book chapter
Studies in African linguistic classification: 1. the Niger-Congo family
Southwestern journal of anthropology • 5 • Published In 1949 • Pages: 79-100 [incomplete]
By: Greenberg, Joseph Harold.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This monograph, by a foremost linguist, is the first in a series which attempts to systematically reclassify genetically the languages of Africa. In it, he defines a new language group: the Niger-Congo linguistic family, thus departing from Meinhof's standard classification, because the latter 'does not lead to genitic classification.' The basis for Greenberg's redefinition of linguistic relationships has been lexical comparison rather than linguistic structural criteria, because of the absence of extensive grammatical analysis. Because so few linguists have been interested in the entire gamut of African languages, this work automatically achieves significance. However, except for demonstrating certain linguistic affiliations of Zande, and suggesting the direction of its drift, this work is necessarily of limited value to the Zande specialist; the student interested in internal systems of the Zande language, and dialectical differentiation, or phonetic structure must look elsewhere.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Linguistic identification
- Grammar
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Azande
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 1999
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Africa
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Central Africa
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- book chapter
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Linguist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- CT, FML ; 1951
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- no date
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- not specified
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Central African Republic; Africa
- NotesAdditional notes
- Joseph H. Greenberg
- This document consists of excerpts
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 47005758
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Zande (African people)