[X] Anthropological Linguistics

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Vol. 46, no. 3 (Fall 2004)

Contents

Articles

Toward Proto–Na-Dene John Enrico 229

Urban Youth Languages in Africa Roland Kiessling and Maarten Mous 303

Ken Hale:   An Appreciation R. M. W. Dixon 342

Book Reviews
Profiles of Rafinesque (Charles Boewe, editor) Regna Darnell 346
Papers of the Thirty-Fourth Algonquian Conference (H. C. Wolfart, editor) Andrew Cowell 347
America's Second Tongue: American Indian Education and the Ownership of English, 1860–1900 (Ruth Spack) Mark van de Logt 350
The Dhivehi Language: A Descriptive and Historical Grammar of Maldivian and Its Dialects (Sonja Fritz) Bruce D. Cain 352

Abstracts

Toward Proto–Na-Dene

John Enrico
American Indian Studies Research Institute, Indiana University

Abstract. The relationship of Haida to Athabaskan-Eyak-Tlingit is reevaluated, drawing on improved Haida data that have become available in recent decades. Tentative cognates are identified, and proposals are made as to sound changes, as well as changes in morphology and syntax, which may have taken place in the prehistory of Haida and differentiated it from the rest of Na-Dene. The problem of loans between Haida and its neighbors, especially Tlingit, is discussed, and likely loanwords listed.

Urban Youth Languages in Africa

Roland Kiessling
University of Hamburg

Maarten Mous
Leiden University

Abstract. Youths in several urban centers on the African continent are continuously creating their own languages in order to set themselves apart from the older generation. These languages also serve to bridge ethnic differences. Cases have been reported for Abidjan, Nairobi, Johannesburg, Kinshasa-Brazzaville, and Yaounde. We show that these urban youth languages have much in common, both in function and in the linguistic strategies that their speakers use. The strategies found are typical for conscious language manipulation in general. Languages that arise through lexical manipulation can be divided into four types according to their function and use. Urban youth languages fall into the category of what Halliday terms antilanguages, but differ from other instances of language manipulation such as argot, taboo, jargon, slang, secret languages, and in-law respect languages. The difference lies not only in their different functions, but also, and related to these, in a preference for the use of certain types of conscious manipulation above others. The primary function of these urban youth languages is to create a powerful icon of identity. The identity in question is established through the reversal of norms, and develops from an underdog type of identity to one aimed at reforming society.

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