Description

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This volume, the result of seven years of fieldwork, is the only comprehensive grammar of the underdocumented Digo (Chidigo) language to date. Digo is the southernmost language of the Mijikenda cluster of Bantu languages, spoken along the coast of East Africa in Kenya and Tanzania. Besides a clear description of Digo morphology and syntax, with multiple illustrative examples, this grammar includes several glossed texts, a 1700-item wordlist, and a list of over 100 botanical names. It gives particular emphasis to semantic and discourse relations of elements which are not always analyzed from this perspective in grammatical descriptions. These include the forms and functions of Digo's complex system of demonstratives, a description of over 30 tense, aspect, and movement markers, and a detailed discussion of information structure and non-verbal clauses. This book will be of interest to linguists concerned with Bantu languages, typology, morphosyntax, and semantics. The entire Mijikenda cluster is underdocumented, and this grammar makes a significant contribution to understanding of languages of that area. Steve Nicolle received a D.Phil. from the University of York, UK. He is currently serving as a Linguistics and Translation Consultant for SIL Africa Area. He has written several articles on Digo, and along with Joseph Mwalonya, Alison Nicolle, and Juma Zimbu, is the compiler of Mgombato: Digo-English-Swahili Dictionary.