Some of the 60 lesser-known languages of the Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, currently believed to be part of the Atlantic-African language group (part of the Niger-Congo family), will never be documented; they disappeared decades ago or on the verge of extinction. However, this provides an overview of a number of languages within the group as found south of the Wolof, Serer and Fula-speaking regions, giving phonology, morphology and basic syntactic patterns. Based on field work conducted by Wilson between 1958 and 1961, this includes the Diola language, Papel, Manjaco, Macanha, Balanta, Cassanga, Cubiana, Banhum, Biafada, Tanda, Pajade, Konyagi, Baga Mboteni (and other Baga languages), Bijago, Sua, and Temne. This also includes an analysis of consonant mutation and stem-initial consonant systems of several languages and Atlantic lexical material in comparative word lists. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
