Practice of Historical Linguistics and Language Codification in Africa

Abstract

The sheer number of languages in Africa is remarkable; more than 2000 languages are believed to be alive in the continent. Today one can read a newspaper in Swahili, a novel in Gikuyu, or surf the Web in Yoruba. This article offers a diachronic perspective on the scholarly activities that have contributed to the codification, documentation, classification, and description of African languages. It discusses the ideology and methods underlying the practice of historical linguistics in Africa prior to the 1960s when modern scientific linguistics began. It contrasts the methods and works of the early practitioners of historical linguistics with the works of modern language scholars. It provides a sample of contemporary linguistic works implicated in language description and codification.