History and the Testimony of Language
1st Edition
Will be published approx. on 17. December 2010
Book
Paperback/Softback
288 pages
978-0-520-26205-8 (ISBN)
Description
This book is about history and the practical power of language to reveal historical change. Christopher Ehret offers a methodological guide to applying language evidence in historical studies. He demonstrates how these methods allow us not only to recover the histories of time periods and places poorly served by written documentation, but also to enrich our understanding of well-documented regions and eras. A leading historian as well as historical linguist of Africa, Ehret provides in-depth examples from the language phyla of Africa, arguing that his comprehensive treatment can be applied by linguistically trained historians and historical linguists working with any language and in any area of the world.
Reviews / Votes
"[A] valuable book which deserves to assume its rightful position as required reading for students and scholars of American history." -- Neil Kodesh Journal Of African History 20111007More details
Series
Edition
First Edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Berkerley
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
13 line illustrations, 5 maps, 33 tables
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
408 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-520-26205-8 (9780520262058)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Christopher Ehret
History and the Testimony of Language
E-Book
12/2010
1st Edition
Naval Institute Press
€33.99
Available for download
Person
Christopher Ehret is Distinguished Professor of History at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the author of many books, including Reconstructing Proto-Afroasiatic (UC Press), An African Classical Age, and, most recently, The Civilizations of Africa.
Content
List of Illustrations Acknowledgments PART ONE. EVIDENCE AND METHOD 1. Methods and Myths 2. Writing History from Linguistic Evidence 3. Historical Inference from Transformations in the Vocabularies of Culture 4. Historical Inference from Word Borrowing 5. Linguistic Dating PART TWO. APPLICATIONS 6. History in the Sahara: Society and Economy in the Early Holocene 7. Social Transformation in the Horn of Africa, 500 BCE to 500 CE 8. Recovering the History of Extinct Societies: A Case Study from East Africa 9. Cultural Diffusion in the Atlantic Age: American Crops in East Africa Appendix 1. Outline Classification of Afrasian (Afroasiatic): Diagnostic Branch Innovations Appendix 2. Proto-Afrasian and Proto-Erythraic Subsistence Appendix 3. Development of Nilo-Saharan Lexicons of Herding and Cultivation Appendix 4. Interpreting the Ethiosemitic Cognation Matrix Appendix 5. Cushitic Loanwords in Ethiosemitic Core Vocabulary Index