Prof. Tom Hinnebusch UCLA Linguistics Dept. 3125 Campbell Hall Los Angeles CA 90095-1543 hinnebus@humnet.ucla.edu

Research and Academic Interests

My main research focus is Swahili and related Bantu languages mostly from a comparative and historical perspective. For a long time I have been interested in questions concerning the classification of African languages and especially methodologies of classification; for example, I have recently explored the value of lexicostatistics in Comparative Bantu studies. I am currently amassing the data necessary to do a comparative/historical treatment of Southern Bantu languages akin to the Nurse and Hinnebusch study of a group of Northeastern Bantu languages. I also spend some of my time alotted for research on mastering Swahili classical poetry; here I have also been experimenting with ways in which the computer can be used to teach Swahili poetry in interesting, engaging ways.

Teaching

My main teaching responsibility is Swahili. I either supervise or personally teach three years of Swahili courses (African Languages 1A-1B-1C; African Languages 2A-2B-2C; African Languages 103A-103B-103C). I also offer instruction in the language beyond the advanced level (African Languages 199 or African Languages 596). Every two years or so--when there is an interest--I offer a course on Comparative Bantu (African Languages 202); the focus of this course reflects the interests of the students.

Select Recent and Upcoming Publications

• "Rule inversion and restructuring in Kamba," Studies in African Linguistics, Supplement 5, 149-67 (1974).

• "A reconstructed chronology of loss: Swahili Class 9/10," Proceedings of the Sixth Conference on African Linguistics, Ohio State University Working Papers in Linguistics 20:32-41 (1975).

• "Swahili: genetic affiliations and evidence," In L.M. Hyman, L. Jacobsen,and R.G. Schuh (eds.), Papers in African Linguistics, in Honor of W. E. Welmers, pp. 95-108. Studies in African Linguistics, Supplement 6, (1976).

• With Sarah Mirza. Kiswahili: Msingi wa Kusema, Kusoma, na Kuandika (Swahili: a Foundation for Speaking, Reading, and Writing). Washington:University Press of America, pp. i-xxi, 272. (1979).

• "Swahili," In Timothy Shopen (ed.), Languages and Their Status, pp. 208-293. Cambridge, Mass.: Winthrop Publishers. (1979).

• With Robert Kirsner, "On the inference of 'Inalienable Possession' in Swahili." Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 2:1-16 (1980).

• With Derek Nurse, and Martin Mould, Studies in the Classification of Eastern Bantu Languages (SUGIA, Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika - Beiheft 3). Hamburg: Helmut Buske Verlag, 261 pages (1981).

• With Derek Nurse, "Spirantization in Chaga." SUGIA 3:51-78 (1981).

• "Bantu." In J. Bendor-Samuel (ed). The Niger-Congo Languages, pp.450-473. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America. (1989).

• With Derek Nurse. Swahili and Sabaki: a Linguistic History. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. 780 pages (1993).

• Hinnebusch, Thomas J., "Contact and Lexicostatistics in Comparative Bantu Studies." To be published in the proceedings of the 1st World Conference on African Linguistics. Witwatersrand Press, 28 pages (In Press).

Biographic Information

I'm from Pittsburgh PA where I grew up and received my primary, secondary, and some postgraduate education. After spending four years in Maryknoll Seminary I decided neither the priesthood nor life as a missionary were for me. I left and began Swahili and African studies at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh where I received a M.A. in African Studies, thinking at the time that I would end up working for the federal government. But Duquesne needed a Swahili teacher and by default I was asked to stand in for someone who had not showed up from Kenya. What serendipty! So while teaching Swahili at Duquesne I decided I needed to know more about language and lingusitics and went to the University of Pittsburgh where I did a one-year MA in Linguistics (all pre-Chomskian), but it was enough to convince me that Swahili and linguistics would be a life-long career. The following year, 1965--I was married by then with our first child--my wife Claudia and I were in Tanzania where I worked in a mission-operated language school for three years supervising langauge instruction, writing teaching materials, and doing fieldwork on one of the local Bantu languages. Only in doing the latter did I discover I still didn't know enough about linguistics and I needed to study more. In 1968 I came to UCLA and studied with such giants as Bill Welmers, Talmy Givon, Sandra Thompson, and Vicky Fromkin and I've been here ever since, joining the faculty in 1973. I do get back to Africa on a regular basis. I did my dissertation research in Kenya in 1972/73, there were Bantu workshops in Ruanda in 1982 and 1984, and research in the Comoro Islands in 1983. I spent the summer of 1994 in Swaziland and South Africa attending a conference and exploring linkages on behalf of the African Studies Center. In 1989 and 1990 I took 15 students to Kenya and Tanzania to study Advanced Swahili. In 1996 I expect to spend three months in Tanzania teaching at the University of Dar es Salaam. My wife and I are now empty-nesters: our three grown children are now on their own--we hope!

And I do have another life besides linguistics. There's daily weedpicking and grubbing in my garden, birdwatching whenever I can find a free weekend, and some hiking and long-distance walking on somewhat rarer occasions. And I'm chief escort for Claudia's jaunts to performances at the Music Center and plays at the Mark Taper, Odyssy and other theatres.

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