Growing consensus in historical-comparative linguistics suggests that longstanding issues in large-scale language classification can be addressed through bottom-up approaches, namely solid reconstructions of verifiable genetic groupings. The African continent is a case in point. This book takes this approach by providing the first substantive reconstruction of the Koman language family of East Africa. Employing original fieldwork on all the living Koman languages and many undescribed dialects, the author rigorously applies the comparative method to establish regular sound correspondences and phonological innovations from Proto-Koman down through the nodes to the modern-day sound systems. Notably, the reconstruction of tone and the feature of advanced tongue root (ATR) were both integral to understanding the historical development of the consonant series. In addition, this volume contains reconstructions of the core lexicon and morphology at each node, and it provides synchronic phonological and grammatical sketches for each of the language groups. This book will be of interest to scholars of historical linguistics, language reconstruction, and Africanists, in particular.

Autorentext
Manuel A. Otero, Eastern Connecticut State University, Willimantic, USA.