Language contact as an alternative to assumed genealogical relationships

old_uid17492
titleLanguage contact as an alternative to assumed genealogical relationships
start_date2019/04/09
schedule16h-18h
onlineno
location_infobât. D, rdc, salle de conférence
detailsAreal linguistics in Africa before a new approach to its genealogical language classification
summaryThere are various cases of African languages displaying considerable linguistic isoglosses that for a long time have been assumed but not proven to be explained by genealogical relationships. A possible way out of this longstanding problem is a more dedicated search for possible contact relations across major group boundaries. This lecture focusses on the results of language contact research that may provide an alternative explanation for linguistic similarities among presumably unrelated languages. Several such cases are discussed starting out from the case of the Kalahari Basin hypothesis (cf. Güldemann and Fehn 2017) that replaces Greenberg’s equivocal Khoisan hypothesis.
responsiblesIsel