Date: Wednesday, 16 November 2011
Time: 16:00-17:30
Location: Humanities Building 8-18

The talk will outline the development of African Sociolinguistics from the beginnings of an autonomous academic discipline called "African linguistics" (German: "Afrikanistik") in colonial and imperial Germany about 125 years ago, through various paradigmatic shifts under the impact of international developments in (theoretical) linguistics, to the establishment of the "World Conference on African Linguistics" (WOCAL) series in 1990. Special emphasis will be given to the aspect of Applied Sociolinguistics in the African context.