Author Description

Alagwa is a West-Rift Southern Cushitic language spoken in the area around the town of Kooloo in the Kondoa district of Tanzania by approximately 10,000 people, who are better known under the Bantu term Wasi or Waasi in Tanzania. Previous linguistic work on the language is scarce. If at all, Alagwa is mostly treated among other languages, e.g. in the context of historical reconstruction. The present monograph is therefore the first comprehensive linguistic description of Alagwa to be published. The book is structured as follows: Following a general introduction to the Alagwa area, the people and the language, chapter 2 deals with phonology, whereas a separate section is devoted to the various reduplication processes. Chapter 3 discusses the nominal modifying suffixes (demonstrative, possessive, directional, negative) and presents the pronouns, i.e. the independent counterparts of the modifying suffixes as well as personal pronouns. Chapter 4 addresses the complex number formation, nominal derivation as well as gender and its interrelatedness with number. Chapters 5 and 6 treat verbal derivation and verbal inflection, respectively. Chapter 7 is dedicated to the inflectional elements termed selectors. Chapter 8 lists the remaining word classes: adjectives, quantifiers, adverbs, ideophones and question words. Chapter 9 deals with syntax. Finally, chapters 10 and 11 contain a sample of Alagwa texts as well as a short Alagwa-English lexicon including an English index. Further publications on Bantu and South Cushitic languages have been published by the author in our programme: - Die Rekonstruktion der südkuschitischen Sprachen (West-Rift) (ISBN 978-3-89645-066-1) - The Lexical Reconstruction of West-Rift Southern Cushitic (ISBN 978-3-89645-068-5) - A Grammatical Sketch of Mbugwe (ISBN 978-3-89645-048-7) - Iraqw Texts (ISBN 978-3-927620-34-6) - Iraqw-English Dictionary (ISBN 978-3-89645-065-4)