What is it about?
How did the little oasis of Tabelbala in western Algeria end up speaking a language unlike anything within 1600 km? Why is Korandje, their language, so much like one spoken faraway in central Niger, and why does it seem to have Mauritanian elements? This article explores word origins, plant names, grave inscriptions, saints' lives, travellers' tales, and medieval economics to reach an unexpected answer: that Tabelbala was a planned settlement, founded some 800 years ago by groups based in the Sahel to allow copper mining and to make travel easier.
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Why is it important?
This finding explains the existence and location of Korandje, and reconstructs an otherwise lost chapter of Saharan history. It suggests that medieval West Africans were actively involved in building the infrastructure for global trade, further north than might have been expected. At the same time, it provides an unusual perspective on historical linguistics: to understand language spread, sometimes you need to think in terms of economics, not Völkerwanderung.
Perspectives
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Explaining Korandjé, Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages, October 2015, John Benjamins,
DOI: 10.1075/jpcl.30.2.01sou.
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Resources
Historical Linguistics of Korandje
A presentation, given at SOAS, centred on the findings of this article.
Explaining Korandjé: Language contact, plantations, and the trans-Saharan trade (post-print version)
Post-print version of "Explaining Korandjé: Language contact, plantations, and the trans-Saharan trade"
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