume. In "English possessives as reference-point constructions and their function in the discourse" (pp. 13-50), Peter Willemse, Kristin Davidse, and Liesbert Heyvaert focus on possessive noun phrases such as his car and argue against the claims that they are definite NPs and/or new information in discourse. Their data come from the COBUILD Bank of English and the Lancaster-Oslo-Bergen corpus and consist of 400 instances of possessive noun phrases. The analysis shows that, in addition to a subsequent mention (coreferential, 11.86% of the data) and the first mention (new, 28.03% of the data), they function in three more ways: text reference (a subsequent mention of a text referent, 8.62% of the data), inferable (inferable from an associated referent or scenario in the preceding context, 26.95%of the data), and anchored (anchored to an element in the preceding context, 24.52% of the data). Thus, they propose that these five categories form a continuum from discourse-given (coreferential) to discourse-new (new). In "On the co-variation between form and function of adnominal possessive modifiers in Dutch and English" (pp. 51-106), Jan Rijkhoff investigates possessive modification with of in English and its Dutch counterpart with van which can modify a common noun such as car, dog, or tree. The data are mostly constructed, but in [End Page 423] some cases the author consults search engines on the internet and examples from other languages. Rijkhoff argues that, with respect to the functions modification, predication, and reference, three out of the four possible types of adnominal possessives occur in English and Dutch, i.e., classifying, qualifying, and localizing, but not quantifying. The author pays considerable attention to the functions of the adnominal possessives with of/van which are functions of natural classes such as adjective, verb, and noun. In "Is possession mere location? Contrary evidence from Maa" (pp. 107-142), Doris Payne reports on a study of how Maa, an Eastern Nilotic, Nilo-Saharan language spoken in Kenya and Tanzania, encodes location, possession, and existence. The author focuses on two lexemes: tii and ata. Tii occurs in both transitive and intransitive constructions with locative and existential meanings, whereas ata occurs in both transitive and intransitive constructions with possessive and existential meanings. The author reports an analysis of the first 130 tokens of tii and ata that are found in a corpus consisting of 20,000 clauses (mostly spoken and some written materials). The data show that tii and ata in Maa are in complementary distribution suggesting that possessive ata may not be derived from locative tii, contrary to what one might expect from a localist perspective. In "Learning to encode possession" (pp. 143-212), Sonja Eisenbeiss, Ayumi Matsudo, and Ingrid Sonnenstuhl explore how possessive relationships (adnominal as in my chickens, predicative as in I have chickens, and external possessive constructions as in I tapped him on the shoulder) are encoded in German child language. The authors also provide some child language data available from other languages such as English, Japanese, Greek, and Hebrew, as well as adult German. Their German data come from 64 recordings...

Differential Object Marking in Nilo-Saharan

In spite of its widespread nature in the Nilo-Saharan phylum, the differential marking of objects as constituents with or without an explicit case marker has gone virtually unnoticed in the typological literature. The present contribution gives a survey of this economy principle in three Nilo-Saharan subgroups, Fur, Maban, and Eastern Sudanic, where Differential Object Marking extends to ditransitive clauses as well as adjuncts under certain conditions. The governing principles in these Nilo-Saharan languages are in accordance with more general principles of discourse prominence, involving features like animacy and definiteness. But the data from this phylum also suggest that this two-dimensional system needs to be extended into another dimension, the categorical/thetic contrast.

Noun incorporation and predicate classifiers in Gumuz

Gumuz is a Nilo-Saharan language spoken in western Ethiopia and southeastern Sudan. Much dialectal variation exists among the Gumuz but all lects within Ethiopia show evidence of noun incorporation, including that of Gilgel Beles, the focus of this paper. In the past, this noun incorporation in verbs had been overlooked and the verb-noun morpheme pair had been analyzed as one morpheme with infixing inflectional morphology. Thus, verbal ‘roots’ without incorporated nouns had been described as suffixing vs. those with incorporated nouns as infixing verbs (Irwin 1966: 5), or unsplit vs. split (Uzar, Studies in Gumuz: Sese phonology and TMA system, Helmut Buske Verlag, 1989: 371).

Genetic Evidence for Complexity in Ethnic Differentiation and History in East Africa

The Afro-Asiatic and Nilo-Saharan language families come into contact in Western Ethiopia. Ethnic diversity is particularly high in the South, where the Nilo-Saharan Nyangatom and the Afro-Asiatic Daasanach dwell. Despite their linguistic differentiation, both populations rely on a similar agripastoralist mode of subsistence. Analysis of mitochondrial DNA extracted from Nyangatom and Daasanach archival sera revealed high levels of diversity, with most sequences belonging to the L haplogroups, the basal branches of the mitochondrial phylogeny. However, in sharp contrast with other Ethiopian populations, only 5% of the Nyangatom and Daasanach sequences belong to haplogroups M and N. The Nyangatom and Daasanach were found to be significantly differentiated, while each of them displays close affinities with some Tanzanian populations. The strong genetic structure found over East Africa was neither associated with geography nor with language, a result confirmed by the analysis of 6711 HVS-I sequences of 136 populations mainly from Africa. Processes of migration, language shift and group absorption are documented by linguists and ethnographers for the Nyangatom and Daasanach, thus pointing to the probably transient and plastic nature of these ethnic groups. These processes, associated with periods of isolation, could explain the high diversity and strong genetic structure found in East Africa.

Why are three-level vowel length systems rare? Insights from Dinka (Luanyjang dialect)

This paper deals with the quantity system of Dinka, a Nilo-Saharan language. Andersen [(1987). The phonemic system of Agar Dinka. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics, 9, 1–27] has postulated that Dinka has a three-level vowel length distinction, i.e., /V/ vs. /VV/ vs. /VVV/. However, it has been argued that three-level vowel length distinctions may not exist in human language, because they may not be reliably produced and perceived [Kohler, K.J. (2001). Überlänge im Niederdeutschen? In: R. Peters, H. P. Pütz, & U. Weber (Eds.), Vulpis Adolatio—Festschrift für Hubertus Menke zum 60. Geburtstag (pp. 385–402). Heidelberg: C. Winter]. Moreover, Andersen's analysis challenges the widely held view that phonological distinctions are maximally binary (see, e.g. Odden, D. [(1997). Some theoretical issues in Estonian prosody. In: I. Lehiste & J. Ross (Eds.), Estonian prosody: Papers from a symposium (pp. 165–195). Tallinn: Institute of Estonian Language]). In this paper we examine the Dinka quantity system by means of an acoustic analysis. This acoustic analysis reveals that the contrast in question can be accounted for best by the three-level vowel length hypothesis. Also, the realisation of the distinction provides insight as to why three-level vowel length distinctions are uncommon. Our results suggest that the phonetic space for quantity distinctions is limited, so that any increase in categories reduces the phonetic distance between them.

The Semantics of Participant Types in Derived Verbs in Nandi

The semantics of three valency-changing verbal derivational suffixes in Nandi (a Nilo-Saharan language spoken in East Africa) are investigated. Two cases of polysemy and one of homonymy are found and related to general case theory (DeLancey 2000, Jakobson 1936, 1990) as well as to the general theory of concept formation (Rosch and Mervis 1996).

Phonetic correlates of tongue root vowel contrasts in Maa

Maa, a Nilo-Saharan language, exhibits a cross-height vowel harmony system known as ‘tongue root harmony’. The high and mid vowels participate in this system, but the low vowel does not. The Maa harmony system is briefly described, followed by an investigation into the phonetic properties of the vowels. Five Maa speakers were recorded producing 100 example words three times each. The [+ATR] vowels were found to have consistently lower first formant values and relatively less energy in the higher frequency regions than their [−ATR] counterparts. An investigation of the differences between the auditorily quite similar [−ATR] high and [+ATR] mid vowels revealed durational differences for the back vowels and much inter-speaker variation for the front vowels. Electroglottographic data obtained from one speaker indicated a slightly less constricted glottis for [+ATR] than [−ATR] vowels. This phonation difference is not readily detectable auditorily in the current data, but has been reported previously for Maa. The results contribute to typological knowledge about the phonetics of tongue root vowel contrasts, as very little data is currently available for Nilo-Saharan languages. A possible origin of stronger voice quality distinctions common to other tongue root harmony languages is offered from the theory of Auditory Enhancement.

ATR] value asymmetries and underlying vowel inventory structure in Niger-Congo and Nilo-Saharan

ATR] value asymmetries and underlying vowel inventory structure in Niger-Congo and Nilo-Saharan

Description grammaticale du nateni (Bénin): Système verbal, classification nominale, phrases complexes, textes By Lukas Neukom (review)

BOOK NOTICES Ngiti: A Central-Sudanic language of Zaire. By Constance Kutsch Lojenga. (Nilo-Saharan: Linguistic analyses and documentation, 9.) Köln: Rüdiger Koppe Verlag, 1994. Pp. xiv, 517. In appearance, presentation, and breadth of description , this book continues the high standards set by previous publications in this series on the description ofvarious Nilo-Saharan languages. Ch. 1, 'Introduction ' (1-27), provides detailed discussion of the social context and linguistic relationship of Ngiti to other languages, most notably arguing that Ngiti is a distinct language (called Ndruna by its speakers) rather than a Southern dialect of Lendu, a branch of Eastern Central Sudanic spoken in Northeastern Zaire (and adjacent Uganda). As such, Ngiti is a previously undescribed language. Appendix B (428-44) presents a 190-word list showing that Ngiti is the most deviant of six compared Lendu varieties. Chs. 2-9 discuss Ngiti's phonology and morphosyntax, often with appropriate suggestions about the historical origins of particular processes. Ch. 2, 'Phonological structure' (28-61), presents a detailed account of Ngiti segmental phonology, including acoustic measurements of some interesting consonantal contrasts. Ch. 3, 'Phonological processes' (62-91), primarily addresses vocalic processes, particularly Ngiti's variety of Sudanic vowel harmony based on tongue root position. Ch. 4, 'Tone' (92-117), discusses tone and tonal processes. Tonal processes are also discussed in subsequent chapters where they occur in particular grammatical constructions. Ch. 5, 'Nouns' (1 18-89), deals with nominal morphology and basic syntax; Ch. 6, 'Pronouns and verb agreement' (190-216), with pronouns and personal inflection of verbs. Ch. 7, 'Verbs and verbal morphology' (217-301), extensively treats verb structure, including tense-aspectmood inflection and derivational processes. Ch. 8, 'Postpositions' (302-34), attends to Ngiti's postpositional nature, including its nominalized postpositional phrases (locative phrases functioning as subjects/objects). Ch. 9, 'Other word classes' (335-400), discusses nominal and verbal modifiers, demonstratives, question words, particles, and conjunctions . The nine grammatical chapters all make appropriate observations on word order, which is ofparticular interest because Eastern Central Sudanic is distinctive in the degree to which word order is obligatorily conditioned by grammatical processes (in contrast, forexample, to Western Central Sudanic). Following the chapters, a sample of texts (401-25) includes an interlinear word analysis into constituent morphemes , a separate line of morpheme glosses in English , and a more idiomatic English translation of each sentence. Finally, there are five appendices (426-511) and a set of bibliographies (512-17). Appendix C (446-49) exemplifies dialect variation within Ngiti. Appendix E (453-511) is the most extensive , presenting full paradigms for the Ngiti verb classes. The absence of an index is compensated for by the table of contents (v-x) which lists the deeply organized subsectioning of the chapters, e.g. '9.7.2.2.1. Complementisers' (x). The book is clearly a major addition to the descriptions of Nilo-Saharan languages, and its degree of detail is also useful to general research on linguistic typology. [Benji Wald] Description grammaticale du nateni (Bénin): Système verbal, classification nominale, phrases complexes, textes. By Lukas Neukom. (ASAS, 14.) Zürich : Universität Zürich, 1995. Pp. 250. Nateni is spoken by approximately 45,000 members of the Natemba ethnic group of Northern Bénin, principally in the province ofAtakora. It is classified by Tony Naden ('Gur' in John Bendor-Samuel. 1989. The Niger-Congo languages. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 140-68) as a member of the Oti-Volta branch of the Gur subbranch of the NigerCongo family. Some of the other members of this branch include More, Dagara, Warna, and Bieri. This is the only comprehensive description to date of Nateni. Previous work includes an article on a dialectal variant by R. P. André Prost ('Les langues de l'Atakora. II. Le tayari' , BIFAN 34, B.3: 617-82, 1972) and a ten page sketch of the language by Brigitte Reineke (1985. 'Zueinigen Charakteristika der grammatischen Struktur der Gur-Sprachen, dargestellt am Beispiel des Nateni'. ZSPK 38, 2: 166-74). This work was Lukas Neukom' s doctoral dissertation at the University of Zürich and was based on six months of fieldwork in Bénin. N states that the choice of French as...

The peopling of sub-Saharan Africa: the case study of Cameroon.

This study analyzes the distribution of ten protein genetic polymorphisms in eighteen populations from the most densely inhabited areas of Cameroon. The languages spoken belong to three different linguistic families [Afro-Asiatic (AA), Nilo-Saharan (NS) and Niger-Kordofanian (NK)]. The analysis of variation of allele frequencies indicates that the level of genetic interpopulation differentiation is rather low (F(st) = 0.011 +/- 0.006) but statistically significant (p < 0.001). This result is not unexpected because of the relatively small geographic area covered by our survey. This value is also significantly lower than the one estimated for other groups of African populations. Among the factors responsible for this, we discuss the possible role of gene flow. There is a considerable genetic differentiation among the AA populations of north Cameroon as is to be expected because they all originated from the first agriculturists of the farming "savanna complex." The Podowko and Uldeme are considerably different from all the other AA groups, probably due to the combined effect of genetic drift and isolation. In the case of the Wandala and Massa, our analyses suggest that genetic admixture with allogeneous groups (especially with the Kanuri) played an important role in determining their genetic differentiation from other AA speaking groups. The Bantu speaking populations (Bakaka, Bamileke Bassa and Ewondo, NK family, Benué Congo subfamily) settled in western and southern Cameroon are more tightly clustered than AA speaking groups. This result shows that the linguistic affinity among these four populations coincides with a substantial genetic similarity despite their different origin. Finally, the Fulbe are genetically distinct from all the populations that belong to their same linguistic phylum (NK), and closer to the neighboring Fali and Tupuri, eastern Adamawa speaking groups of north Cameroon.