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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Languages and glossonymic units: contribution to the assessment of the linguistic diversity of Angola and Namibia
Author:Lusakalalu, Pedro
Year:2001
Periodical:Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere: Schriftenreihe des Kölner Instituts für Afrikanistik
Issue:66
Pages:47-65
Language:English
Geographic terms:Angola
Namibia
Subjects:language classification
Bantu languages
Abstract:In a publication by the University of Namibia, Huth (1994) put the number of Angolan languages at 64. This contrasts sharply with a count of nine Bantu languages in Angola put forward by Kukanda (1992). The present paper suggests an analysis which shows what these differences could mean. It proposes the concept of glossonymic unit, a unit of language labelled with a glossonym. The glossonymic units in a country can be grouped. Some glossonymic units can be viewed as languages, others as linguistic varieties or dialects of a language. The paper uses examples of Bantu languages spoken in Angola and Namibia to place languages into three major categories. It demonstrates that, to be sure a glossonym denotes a language, as opposed to a variety of a language, that glossonym should be the only one in the group presented as a correlation between ethnonyms and glossonyms, sometimes involving toponyms. Such a group is placed in category 2. The acceptability of that glossonym distinguishes category 1 from category 3. In category 3 it makes sense for that glossonym to be contested as the cover name for the others. In a country with a large number of category 1 and/or category 3 glossonymic units the number of languages will be presented as a range with a wide margin of error. Bibliogr., sum.
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