African Linguistics in Central and Eastern Europe, and in the Nordic Countries

Outside colonial contexts, Austrian African linguistics in Vienna emerged from Orientalist traditions in symbiosis with Egyptology. The early foundation was laid by Leo Reinisch who had developed interests into the Horn of Africa, providing an enormous amount of descriptive studies of hitherto undocumented Cushitic, Omotic and Nilo-Saharan languages. In the tradition of Oriental studies going back to the mid-eighteenth century in Russia, nineteenth century in Poland, Hungary and former Czechoslovakia, the interest in African languages was developing as an extension of studies on Arabic or Semitic languages, with less Egyptian studies. During the communist period, African studies in Eastern Europe were closely connected with the political situation, which determined the relations between the countries of the Eastern Bloc and Africa. In the Nordic countries, research on African languages is carried out as part of general linguistics. Only the University of Gothenburg in Sweden has a professorship dedicated to the study of African languages. In Norway and Denmark, African languages are studied mostly in departments of general linguistics. In Finland, the professorship at the University of Helsinki is defined as African studies, covering a wider research field.