Overview

This book provides an in-depth and comprehensive state-of-the-art study of African languages and language in Africa since its beginnings as a colonial science at the turn of the twentieth century in Europe.

Contributors and Scope

Compiled by 56 internationally renowned scholars, this ground breaking study looks at past and current research on African languages and language in Africa under the impact of paradigmatic changes from colonial to postcolonial perspectives.

Current Trends and Themes

It addresses current trends in the study of the role and functions of language, African and other, in pre- and postcolonial African societies. Highlighting the central role that the language factor plays in postcolonial transformation processes of sociocultural modernization and economic development, it also addresses more recent, particularly urban, patterns of communication, and outlines applied dimensions of digitalization and human language technology.