Prehistoric Bantu-Khoisan language contact

Clicks, Concurrency, and Khoisan

I propose that the notions of segment and phoneme be enriched to allow, even in classical theories, some concurrent clustering. My main application is the Khoisan language !Xóõ, where by treating clicks as phonemes concurrent with phonemic accompaniments, the inventory size is radically reduced, so solving the problems of many unsupported contrasts. I show also how phonological processes of !Xó...

Influences on tone in Sepedi, a southern Bantu language

Tone in Bantu languages is rarely studied experimentally. This paper reports a production study which reveals the intricate interaction of tonal context and morphological structure in surface tone realization in Sepedi, a South African Bantu language.

Language Change and Language Contact

Language Contact: Peaceful Coexistence or Emergence of a Contact Language

This paper presents a simple model of linguistic priming between languages in contact, based on the utterance selection model (USM) for language change of Baxter et al. (2006). It will be shown that the emergence or the non-emergence of a new contact language depends on the way potentially bilingual agents choose a language to communicate.

Migration and Interaction in a Contact Zone: mtDNA Variation among Bantu-Speakers in Southern Africa

Bantu speech communities expanded over large parts of sub-Saharan Africa within the last 4000-5000 years, reaching different parts of southern Africa 1200-2000 years ago. The Bantu languages subdivide in several major branches, with languages belonging to the Eastern and Western Bantu branches spreading over large parts of Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa. There is still debate whether thi...