Acknowledgments

The field of anthropological linguistics is by nature interdisciplinary and thus it comes as no surprise that many people have been involved in the realization of this book. First and foremost, we would like to thank Gerrit J. Dimmendaal for his mentorship in the field of anthropological linguistics from our student days on. As an inspiring and influential scholar in the field, he has contributed greatly to the study of language and culture in African contexts. This volume, which contains contributions from his colleagues, former students, friends, and inspired researchers from various research institutions in different countries, shows how numerous core areas of anthropological linguistics, as well as its practitioners, have benefited from the ideas and insights of this prolific scholar over the past forty years.

This publication has also profited from the interest, support, and advice of many people at our academic institutions, the Department of Anthropology and African Studies at the JGU Mainz, and the Institute of African Studies and Egyptology at the University of Cologne – and beyond. We are extremely grateful to many colleagues for their input, their willingness to review chapters of this volume and give valuable feedback, and also for their support from the first ideas several years ago up to the completion of this book. Moreover, we – as well as the contributors – are indebted to the partners on-site during the fieldwork periods, assistants, colleagues, and friends in the research contexts – and the institutions that funded or facilitated the projects that led to the insights and results collected herein. Specifically, our two departments are thanked for financially supporting the realization of this book.

Thanks are due to the series editor Gunter Senft for his guidance and highly valuable input and the entire John Benjamins team around Kees Vaes for their help and practical advice on the way to completing this manuscript. Moreover, warm thanks go to Monika Feinen for many beautifully drawn maps, and to Mary Chambers for proofreading and copyediting the chapters, and providing many useful comments.

We are indebted to our families for their continuous support and interest in this project, and to all those involved for their patience. Some projects take longer than initially thought – but we hope that the end result is worth the wait.