An in-depth and far-reaching account of the study of 'African languages' and 'language in Africa' as an autonomous academic discipline.

Introduction; 1. African linguistics: conceptions and scope H. Ekkehard Wolff; Part I. Short Regional Histories of African Linguistics: 2. African linguistics in Europe Arvi Hurskainen, Roland Kießling, Nina Pawlak and Alexander Zheltov; 3. African linguistics in North and so-called Francophone Africa Abderrahman el Aissati, Yamina el Kirat el Allame and Philip Ngessimo Mathe Mutaka; 4. African linguistics in North-Eastern and so-called Anglophone Africa Akinbiyi Akinlabi, Bruce Connell, Angelika Jakobi, Amani Lusekelo, Ronny Meyer, Marie-Claude Simeone-Senelle and Wolbert Smidt; 5. African linguistics in so-called Lusophone and Hispanophone Africa, and in Southern Africa Sonja Bosch, Inge Kosch and Anne-Maria Fehn; 6. African linguistics in the Americas, Asia, and Australia G. Tucker Childs, Margarida Petter, Shigeki Kaji, John Hajek, Sun Xiaomeng and Yang Chul-Joon; Part II. Comparative and Descriptive African Linguistics: 7. Comparative African linguistics Gerrit J. Dimmendaal; 8. A typological and areal perspective on African languages Bernd Heine; 9. Niger-Congo linguistic features and typology Larry M. Hyman, Nicholas Rolle, Hannah Sande, Emily Clem, Peter S. E. Jenks, Florian Lionnet, John Merrill and Nicholas Baier; 10. Afroasiatic linguistic features and typologies Ronny Meyer and H. Ekkehard Wolff; 11. Linguistic features and typologies in languages commonly referred to as 'Nilo-Saharan' Gerrit J. Dimmendaal, Colleen Ahland, Angelika Jakobi and Constance Kutsch Lojenga; 12. Linguistic features and typologies in languages commonly referred to as 'Khoisan' Alena Witzlack-Makarevich and Hirosi Nakagawa; Part III. African Languages in Cultures and Societies: 13. Sociocultural and political settings of language in Africa Alamin Mazrui; 14. In and out of Africa: the sociolinguistics of European and Asian languages in Africa and of the African diaspora Rajend Mesthrie; 15. Language endangerment and language documentation in Africa Friederike Lüpke; 16. Situated language use in Africa Sigurd D'hondt; 17. Special-purpose registers of language in Africa Alice Mitchell and Ayu'nwi N. Neba; 18. African languages in urban contexts Andrea Hollington and Nico Nassenstein; 19. African languages and mobile communication: between constraint and creativity Ana Deumert, Ivan Panoviæ, Dorothy Agyepong and David Barasa; Part IV. Applied Perspectives in African Linguistics: 20. Multilingualism and education in Africa Kathleen Heugh; 21. Intellectualisation of African languages: past, present and future Russell H. Kaschula and Dion Nkomo: 22. African languages and human language technologies Justus C. Roux and H. Steve Ndinga-Koumba-Binza.