In this article an overview is given of the use of modal auxiliary verb constructions in East African Bantu (encompassing languages spoken from eastern Congo in the north-west to northern Mozambique in the south-east; viz. Guthrie zones JD, JE, E, F, G, M, N and P). Modality, here conceptualized as a semantic space comprising different subcategories (or flavors) of possibility and necessity, has traditionally been a neglected category within Bantu linguistics, which has tended to focus instead on the more grammatical(ized) categories of tense, aspect and to a lesser extent mood. Nonetheless, our survey shows that there exists a rich number of different verbs with specialized modal functions in East African Bantu. Moreover, when comparing the variety of modal verbs in East African Bantu and the wider constructions in which they operate, many similar patterns arise. In some cases, different languages make use of cognate verbs for expressing similar modal concepts, in other cases divergent verbs, but with essentially the same source meaning(s), are employed. In addition, both Bantu-internal and Bantu-external contact have played a key role in the formation of several of the languages’ inventories of modal verbs. A typologically significant feature recurrently discovered among the languages surveyed is the tendency of structural manipulations of the same verb base to indicate semantic shift from participant-internal to participant-imposed modal flavors.
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BantUGent contributes to the newly published Cambridge Handbook of Language Contact
Koen Bostoen (BantUGent) and Hilde Gunnink (BantUGent) have a chapter titled “The Impact of Autochthonous Languages on Bantu Language Variation: A Comparative View on Southern and Central Africa” in the newly published Cambridge Handbook of Language Contact: Volume 1: Population Movement and Language Change, edited by In S. Mufwene & A.M. Escobar.
BantUGent research at 9th International Conference on Bantu Languages in Blantyre (Malawi)
The 9th International Conference on Bantu Languages (Bantu 9) was held at the Malawi University of Science and Technology in Blantyre from 7 to 10 June 2022. The program included several research papers involving BantUGent researchers (bold):
- Maud Devos, Rasmus Bernander & Johan Van der Auwera: “Somebody interested in nobody? The specific and negative indefinites ‘somebody’ and ‘nobody’ in Bantu languages”
- Hilde Gunnink: “Contact and Inheritance in the development of lateral obstruents in Southern Bantu”
- Lorenzo Maselli ,Véronique Delvaux, Jean-Pierre Donzo, Sara Pacchiarotti, Koen Bostoen: “Retroflex sounds in the Mai-Ndombe (DRC): the case of nasals in North Boma B82 and Nunu B822”
- Daisuke Shinagawa, Seunghun J. Lee & Lorenzo Maselli: “Postnasal trilling in Bantu cross-linguistic variation and typology overview”
Hilde Gunnink obtains a new postdoctoral grant from FWO
Hilde Gunnink (BantUGent) has obtained a three-year senior postdoctoral grant from the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) for a research project titled “Language contact and linguistic reconstruction: (pre)historic Bantu-Khoisan interactions in Southern Africa in a historical linguistic perspective“. It is a follow-up of her current FWO-funded junior postdoctoral project titled “Language contact between migrating Bantu speakers and resident Khoisan speakers in southern Africa” (2018-2022).
Inge Brinkman talks for the Kongo Academy
On June 4 at 4.30pm (CET) Inge Brinkman (BantUGent) gives an online talk titled “Formal Education Policies in the Kongo Kingdom of the 16th Century” for the Kongo Academy, a platform created in December 2019 by a group of intellectuals interested in promoting the Kongo culture through research, education and training, cultural events and partnerships with institutions and individuals interested in Kongo culture, history, and language. For more information on the event, including the Zoom link and passcode (738070), see here. The recording is available here (passcode: Na%.Y6wi).
Maud Devos and Koen Bostoen consultants for Lola Jaye’s historical novel “The Attic Child”
The British novelist Lola Jaye has a new historical novel out. It is titled “The Attic Child” and was published by Pan MacMillan. The novel retells a true story from the Congo. Dikembe, one of its main characters, is inspired by Ndugu M’Hali (ca. 1865-1877), also known as Kalulu, who was Henry Morton Stanley’s servant. Ndugu tragically died during an expedition on the Lualaba River. Lola Jaye consulted Maud Devos (RMCA & BantUGent) and Koen Bostoen (BantUGent) for access to certain historical language sources and for advice on Bantu language use in her novel.
Gilles-Maurice de Schryver participates in a webinar on the future of Kaaps Afrikaans
On the occasion of the launch of the Trilingual Dictionary of Kaaps, the Ghent Center for Afrikaans and the Study of South Africa (GAZ) organizes on May 18, 2022 (1pm-2.30pm) a webinar on “Kaaps, language variation and the future of Afrikaans” in which also Gilles-Maurice de Schryver (BantUGent) participates.
Online participation is possible.
Mary Charwi (UDSM) in Ghent for a three-month research stay to work on Kuria
On Monday May 2, Dr. Mary Charwi from the University of Dar es Salaam arrived in Ghent for a three-month research stay at BantUGent, which is co-financed by the Global Minds Fund of Ghent University and the Commission Scientific Research (CWO) of the UGent Faculty of Arts and Philosophy. With Prof. Koen Bostoen and his team she will work on an Ethnobotanical and Ethnolinguistic Study of Kuria Medicinal Plants. Kuria is a Bantu language spoken in the Mara region of Northern Tanzania, adjacent to Lake Nyanza/Victoria.
Joseph Koni Muluwa becomes Vice-Rector for Education Policy at ISP Kikwit (DRC)
Prof. Joseph Koni Muluwa (ISP Kikwit – BantUGent), former post-doctoral researcher and visiting professor at Ghent University, has recently been promoted to the position of General Academic Secretary (“secrétaire général académique“) of the Institut Supérieur Pédagogique of Kikwit (DRC), i.e. Vice-Rector for Education Policy.