KINDLY OBSERVE THIS FIRST LECTURE
RULE
•EITHER SWITCH OFF YOUR PHONE
OR PUT IT ON SILENCE AND HIDE IT.
5/27/2025 1
LING 154: LANGUAGES IN AFRICA
LECTURER: DR. LEVINA NYAMEYE ABUNYA
5/27/2025 2
BE DETERMINED
• A dream doesn’t become reality through
magic; it takes sweat, determination, and
hard work.
Colin Luther Powell
5/27/2025 3
MANAGE YOUR TIME
i. Roger W. Babson “Let him who would enjoy a
good future waste none of his present.”
–Ephesians 5:15-16
ii.“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise
but as wise, making the best use of the time,
because the days are evil.”
5/27/2025 4
GROUND RULES FOR LECTURES
1. Switch off your phone or put it on silence and hide
it.
2. Arrive on time.
3. Laptops are noted allowed.
4. Dress decently.
5. Do not record lectures without my
permission-it’s an offense.
GROUND RULES FOR LECTURES
6. Do not post anything related to the course
on social media without my consent.
7.Ask questions if you are confused.
8. Do not distract or annoy your classmates.
9.**Communicate your concerns and issues
through your class reps, group leaders and TA.
***
• THE COURSE OUTLINE
5/27/2025 7
COURSE DETAILS
• Course code: LING 154
• Course Title: LANGUAGES IN AFRICA.
• Credits: Three (3)
• Lecture Hours: Tuesdays, 10:15am -12:15pm
• Venue: NB SF12
• Course instructor: Dr. Levina Nyameye Abunya
• Office Location: Dept. Office, First floor, Rm 17
• Office Hours: Thursdays, 2:45pm-4:30pm or by appointment
• E-mail Address:
5/27/2025 levina.linguistics@gmail.com 8
EXAMS OFFICE
Office hours: Mondays-Thursdays: 3:00pm-4:00pm
• French and Francophone &Media Communication
• mccffs.exams@knust.edu.gh
• Akan language and culture & Linguistics
• languages.exams@knust.edu.gh
5/27/2025 9
What to include in your email
• Name:
• Programme (Major&Minor):
• Year:
• Index number/student ID
• Write your problem, concerns, issues etc.
5/27/2025 10
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
1. Attendance- it is a must/univ.policy
• Must sign attendance sheet- group levels
• name, major programme, index number, signature
• Get a stamped attendance card if you are unable to
sign due to time.
• Benefits:
• It determines your status/it is your proof
• Requirement for my signature, endorsement/reference
• It carries marks in most cases
5/27/2025 11
COURSE DESCRIPTION
•It exposes students to the language situation in
Africa, including the various language families in
Africa.
•it explores how sub-Saharan Africans use language
to understand, organize, and transmit (culture,
history, etc.) indigenous knowledge to successive
generations.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
1. To expose students to the language situation
in Africa.
2. To introduce students to how sub-Saharan
Africans use language to understand, organize,
and transmit (culture, history, etc.) indigenous
knowledge to successive generations
COURSE OUTCOME
1. Comment on the complex nature of Africa languages and
language families in Africa
2. Explain the various situations of language contact in Africa
3. Identify some problems associated with language policies
and their implementations in Africa
4. Provide some solutions or interventions for some of the
problems associated with language policy formulation and
planning
5. Outline and discuss the various domains in which languages
are used in both traditional and contemporary situations
COURSE SCHEDULE
WK 1- General course introduction (Indiv. Assignment)
WK 2- An introduction to African linguistics
WK3-The classification of African languages (GROUP ASS)
WK 4- language contact effects on the languages of Africa
WK 5-European and Asian Languages in Africa
WK 6- Some linguistic features of Africa languages
5/27/2025 15
COURSE SCHEDULE
WK 7 - MID-SEM EXAMS
WK 8 - African languages in cultures and societies- Group level
WK 9 - Language planning
WK 10 - Language policy
WK 11&12 - Language planning in some selected areas in
Africa –Ghana, South Africa and East Africa
WK 13- END OF SEM EXAMS-
5/27/2025 16
TEACHING AND LEARNING STRATEGIES
• Lecturing and facilitating
• Pre-class readings/reading assignment
• Group studies/reading assignment
• In-class group discussions
• Private studies/individual studies
5/27/2025 17
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
1. Attendance- it is a must/univ.policy
• Must sign attendance sheet- group levels
• name, index number, signature
• Get a stamped attendance shits if you are unable to
sign due to time.
• Benefits:
• It determines your status/it is your proof
• Requirement for my signature
• It carries marks in most cases
5/27/2025 18
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
• 2. Participation:
• Reading Assignment: read before each
lecture, always come prepared
• Individual assignment
• Group Assignment
• Group discussion
5/27/2025 19
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
•3. Classroom Environment-
• discipline
• respect each other
• interactive
5/27/2025 20
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
• 4. Academic dishonesty/prohibited behaviour:
• Cheating – Copying or allowing another to copy
a test, quiz, paper, or project
• Turning in written assignments that are not
your own work
• Plagiarism – the act of representing the work of
another as one’s own without giving credit.
5/27/2025 21
EVALUATION SCHEME
A. Continuous Assessment:
1. Individual Assignment 5 marks
2.Participation & Group Assignment 10 marks
3. Mid-Semester Exams 15 marks
30 marks
B. End-of-Semester Exams 70 marks
Total
5/27/2025
100 % 22
•LECTURE 1
•GENERAL COURSE INTRODUCTION
5/27/2025 23
OUTLINE
• About Africa
• Definition: African linguistics
• Aim and scope of study
5/27/2025 24
5/27/2025 25
AFRICAN LANGUAGES
• How many languages are spoken in
Africa?
•ETHNOLOGUE
5/27/2025 26
GENERAL KNOWLEDGE ASSIGNMENT
1. How many countries are in the five sub-
regions of Africa?
2. How many languages are spoken in each
sub-region?
Do this in your exercise books.
5/27/2025 27
AFRICAN LANGUAGES
• Bender (1997), “1,200 languages at a conservative
estimate”
• Nurse (1997) 1,250–1,500 figure,
• Grimes (1996), there are 2,035 African languages.
• Batibo (2005) estimates between 2000 and 2500
languages.
• According to Ethnologue, there about 2,058 languages
5/27/2025 28
WHY THE DIFFERENCES IN THE EXACT NUMBER OF
LANGUAGES?
1. There is difficulty in distinguishing
between language and dialects.
Splitters vs. Lumpers
5/27/2025 29
SPLITTERS VS. LUMPERS
•Splitters: They regard varieties as distinct
languages (boost the number).
•Lumpers : Treat varieties as different dialects of
the same language (reduce the number)
WHY THE DIFFERENCES IN THE EXACT
NUMBER OF LANGUAGES?
2. Ethnic and linguistic identities are not
clear-cut. Some ethnic groups overlap
3. There are a limited and
outdated/unreliable data on many of the
languages.-languages can have several names
which are sometimes confusing.
5/27/2025 31
AFRICA LINGUISTICS-DEFINITION
1. object of study
2. the choice of its primary
theoretical and methodological
tools
AFRICA LINGUISTICS-DEFINITION- object
of study
•It is the scientific study of African
languages.
•Its object of study, languages in Africa,
makes it a regional science with a
geographic focus on the African
continent.
AFRICAN LINGUISTICS- is a sub-field of
general linguistics
1. It makes use of theories and applies methods that
are being developed in linguistics under a
universal perspective, pertaining to all human
languages on our planet.
2. It feeds back insights gained from applying these
theories and methods to empirical data from
African languages.
AFRICAN LINGUISTICS -MAIN AIM
•It aims at gaining deeper insights into global
linguistic diversity with a restricted focus on Africa:
•by describing and comparing individual languages
•by developing or sharpening tools for the
description and comparison of individual
languages.
READING LIST
1. Childs, George Tucker. 2003. An Introduction to African Languages.
Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing
http://library.lol/main/E45C072E48D65DD7D637FA82DD9A1C43
2. Vossen, Rainer and. Dimmendaal, Gerrit J. 2020. The Oxford Handbook of
African Languages. Oxford: Oxford University Press
http://library.lol/main/F883281DB401D66E8F785C40B65AD10A
3. Wolff, Ekkehard H. (ed.). 2019. The Cambridge handbook of African linguistics.
(Cambridge Handbooks in Language and Linguistics), XXXII + 804. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
http://library.lol/main/A7C7F9E19C46AF3001F7CCCEBAFC70B4
READING LIST
4. Kamwangamalu, N. K. 2004. The language planning situation in South
Africa. In R. B. Baldauf and R. B. Kaplan (eds.). Language planning and
policy: Africa, Vol. I Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique and South Africa
(pp. 197-281). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd.
5. Campbell, Lyle and Poser, Williams. 2008. Language classification:
History and method. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
6. Holmes, Janet. 2013. An introduction to Sociolinguistics 4th edition.
USA: Routledge.
https://salahlibrary.files.wordpress.com/2017/09/janet_holmes-
_an_introduction_to_sociolinguisticb-ok-org.pdf
INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT
1. Visit Ethnologue: Languages of the World website
https://www.ethnologue.com Select Africa-select a country-REGISTER
2. Search for 10 indigenious languages spoken in Africa excluding
Ghana.
3. For each language, indicate the country where the language is
spoken. (should include countries in the five sub-regions of Africa)
4. Do not select two languages from the same country
5. If the language has dialects, indicate them.
6. Cite the URL address you took your information from. It should be
below each language information
nd
ASSIGNMENT FORMAT- MUST BE HAND-WRITTEN
ON THE FIRST PAGE, USE UPPER CASE
• COURSE AND TITLE: LING 154: LANGUAGES IN AFRICA
• ASSIGNMENT TYPE: INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT
• NAME:
• ID:
• GROUP NAME:
• LECTURER:
• SUBMISSION DATE: Tuesday, 2nd June, 2025
• SIGNATURE:
START ASSIGNMENT - On second page, use lower
case
Some African languages and the countries in which they are spoken
1. Language:
Country:
Dialects:
URL:
2. Language:
Country:
Dialects:
URL:
TAKE NOTE:
•It must be done INDIVIDUALLY .
•Your assignment will be
rejected if it does not follow the
guidelines and format given.
GROUP NAMES
•1.Niger-Congo
•2. Kwa family
•3. Gur family
•4. Bantu
•5. Phylum
•6. Afroasiatic
5/27/2025 43
GROUP NAMES
7. Benue-Congo
8. Chadic
9. Lingua franca
10. Genetic classification
11. Joseph Greenberg
12. Khoisan
5/27/2025 44
GROUP NAMES
13. Nilo-Saharan
14. Mande
15. Berber languages
16. Cushitic
17. Linguistic pluralism
18. internationalization
19. Konama
20. Language isolate
5/27/2025 45
WEEK 2: TOPIC
An introduction to African
linguistics
THANK YOU
