World Congress of African Linguistics 4/Annual Conferences on African Linguistics 34 Rutgers, Keynote Address, June 18, 2003 Why Describe African Languages? Larry M. Hyman University of California, Berkeley hyman@socrates.berkeley.edu Whether formal modeling is treated simply as programming for some practical purpose, or as a method of investigating the properties of the cognitive systems involved, it can and should be separated in most cases from the problem of determining the facts and the descriptive generalizations. (Akinlabi & Liberman 2000:29) I have been asked to speak on the theme this conference, which I repeat in (1). 1 (1) The description of African languages in a rapidly changing field. I think that it is particularly timely for us to focus on this theme, not only in terms of how things look today, but also concerning our future. It is particularly fitting that this discussion take place at Rutgers, whose dramatic growth and excellence in both linguistics and African studies are well known to us all. As you will hear, I have some things to say on the subject, but unfortunately, I will have as many questions for us as I do answers. I apologize in advance for my perspective as someone who works in the United States, but I think that much of what we have to discuss will have parallels wherever the description of African languages takes place. I also apologize for any Benue-Congocentrism that may be apparent. So, let us begin by unpacking the content words in the conference theme and ask the questions in (2). (2) Interpreting the theme a. what “field”? b. how is it “rapidly changing”? c. what is meant by “description”? d. what counts as an “African language”? 2 The answer to the first question, “what field are we talking about?”, may seem obvious to North Americans, who will immediately answer, “linguistics”. This is because, unlike Europe and Africa itself, the study of African languages did not begin until the modern linguistic era. The first dissertation written on an African language in the United States was entitled “A Grammar of Chichewa” written by Mark Hanna Watkins in 1937 and directed by Edward Sapir at the University of Chicago. Shortly after that, we begin to see the descriptive work of my teacher, William Welmers, who in turn had studied with Zellig Harris at the University of Pennsylvania. Setting aside 1 I would like to express my thanks to Akinbiyi Akinlabi and the other organizers for the invitation and the opportunity to speak at the combined WOCAL4/ACAL34 conference, as well as the many thoughtful colleagues with whom I was able to speak about the issues of concern to me in this talk. Thanks also to my Berkeley colleague, Lynn Nichols, for her reactions to a draft of this paper and for many stimulation discussions of the issues treated herein—with which we are both concerned. 2 I will have nothing to say about this last question.