Grammaticalization in African languages

Abstract This article aims to provide an overview of grammatical developments or grammaticalisation in African languages. It shows that grammaticalisation theory not only offers a means of reconstructing earlier states in the history of African languages but can also be of use for explaining structural characteristics of these languages. The results indicate that a number of African languages have a distinction between an inclusive and exclusive first person plural in their system of personal pronouns, which can be explained as being the result of the grammaticalisation of a noun for persons or people.