Lecture 1 : « African language classification beyond Greenberg »

« Areal linguistics in Africa before a new approach to its genealogical language classification », Lecture 1 : « African language classification beyond Greenberg »,Tom Güldemann (Humboldt University – Berlin) LABEX EFL SEMINAR Chaire Internationale 2019 : Le Labex accueille le Professeur Tom Güldemann - Université de Humboldt (Berlin) The widely accepted genealogical classification of African languages to date is Greenberg’s (1963) scheme that comprises just four indigenous super-families, namely Khoisan, Niger-Congo, Nilo-Saharan, and Afroasiatic. Despite the long-standing popularity of his proposal, specialists of historical-comparative linguistics have noticed that it is methodologically and empirically questionable (cf., e.g., Campbell and Poser 2008). This lecture provides a new comprehensive approach to genealogical la