1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910785570703321

Autore

Ehret Christopher

Titolo

History and the testimony of language [[electronic resource] /] / Christopher Ehret

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berkeley, : University of California Press, c2011

ISBN

1-283-27732-8

9786613277329

0-520-94759-2

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (289 p.)

Collana

The California world history library ; ; 16

Disciplina

907.2

Soggetti

History - Methodology

Language and history

Social history

Africa History

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- PART ONE. Evidence and Method -- PART TWO. Applications -- APPENDIX ONE. Outline Classification of Afrasian (Afroasiatic): diagnostic branch innovations -- APPENDIX TWO. Proto-Afrasian and Proto-Erythraic subsistence -- APPENDIX THREE. development of nilo-saharan Lexicons of Herding and Cultivation -- APPENDIX FOUR. interpreting the Ethiosemitic Cognation Matrix -- APPENDIX FIVE. Cushitic Loanwords in Ethiosemitic Core vocabulary -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

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.