Book Review

This work features a grammar (234 pages), sample texts (21 pages), and lexicon (57 pages.), and at once represents the authoritative text on the Alagwa language as well as a major descriptive contribution to Southern Cushitic. Spoken in the Kolo District of Dodoma Region, Tanzania, Alagwa (ISO 639–3: wbj) is one of a very small number of Cushitic languages spoken in this country, where the majority of languages are Bantu. In the Ethnologue (Simons and Fennig 2017) Alagwa is given an Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (EGIDS) level 6b, meaning that intergenerational transmission is weakening, and the language is losing both speakers and domains of use (Lewis and Simons 2010: 116), in this context, presumably to Swahili and Rangi. As such, this work captures a language whose patterns are rather rare in the Tanzanian context, and the description of which may, in coming generations, be harder and harder to accomplish. What follows is not an exhaustive treatment of what may be found in this book, but will focus on phenomena of particular interest to linguists familiar with Cushitic, but perhaps not Alagwa. The Introduction provides important context for the rest of the work: Alagwa is spoken by approximately 10,000 people living in a series of villages between the Kondoa-Babati road and the Bubu river. Most communities are mixed with speakers of Rangi, and most Alagwa people practice Islam. Mention is also given to when, where, and with whom the data was collected and checked, as well as the contact language (Swahili). A paragraph is given to discussing all major previous works which mention Alagwa in any meaningful way. The chapter concludes with a short story in Alagwa, followed by several paragraphs of line-by-line commentary. Designed not so much to provide detailed analysis, this commentary highlights the salient JALL 2018; 39(1): 115–120