Author Description

The present study deals with the Surmic language group, spoken in southw. Ethiopia and in the southern Sudan. Until recently, these languages were among the least studied on the Afr. continent. The editors reunite the analytical study of languages and the investigation of the social dimension of language structure. For them areal diffusion and lang. contact play an important role in the understanding of formal linguistic matters. The present vol. contains a series of pioneering studies addressing synchronic and diachronic aspects of these little known languages. CONTENTS: Pt I GENERAL: Gerrit J. Dimmendaal: Surmic Languages and cultures – An introduction / Gerrit J. Dimmendaal: A syntactic typology of the Surmic family from an areal and historical-comparative point of view / Moges Yigezu: Women in society and female speech among the Suri of Southwestern Ethiopia / Peter Unseth / Jon Abbink: Cross-ethnic clan identities among Surmic groups and their neighbours – The case of the Mela / Peter Unseth: Two old causative affixes in Surmic languages / Jon Abbink / Peter Unseth: Surmic languages and cultures – A bibliography / Pt II NORTHERN SURMIC: Peter Unseth: Notes on clan, kinship and marriage patterns among the Manjang / Pt III SOUTHWESTERN SURMIC: Jonathan Arensen: Murle categorization / Scott Randal: A grammatical sketch of Tennet / Moges Yigezu / Gerrit J. Dimmendaal: Notes on Baale / Pt IV SOUTHEASTERN SURMIC: Jon Abbink: Violence and political discourse among the Chai Suri / Osamu Hieda: A sketch of Koegu grammar – Towards reconstructing Proto-Southeastern Surmic / Marco Last / Deborah Lucassen: A grammatical sketch of Chai, a Southeastern Surmic language / H.-G. Will: The Me’en verb system – Does Me’en have tenses? — REVIEW: “This volume will surely stand as a standard reference work in Surmic linguistics for many years.” (D. Odden in Journal of Afr. Lang. and Ling. 21/2, 2000, 192-195)