Thilo C. Schadeberg | |
---|---|
Born | 1942 Dresden, Germany |
Nationality | German |
Occupation | Linguist |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | University of Marburg (Ph.D., 1971) |
Academic work | |
Institutions | Leiden University |
Main interests | Bantu languages and Kordofanian languages |
Thilo Christian Schadeberg (born 1942 in Dresden,Germany) is an Emeritus Professor of Bantu Linguistics at the Centre for Linguistics of Leiden University. [1]
Schadeberg obtained his PhD at the University of Marburg in 1971 and was a Professor of African Languages and Cultures at Leiden since 1986. His research focuses on Bantu languages of East Africa and Angola,and Kordofanian languages of Sudan.
Schadeberg was the sole editor of the Journal of African Languages and Linguistics (JALL) [2] from 1983 [3] to 1989. [4] Previously,he had been associate editor of JALL since its foundation by Paul Newman in 1979. [5]
Schadeberg is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) since 1989. [6] He was a visiting professor at the University of Bayreuth from 2004-2007. [7]
Schadeberg published many scholarly articles and book chapters,including: [8] [9]
The Kordofanian languages are a geographic grouping of five language groups spoken in the Nuba Mountains of the South Kordofan region of Sudan: Talodi–Heiban languages, Lafofa languages, Rashad languages, Katla languages and Kadu languages. The first four groups are sometimes regarded as branches of the hypothetical Niger–Congo family, whereas Kadu is now widely seen as a branch of the proposed Nilo-Saharan family.
Niger–Congo is a hypothetical language family spoken over the majority of sub-Saharan Africa. It unites the Mande languages, the Atlantic–Congo languages, and possibly several smaller groups of languages that are difficult to classify. If valid, Niger–Congo would be the world's largest in terms of member languages, the third-largest in terms of speakers, and Africa's largest in terms of geographical area. Austronesian has almost as many member languages, although this is complicated by the ambiguity about what constitutes a distinct language; the number of named Niger–Congo languages listed by Ethnologue is 1,540.
Malcolm Guthrie was an English linguist who specialized in Bantu languages.
The Daju languages are spoken in isolated pockets by the Daju people across a wide area of Sudan and Chad. In Sudan, they are spoken in parts of the regions of Kordofan and Darfur, in Chad they are spoken in Wadai. The Daju languages belong to the Eastern Sudanic subfamily of Nilo-Saharan.
In most classifications, the Eastern Sudanic languages are a group of nine families of languages that may constitute a branch of the Nilo-Saharan language family. Eastern Sudanic languages are spoken from southern Egypt to northern Tanzania.
The Atlantic–Congo languages comprise the largest demonstrated family of languages in Africa. They have characteristic noun class systems and form the core of the Niger–Congo family hypothesis. They comprise all of Niger–Congo apart from Mande, Dogon, Ijoid, Siamou, Kru, the Katla and Rashad languages, and perhaps some or all of the Ubangian languages. Hans Gunther Mukanovsky's "Western Nigritic" corresponded roughly to modern Atlantic–Congo.
In early 20th century classification of African languages, Sudanic was a generic term for languages spoken in the Sahel belt, from Ethiopia in the east to Senegal in the west.
The Kadu languages, also known as Kadugli–Krongo or Tumtum, are a small language family of the Kordofanian geographic grouping, once included in Niger–Congo. However, since Thilo Schadeberg (1981), Kadu is widely seen as Nilo-Saharan. Evidence for a Niger-Congo affiliation is rejected, and a Nilo-Saharan relationship is controversial. A conservative classification would treat the Kadu languages as an independent family.
Umbundu, or South Mbundu, one of many Bantu languages, is the most widely-spoken autochthonous language of Angola. Its speakers are known as Ovimbundu and are an ethnic group constituting a third of Angola's population. Their homeland is the Central Highlands of Angola and the coastal region west of these highlands, including the cities of Benguela and Lobito. Because of recent internal migration, there are now also large communities in the capital Luanda and its surrounding province, as well as in Lubango.
Marvin Lionel Bender was an American linguist.
The Rashad languages form a small language family in the Nuba Hills of Sudan. They are named after Rashad District of South Kordofan.
The Talodi–Heiban languages are a proposed branch of the hypothetical Niger–Congo family, spoken in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan. The Talodi and Heiban languages are thought to be distantly related by Dimmendaal, though Glottolog 4.4 does not accept the unity of Talodi–Heiban pending further evidence.
Lumun (Lomon), also Kuku-Lumun, is a Niger–Congo language in the Talodi family spoken in the Nuba Mountains, Sudan.
Tegali is a Kordofanian language in the Rashad family, which is thought by some to belong to the hypothetical Niger–Congo phylum. It is spoken in South Kordofan state, Sudan.
Acheron (Asheron) is a Niger–Congo language in the Talodi family spoken in South Kordofan, Sudan.
Kinga is a Bantu language of the Kinga tribe in Tanzania. It is closely related to Magoma, but mutual intelligibility is low.
Päri, or Lokoro, is a Luo language of South Sudan. Päri has been claimed to have ergative alignment, which is rare-to-nonexistent in African languages, although recent descriptions of the language have instead described the case system as marked nominative (nominative–absolutive).
Zinza (Dzinda) is a Bantu language of Tanzania, spoken on the southern shore of Lake Victoria.
Archibald Norman Tucker was a Cape Colony-born linguist specializing in Bantu languages. He earned his MA degree at the University of Cape Town. He did some study of Bantu languages in southern Africa and also made a trip to Sudan to study languages there. He worked as Linguistic Expert of non-Arabic languages for the Sudan Government from 1929 to 1931. He later moved to England in 1931. In London, Tucker studied under Alice Werner and Daniel Jones, earning his Ph.D. at University College London. Later he studied for a short time under Carl Meinhof in Hamburg.
Proto-Niger–Congo is the hypothetical reconstructed proto-language of the proposed Niger–Congo language family.
The Journal of African Languages and Linguistics (JALL) was founded in 1979 at the University of Leiden, with Paul Newman as Editor and Thilo Schadeberg as Associate Editor.
Many Bantu languages have the balanced seven-vowel system i I ε a ɔ υ u. It is the system that one would, on internal evidence, reconstruct for proto-Bantu. Many other Bantu languages have a reduced five-vowel system i εaɔυu.