Berlin Bantu Conference (B4ntu)
Between the 7th and 9th April 2011 the Fourth International Conference on Bantu Languages was held at the Department of African Languages. The conference, which had the special theme "Historical Bantu Linguistics", brought together specialists in all aspects of the study of Bantu languages.
Besides the general sessions, two workshops were organised in conjunction
with the conference:
Workshop 1: Bantu and its closest relatives
Organized by Jean-Marie Hombert and Larry Hyman
The purpose of this workshop was to examine the origin and evolution of Bantu linguistic specificities especially with regards to corresponding features in closely related linguistic groups of languages. Five main themes were covered (phonology, morphology, syntax, lexicon, classification) with one main paper for each theme followed by one or two discussants per paper.
Workshop2: Tone and Intonation in Bantu
Organized by Sophie Manus and Cédric Patin
While tone and intonation were for a long time considered separate
research topics, their relationship has recently received more attention (Hyman & Monaka 2008, Michaud 2008, Zerbian et al. 2009).
This workshop aimed to address, among many others, the following
questions: is it (always) necessary to make a distinction between tonal and non-tonal intonation? How do lexical tones and intonational tones interact? Do intonational tones share the properties of lexical tones (e.g. the ability to shift, to spread)?
Invited speakers:
- Koen Bostoen
- Jeff Good
- Thilo C. Schadeberg
- Pius Tamanji
Conference Program (will be added soon)
Presentations (will be added soon)