AAeO, Afrikanistik-Aegyptologie-Online, is a peer reviewed journal publishing scholarly articles and monographs on Africa in all its geographical breadth and historical depth, taking into account the diasporas around the world as well as the reception of Africa and African affairs throughout history.
This article is about the basis of different ways used by pepel language to describe relativity. The language distinguishes two types of functioning manners. The first strategy is marked by the presence of a relativisor placed after the verb including a nominal class. The second strategy is recognized by a morphem placed between the antecedent and the relative. As all the arguments are relativisable in pepel, I will do my best to investigate one case after another the relativisation of the subject, then that of the object befor ending with the relativisation of circumstants.
Copyright (c) 2015 Dame Ndao https://lizenzen.hbz-nrw.de/dppl/3.0/
L’article est basé sur quelques notes prises par le co-auteur à Bongbokpole au cours d’une enquête exploratoire menée chez les Aɓaɓóa du groupement Bokpendú, Territoire des Bambesa, qui prétendent qu’à côté du leɓóale leurs ancêtres usaient d’un langage nommé letakpú, qui était parlé exclusivement non seulement par les guerriers du clan Bongbokpole pendant les batailles mais aussi par d’autres membres de la communauté à l’occasion des palabres dans le but de protéger les secrets des délibérations ; d’où l’interdiction de sa révélation aussi bien aux étrangers qu’aux membres du clan Bongbokpole même en qui on n’avait pas confiance. Les présentes notes n’étant pas obtenues à l’aide d’un questionnaire classique, moins encore le produit d’une enquête menée par un linguiste professionnel mais plutôt par quelqu’un qui n’a bénéficié d’une initiation à la linguistique africaine que pour des fins de traduction de la bible, ne permettent pas d’avoir une idée très nette sur la structure de ce letakpú, et par conséquent d’établir avec certitude à quel groupe de dialectes ɓóa il devrait être rangé ; et surtout de vérifier l’hypothèse d’une langue initiatique ou intentionnellement créée pour être employée dans une sphère privée. Le letakpú pourrait bien être une langue empruntée à l’un ou l’autre parler des pygmoïdes Bakangó, pêcheurs des rives de l’Uélé et de la Bomokandi ; car il s’y trouve pas mal d’éléments apparemment d’origine disparate.
Copyright (c) 2022 André Motingea Mangulu, Dieudonné Tazanaba Kadite https://lizenzen.hbz-nrw.de/dppl/3.0/
Kolly, Leclère & Bracke 2025. Reprendre le voir
Maryam Kolly, Anaïs Leclère et Sarah Bracke (éds) Reprendre le voir. Études critiques sur les images entre genre et islam, Bruxelles: Presses Universitaires Saint-Louis, 2025, 364 pages
Copyright (c) 2026 Fatima Sadiqi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
A Conversation Analytic Approach to Instant Messaging Service Encounters
Dieser Aufsatz präsentiert eine Instant Messaging (IM) Studie zu Dienstleistungsanfragen und Preisverhandlungen eines in Nairobi ansässigen Tattoo-Künstlers. Mit Blick auf Höflichkeitsstrategien und spezifischen Abfolgen von Sprecherwechseln (turn-taking) in diesen Begegnungen bietet diese Studie neue Einblicke in das soziolinguistische Feld von Höflichkeit im Kontext einer Konversationsanalyse in computervermittelter Kommunikation (CMC). Auf welche Weise wahren Künstler und Kunden Höflichkeit? Das einflussreichste, wenn auch weithin kritisierte Modell von Brown & Levinson (1987), dient hierbei als Basis der Analyse einer "new-wave politeness” (zusammengefasst und weiterentwickelt von Kádár & Haugh 2013). Sprecherwechsel werden durch Fotos als Auslöser für eine Sequenz und auch Auftreten und Konsequenzen von Überlappungen angezeigt. Letztendlich werden alternative Ausdrucksformen von Multimodalität (d.h. nonverbales Verhalten und Emotionen) als Verhandlungsformen dargestellt.
Copyright (c) 2020 Maren Rüsch https://lizenzen.hbz-nrw.de/dppl/3.0/
This article is about travel as transgression, pilgrimage and fetish. It bases on empirical research conducted by the authors at now-closed sites of transgressive party tourism in El Arenal on the island of Mallorca. Constructions of transgression and lostness are seen as being complex: Getting lost while traveling is regarded as part of the scripted confusion in the tourist zone. We therefore investigate the noise in the beer halls as opportunities for the tourists to create meaning in situations when one does not know how to articulate oneself properly. Instead of leading to destruction, the lack of ordered language, we argue, serves the reification of order. Through the production of ambiguity and meaning, community could be created. Despite the abrupt halt of the tourism industry due to the pandemic in 2020, this need for ritual transgression and community making did not disappear. By its unavailability, the outcry for the rituals became even more channeled on digital platforms. Soon, products were sold online that should help to replace those which could usually be found in the shops in El Arenal. Implementing the consumerist part of the imaginary of adventure, the items further deliver the previously performed mockery of the marginalized to the holiday makers in their home apartments. The ritual transgression by tourists at the Spanish party site always involved giving a role to West African migrants. As ambulant vendors, by wearing carnivalesque costumes and selling items such as sunglasses, they were to offer moorings for order to be restored, making racism and segregation along the boundaries constructed by classism obvious parts of the consumption and excess in the area. The street vendors, who could before at least slightly benefit in a financial way from their inclusion in the party industry at the beach, were then completely bypassed by the online T-shirt sales, and the hostility of the images representing them increased. We argue that, with reference to Walter Benjamin, these transgressive objects at the cost of marginalized and precarious Others were necessary for the upholding of ritual confusion and the following reinstallation of order.
Copyright (c) 2021 Anne Storch, Janine Traber https://lizenzen.hbz-nrw.de/dppl/3.0/
The Body as a Toolbox in the Hausa Language
This paper discusses Hausa proverbs related to body parts and bodily functions. The Hausa people sometimes conceptualize body-related proverbs as tools used to perform certain functions virtually or in reality. Thus, this study attempts to explore some of these proverbs and analyze them within the framework of Linguistic Relativity, nowadays associated with Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf. Through the use of a purposive sampling pro-cedure, the data (the proverbs) for the study is generated from a written textbook on Hausa proverbs and from non-participant observation of spontaneous communication among Hausa native speakers in Kano state, Nigeria. From the analysis of the selected proverbs, the study found out that Hausa people have a penchant of conceptualizing body parts as tools. And this further reinforces the belief that although in the Western world, some of the works associated with human body are, to a large extent, done by machines these days, in Africa, human body parts are still used as tools to perform a number of functions, hence their linguistic conceptualization as such.
Copyright (c) 2021 Aliyu Yalubu Yusuf https://lizenzen.hbz-nrw.de/dppl/3.0/
Possession adnominale dans différentes variétés de wolof
The aim of this article is to show the diversity of several varieties of Wolof, which are still little known and very poorly exploited, by showing clear differences between certain dialectal varieties, at the morphological and syntactic levels. The field in which this diversity will be dealt with is the adnominal possession through two structures: the possessive construction and the genitive construction. The description and comparison of these constructions in several varieties show quite important differences in the morphemes used or in the use of apparently identical morphemes leading to quite different rules of construction according to the dialects.
Copyright (c) 2019 Sylvie Voisin https://lizenzen.hbz-nrw.de/dppl/3.0/
Jules Mansaly 2020. „Les deux amis, les tresses, et la viande“ – Contes balant du Sénégal. Mit Zeichnungen von: Carmen E. Weinzierl. Reihe: Wortkunst und Dokumentartexte in afrikanischen Sprachen Band 40, hg. von W. J. G. Möhlig, 74 Seiten, 39 Zeichnungen, Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, ISBN 978-3-89645-740-0, € 26,80
Copyright (c) 2021 Sigrid Schmidt https://lizenzen.hbz-nrw.de/dppl/3.0/
Klischee und Realität: Fotografische Erfahrungsfragmente von Aufenthalten in Afrika
How can one free oneself from the stereotypes that have been handed down through history and are constantly being perpetuated by the media today? Is a trip to Africa or specialist knowledge enough to distinguish between stereotype and reality?
Copyright (c) 2006 Fabian Heerbaart, Kathrin Kolossa, Mareike Limanski, Peter André Rodekuhr, Marc Seifert, Sylvia Stankowski, Marilena Thanassoula https://lizenzen.hbz-nrw.de/dppl/3.0/
This article accounts for DP-internal concord phenomena in Bafut [2] while at the same time characterizing the internal structure of the Bafut DP in the light of various word order patterns displayed. In the Bafut DP, all arguments and satellites follow the head noun (except when focused) and agree with it in number and gender/class. The following examples illustrate the various word order and concord patterns. In these, and subsequent examples, figures in the glosses indicate noun class.
Copyright (c) 2006 Pius N. Tamanji https://lizenzen.hbz-nrw.de/dppl/3.0/
Woher kommen die Infixe im Isu (Kameruner Grasland)?
Die westliche Ring-Sprache Isu (Süd-Bantoid) des Kameruner Graslands setzt ein palatales Infix zum Ausdruck einer Reihe verwandter verbaler Funktionen – imperfektiver Aspekt, Pluraktional, Kausativ – ein. Damit hebt sie sich deutlich vom engeren Bantu- und weiteren Benue-Kongo-Habitus ab, der sich dadurch auszeichnet, Kategorien dieser Art entweder durch verbale Suffixe oder durch Periphrase mithilfe von Hilfsverben zu kodieren. Morphologische Distributionsanalyse, interne Rekonstruktion und externer Vergleich innerhalb der Ring-Gruppe ermöglichen es, die historischen Ursprünge dieses palatalen Infixes einzukreisen und es als Abbauprodukt einer Hochvokal-Reduplikation (ursprünglich in Progressivfunktion) zu identifizieren, wie sie (a) in anderen Niger-Kongo-Sprachen nicht unüblich ist, und (b) wie sie sogar als kognate Vorläuferkonstruktion in der Süd-Ring-Sprache Babungo nachgewiesen werden kann. Funktional-diachron gesehen, wurde im Isu ein vormaliger Progressiv in zunehmendem Maße als Imperfektiv grammatikalisiert und ist damit in die Domäne der älteren Imperfektiv-Strategie -ə (< *-a) eingedrungen. Auf diese Art fügen sich das Isu und seine nächsten Verwandten trotz dieser eigentümlichen Infix-Phänomene sauber in das Gesamtbild westafrikanischer Sprachen ein.
Copyright (c) 2006 Roland Kießling https://lizenzen.hbz-nrw.de/dppl/3.0/
This paper investigates the acoustic realization of Advanced Tongue Root (ATR) vowel contrasts in Dholuo, with particular attention to gender-conditioned variation in vowel production. Using Lobanov-normalized formant measurements (F1 and F2), the study analyzes speech data from eight native speakers (four female and four male) representing two dialect regions, Kisumu South Nyanza (KSN) and Boro-Ukwala (BU). The analysis focuses on the distribution of the nine Dholuo vowels in acoustic space and the realization of four ATR vowel pairs (/i–ɪ, e–ɛ, o–ɔ, u–ʊ/), with /a/ treated as neutral. To assess the reliability of observed acoustic differences, analyses of variance (ANOVA) were conducted on normalized F1 values across vowel categories and speaker groups. The results show that ATR contrasts are consistently reflected in the acoustic data, with [+ATR] vowels exhibiting lower F1 values than their [−ATR] counterparts. The statistical analysis confirms that these differences are significant across the vowel inventory and that both vowel category and gender contribute to variation in F1, with a significant interaction between the two factors. This pattern is particularly robust in the female data, where clear separation is observed across all vowel pairs. In the male data, ATR distinctions are generally maintained but show reduced consistency, especially in the high front pair /i–ɪ/, where the expected pattern is weakened. Vowel space analysis further indicates that female speakers produce more clearly differentiated vowel categories, while male speakers exhibit greater dispersion and overlap in certain regions of the acoustic space. Overall, the findings provide phonetic evidence for the acoustic implementation of ATR contrasts in Dholuo, demonstrating that while the contrast is systematically maintained, its acoustic reali-zation varies across vowel pairs and speaker groups.
Copyright (c) 2026 Merceline Ochieng https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
African Studies in the Czech Republic: Comments on J. Záhořík‘s pape
Copyright (c) 2013 Petr Zima https://lizenzen.hbz-nrw.de/dppl/3.0/
A contribution to the documentation of Siwi (Berber) through an annotated folktale
The aim of this paper is to contribute to the documentation of the Siwi language (Berber, Egypt), through the transcription and translation of an unpublished folktale, recorded by the author in Siwa (Egypt) in 2018. The main stylistic features of the tale are described in the first part of the paper, while grammatical notes on the language are provided in the footnotes, in order to clarify some passages that could otherwise not be easily understood through the transcription, glosses and translation alone.
Copyright (c) 2019 Valentina Schiattarella https://lizenzen.hbz-nrw.de/dppl/3.0/
The linguistic features of Bangala before Lingala
Described are the lexical and grammatical features of the pidgin Bangala, spoken between roughly 1880 and 1900 in western, northern, and northeastern Congo. This pidgin formed the basis of what after 1900 became, in northern and western Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lingala, and what in northeastern DRC remained known as “Bangala”. Pre-1900 Bangala arose out of the pidginization of Bobangi in the context of the arrival of the first European conquerors and their East and West African troops. First is discussed the sociohistorical evidence given by contemporaneous sources for the emergence of Bangala out of Bobangi and its development then into Lingala. The problematic notions of “pidgin” and “pidginization” is also addressed. The bulk of the article then describes the linguistic features of the pidgin. This is done on the basis of contemporaneous sources, documenting the language as it was spoken in its own time, and on the basis of strict data selection criteria. The linguistic features of the pidgin included, in the lexicon, the loss of the functional load of tone, the scarcity of function words, word category indeterminacy through generalization and multifunctionality, foreign input, and more than average use of transparent periphrasis; and, in the grammar, reduction of nominal class inflection and of agreement patterns in the noun phrase, reduction in subject person inflection on the verb, reduction of tense-aspect-modality distinctions, loss or reduction of root ex-tensions, and a strong general tendency away from morphological syntheticity towards syntactic analyticization. The study of the colonial context and of the linguistics of pre-1900 Bangala is of major importance for our understanding of present-day Lingala and northeastern Bangala.
Copyright (c) 2019 Michael Meeuwis https://lizenzen.hbz-nrw.de/dppl/3.0/
Adwiraah & Jungraithmayr 2020. Orale Literatur in Mokilko
Adwiraah, Eleonore & Herrmann Jungraithmayr. 2020. Orale Literatur in Mokilko. 41 Erzählungen und Fabeln über Menschen und Tiere im zentralen Tschad. Westafrikanische Studien Bd. 42. Faksimile-Reproduktion eines Manuskripts aus dem Jahr 1993. Übertragungen ins Deutsche mit thematischen Schlüsselwörtern und einem deutschen und englischen Begriffsindex, 3Karten, zahlreiche Tabellen und Übersichten, Rüdiger Köppe Verlag Köln, ISBN 878-3-89645-479-9, €69,80
Falola 2024. Writing the History of the African Diaspora
Toyin Falola (2024). Writing the History of the African Diaspora. Elements in Historical Theory and Practice. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-009-47568-6, € 58,34, published online on 14 May 2024, online ISBN 978-1-009-44208-4, DOI: 10.1017/9781009442084, digital access for individuals € 19,84
Copyright (c) 2025 Katharina Monz https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
The peopling of the Muri Mountains, Northern Nigeria:
The Muri Mountains and the adjacent area of Northern Nigeria is home to a complex mosaic of ethnic groups whose languages are from different language families (Chadic, Adamawa, Jarawan Bantu, Jukunoid, Central Sudanic) as well as including an isolate, Jalaa. The paper synthesises both detailed work on a large corpus of historical traditions recorded in the 1990s, supplemented by reference to published and unpublished sources. This has numerous parallels to the situation in other ‘refuge’ areas of Africa, most notably the Nuba Mountains. An outline of the complex population history is presented with hypotheses as to the stratification of populations and the dynamic flux and migrations of peoples. The language isolate, Jalaa, may well be the remaining evidence for the earliest layer of population. The first incoming population was probably the Adamawa speakers, followed by Chadic groups. The Jarawan Bantu and the Jukun would have been later and the Kaba Laka, Central Sudanic, the final migration into the area. The ethnography of the region is characterised by exchange of ideas and practices, as well as linguistic and cultural restructuring. In contrast to other areas of Africa, the Muri Mountains have remained almost unknown to the broader research community.
Copyright (c) 2026 Jörg Adelberger, Roger Blench https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Adwiraah & Jungraithmayr 2021. Orale Literatur in Sibine (Sumray). Orale Literatur in Migama.
Adwiraah, Eleonore & Herrmann Jungraithmayr 2021. Orale Literatur in Sibine (Sumray). 29 Erzählungen und Fabeln über Menschen und Tiere im zentralen Tschad. Orale Literatur in Migama. 7 Erzählungen und Fabeln über Menschen und Tiere im zentralen Tschad. Faksimile-Reproduktion eines Manuskripts aus dem Jahr 1993, Übertragungen ins Deutsche mit thematischen Schlüsselwörtern. Westafrikanische Studien 43. Rüdiger Köppe Verlag Köln, ISBN 878-3-89645-604-5, € 59,80
Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
L’origine et la signification du glossonyme lingala
This article argues that the names Lingála or Mangála, used as glossonyms, are short-forms or elliptical expressions of mangála má libɔkɔ, or sometimes lingála lí mabɔkɔ, which mean ‘the language of markets’ in Bobangi. The names Lingála or Mangála, in themselves, mean ‘language’ or ‘jargon’ and libɔkɔ means ‘big market’. The present work establishes the limits of alternative hypotheses that have been suggested in the literature, namely (i) that the glossonym Lingala may come from the ethnonym Bangala: erroneous because the Bangála people never existed), (ii) that the names li-ngála/ma-ngála come from the noun mongálá meaning ‘the arm of the river’: mongálá and ma-ngála contain two completely different roots and with different tones in Bobangi, or finally (iii) that the designation of the language with the prefix li- (li-ngála) was an invention of Catholic missionaries: this cannot be, because the language or jargon in question was already called either Bobangi, Mangala or Lingala before colonization. This work draws on historical sociolinguistics as well as the grammar of Bobangi and Lingala to explain the origin and meaning of the glossonym. It gives an account of how Africans named this language before the various glossonyms proposed by Europeans.
Haptische, visuelle und olfaktorische Sprachen: Westnilotische Wahrnehmungen
This article deals with the expression of sensual perceptions in Western Nilotic languages. The first part of the article presents ophresiological terminology in Lwoo and Burun languages, whereby it is demonstrated that words denoting smells can form a word class of its own in some of the languages. This world-wide rare phenomenon is still poorly understood and little described, so that the paper aims at giving a first insight into the topic. The second part of the article deals with the description of colours in Western Nilotic. Differentiated colour terminology is only found in connection with livestock vocabulary and as such largely depends on cultural patterns and socioeconomic patterns. The section aims at demonstrating that the parameters do change and colour terminology may also refer to other domains. The third part of the article presents an overview of the nominal classifiers in Mabaan (Burun), whereby a categorisation according to haptic principles is described as the underlying cognitive structure. As a result, different grammaticalisation paths are assumed and correlated with punctuations in the cultural and mental history of the speakers’ ancestors.
Copyright (c) 2005 Anne Storch https://lizenzen.hbz-nrw.de/dppl/3.0/
Swahili Forum in its 10th year – now online
The steady growth of research, teaching and publishing over the last twenty years on all continents has made Swahilistics a well established and much differentiated sub-discipline within African studies. Its object is the study of the language, literature, society, culture and history of the Swahili-speaking populations in East Africa and the diaspora and the usage of the language in transnational institutions and the internet.
Copyright (c) 2005 Thomas Geider https://lizenzen.hbz-nrw.de/dppl/3.0/
The Internet as a Research Tool for African Studies
The internet has become recognized quite generally as a valuable research tool. Even though African languages are not well represented in the internet there are numerous pieces of valuable information for African Studies to be discovered in virtual fieldwork: short vocabularies and descriptions of various African languages published by individual authors, university departments or travel agencies, and texts in African languages mostly written or translated by missionaries or NGOs. These data tend to reflect the standard variants of the languages used. Contributions in forums provide, however, a type of speech that is close to oral communication. Linguistic data can be found by using the name of the respective languages combined with terms such as “language”, “grammar”, “course” or the name of an author as search items. Series of words (in double quotes) that are likely to occur in oral and/or written language constitute good search items for finding texts and contributions to forums.
Copyright (c) 2005 Helma Pasch https://lizenzen.hbz-nrw.de/dppl/3.0/
Griefenow-Mewis & Bitima (Hrsg.) 2004. Oromo Oral Poetry Seen from Within
Griefenow-Mewis, Catherine & Tamene Bitima (Hrsg.) 2004. Oromo Oral Poetry Seen from Within. With an introduction by Wilhelm J.G. Möhlig. (Wortkunst und Dokumentartexte Band 20). Köln: Rüdiger Köppe. 91 Seiten, Broschur, € 14,80. ISBN 3-89645-276-2
Copyright (c) 2005 Marc Seifert https://lizenzen.hbz-nrw.de/dppl/3.0/
Storch & Leger (Hrsg.) 2002. Die afrikanistische Feldforschung
Anne Storch & Rudolf Leger (Hrsg.) 2002. Die afrikanistische Feldforschung. (Frankfurter Afrikanistische Blätter, 14.) Köln: Köppe. 190 Seiten. 2 Karten, Broschur. € 34,80. ISBN 3-89645-016-6
Copyright (c) 2005 Yvonne Treis https://lizenzen.hbz-nrw.de/dppl/3.0/
La Theologie africaine a l’aube d’un nouveau siecle
Il est difficile, à l’heure actuelle, d’appréhender la situation de la théologie africaine, dans les limites d’une réflexion consacrée à la rencontre entre la Parole de Dieu et le contexte africain contemporain. En effet, la théologie africaine est une réalité variée et parfois fuyante. Comment rendre compte du développement des activités théologiques dans chaque pays ou dans chaque grande aire de l’Afrique, sans être obligé de faire des raccourcis, de schématiser, et finalement de simplifier?
Copyright (c) 2005 André Mukenge https://lizenzen.hbz-nrw.de/dppl/3.0/
Cardinal directions and environmental concepts of landscape in Kwanyama (Owambo)
This contribution examines some conceptual domains of environment among the Kwanyama speakers of northern Namibia, focussing on the linguistic expression as well as on their semantic facets and richness. In many cases, it will become clear that the designation of landscape and its scenic characteristics of landscape does not necessarily require specific terms. Instead, it often makes use of phraseological and descriptive devices, which must be regarded as strongly context dependent. The major part of this paper deals with different types of landscape, their conceptualisation as well as their linguistic expression. This includes mainly the domains of forest, savannah, seasonal grassland and their salient features and elements. Finally, the findings will be contrasted with results from my survey on place names conducted in the Owambo region as part of a Sonderforschungsbereich (SFB) 389 (1.12.2005) project.
Copyright (c) 2005 Dirk Otten https://lizenzen.hbz-nrw.de/dppl/3.0/
LeBeau, Debie. 2003. Dealing with Disorder. Traditional and Western Medicine in Katutura (Namibia). Namibian African Studies Band 6, XVIII, 301 Seiten, 3 Karten, 13 s/w-Fotos, 49 Tabellen, zahlreiche Übersichten, Anhang € 32,80.
Copyright (c) 2005 Susanne v. Daniels https://lizenzen.hbz-nrw.de/dppl/3.0/
Jungraithmayr, Möhlig & Storch. 2004. Lehrbuch der Hausa-Sprache
Jungraithmayr, Herrmann, Wilhelm J.G. Möhlig & Anne Storch 2004. Lehrbuch der Hausa-Sprache. Grundkurs in 30 Lektionen. (Afrikawissenschaftliche Lehrbücher, Bd. 13), Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag. Broschur, € 34,80. ISBN 3-89645-006-9.
Copyright (c) 2005 Uwe Seibert https://lizenzen.hbz-nrw.de/dppl/3.0/