The making of JALL: Its beginnings and intellectual foundations

Abstract

The Journal of African Languages and Linguistics (JALL) was founded in 1979 at the University of Leiden, with Paul Newman as Editor and Thilo Schadeberg as Associate Editor. Foris Publications was the initial publisher. Motivation for launching a new journal came from the fact that whereas African linguistics in the 1970s was thriving, many of the extant African linguistics journals were floundering. From its inception, JALL was conceived of as a broad-based journal of truly international scope. The intellectual underpinnings of JALL can be found in the original editorial statement, reproduced here, and in the work of three major scholars who were closely associated with African linguistics at Leiden, namely Jan Voorhoeve, with his focus on tone, Kay Williamson, with her dedication to on-site fieldwork, and John Stewart, with his emphasis on solid historical linguistics. The scientific principle that underlay JALL at the outset and continued throughout its thirty-year history was a commitment to sophisticated, theoretically-informed empiricism.