Anne-Maria Fehn

I am a linguist with a special interest in the history of southern Africa. While my main field of expertise lies with documentary linguistics and historical linguistics, I also take an avid interest in multidisciplinary approaches to population history research, including methodologies from human genetics and bioinformatics.

I hold a PhD in African Studies from the University of Cologne which I received for my work on the endangered Khoe-Kwadi language Ts’ixa. During my doctoral and postdoctoral research, I carried out fieldwork in Botswana, Namibia, Angola and Zimbabwe, where I had the opportunity to study multiple languages of the Khoe-Kwadi, Kx’a and Bantu families.

I have been a member of Biopolis-CIBIO's "HumanEVOL - Human Evolutionary Genetics” group since 2014 and have contributed to multidisciplinary research projects focusing on the population history of southwestern Angola and the Okavango River Basin. At present, I am leading my own project on lexical exchange between the three southern African "Khoisan" families Kx'a, Tuu and Khoe-Kwadi in the context of population contact and genetic admixture.

Since 2019, I hold a FCT Junior Researcher contract in the frame of which I am expanding my knowledge on quantitative methodologies in the cultural sciences. My most recent publications focus on various aspects of the Khoe-Kwadi and southwestern Bantu languages, including phonology, tense-aspect morphology, subclassification and the role of language contact.

Google Scholar

Orcid

ResearchGate

Contact Anne-Maria

My Publications

Phiri, A., Fehn A.M., Rocha, J., Dande, I. (Forthcoming). Tjwao and Ndebele social contact, Zimbabwe. In Di Garbo,F., Kashima, E., Sinnemäki, K. (eds.). Social foundations of language contact: a comparative survey. Contact and Multilingualism. Language Science Press.

doi:

Fehn, A.M. (2024). K’ui tii – Don’t speak! Morphology and syntax of commands in Ts’ixa (Kalahari Khoe) and beyond. Linguistique et Langues Africaines 10(2).

doi: 10.4000/123pu

Fehn, A.M. (2024). Ts’ixa. In Körtvélyessy, L. and Štekauer, P. (eds.) Onomatopoeia in the World’s Languages: A Comparative Handbook, 209-222. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.

doi: 10.1515/9783111053226-018

Fehn, A.M., Rocha, J. (2023). Lost in translation: a historical-comparative reconstruction of Proto-Khoe-Kwadi based on archival data. Diachronica 40(9): 609-665.

doi: 10.1075/dia.23022.feh

Fehn, A.M. (2023). Is Ts’ixa (Kalahari Khoe) a dialect of Shua? A comparative take on nominal gender marking and alignment patterns. Studies in African Linguistics 52, Suppl. 13.

Andrason, A., Fehn, A.M., Phiri, A. (2023). The meaning and form of onomatopoeias in Tjwao. Canadian Journal of Linguistics 68(3): 349-386.

doi: 10.1017/cnj.2023.17

Oliveira, S., Fehn, A.M., Amorim, B., Stoneking, M., Rocha, J. (2023). Genome-wide variation in the Angolan Namib Desert reveals unique pre-Bantu ancestry. Science Advances 9(38):eadh3822.

doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adh3822

Araújo, V., Fehn, A.M., Phiri, A., Wills, J. Rocha, J., Gayà-Vidal, M. (2023). Oral microbiome homogeneity across diverse human groups from southern Africa: first results from southwestern Angola and Zimbabwe. BMC Microbiology 23(1):226.

doi: 10.1186/s12866-023-02970-2

Nakagawa, H., Witzlack-Makarevich, A., Auer, D., Fehn, A.M., Ammann Gerlach, L., Güldemann, T., Job, S., Lionnet, F., Naumann, C., Ono, H., Pratchett, L.J. (2023). Towards a phonological typology of the Kalahari Basin Area languages. Linguistic Typology 27(2):509-535.

doi: 10.1515/lingty-2022-0047

Fehn, A.M., Amorim, B., Rocha, J. (2022). The linguistic and genetic landscape of Southern Africa. Journal of Anthropological Sciences 100:243-265.

doi: 10.4436/JASS.10008

Fehn, A.M., Phiri, A. (2022). Juncture-Verb Constructions in Northeastern Kalahari Khoe: A comparative perspective. Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics PLUS 65 (2022):147-190.

doi: 10.5842/65-1-973

Andrason, A., Aikhenvald, A.Y., Egbokhare, F.A., Fehn, A.M., Gębka-Wolak, M., Locatell, C., Lovestrand, J., Moroz, A., Nau, N., Phiri, A., Pratchett, L.J., Ross, D., Schaefer, R.P., Weiss, D. (2022). The rise and fall of Serial Verb Constructions: Finale. Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics PLUS 65:267-273.

doi: 10.5842/65-1-977

Köhler, O. (2022). The World of the Khwe Bushmen in Southern Africa (4.2). VII Omens and Dreams, Spells and Magic; VIII Religion: Beliefs, Institutions and Rites, ed. by Boden, G., Fehn, A.M. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.

Köhler, O. (2022). The World of the Khwe Bushmen in Southern Africa (5.1). IX Illness and Healing; X Music and Dance, Games and Arts, ed. by Boden, G., Fehn, A.M. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.

Köhler, O. (2022). The World of the Khwe Bushmen in Southern Africa (5.2). XI Myths and Legends, Fairy Tales and Narration; XII World and Nature, ed. Boden, G., Fehn, A.M. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.

Fehn, A.M. (2021). Phasal polarity in Khwe and Ts’ixa (Kalahari Khoe). In Kramer, R. (ed.). The expression of phasal polarity in African languages, 391-418. Berlin: De Gruyter.

doi: 10.1515/9783110646290-017

Almeida, J., Fehn, A.M., Ferreira, M., Machado, T., Hagemeijer, T., Rocha, J., Gayà-Vidal, M. (2021). The Genes of Freedom: Genome-Wide Insights into Marronage, Admixture and Ethnogenesis in the Gulf of Guinea. Genes 12 (6): 833.

doi: 10.3390/genes12060833

Andrason, A., Fehn, A.M., Phiri, A. (2020). Interjections in Tjwao. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 83(2):293-319.

doi: 10.1017/S0041977X20002608

Semo, A., Gayà-Vidal, M., Fortes-Lima, C., Alard, B., Oliveira, S., Almeida, J., Prista, A., Damasceno, A., Fehn, A.M., Schlebusch, C., Rocha, J. (2020). Along the Indian Ocean Coast: Genomic Variation in Mozambique Provides New Insights into the Bantu Expansion. Molecular Biology and Evolution 37 (2):406–416.

doi: 10.1093/molbev/msz224

Fehn, A.M. (2020). Click loss in Khoe-Kwadi. In Sands, B. (ed.). Click consonants, 291-335. Leiden: BRILL.

doi: 10.1163/9789004424357_010

Fehn, A.M. (2020). Click replacement and loss in Ju. In Sands, B. (ed.). Click consonants, 336-355. Leiden: BRILL.

doi: 10.1163/9789004424357_011

Fehn, A.M. (2019). Kuvale: A Bantu language of southwestern Angola. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 40(2): 235-270.

doi: 10.1515/jall-2019-0010

Mohr, S., Fehn, A.M., de Voogt, A. (2019). Hunting for signs: Exploring unspoken networks within the Kalahari Basin. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 40(1): 115-147.

doi: 10.1515/jall-2019-0005

Anderson, C., Tresoldi, T., Chacon, T., Fehn, A.M., Walworth, M., Forkel, R., List, J.M. (2019). A cross-linguistic database of phonetic transcription systems. Yearbook of the Poznan Linguistic Meeting 4(1):21-53.

doi: 10.2478/yplm-2018-0002.

Fehn, A.M. (2019). Phonological and lexical variation in the Khwe dialect cluster. Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 169(1): 9-38.

doi: 10.13173/zeitdeutmorggese.169.1.0009.

Fehn, A.M. (2019). Transitivity in Ts’ixa. With special reference to semantically ditransitive constructions. In Anyanwu, R.J. (ed.). Transitivity in African languages (Frankfurter Afrikanistische Blätter), 55-74. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.

Fehn, A.M. (2019). Revisiting tense and aspect in the Khoe language family. In Bayer, K., Boden, G., Köhler, B., Zoch, U. (eds.). Linguistics across Africa. Festschrift für Rainer Vossen, 99-112. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.

Fehn, A.M., Bosch, S., Kosch, I. (2019). African linguistics in so-called lusophone and hispanophone Africa and in southern Africa. In Wolff, E. (ed.). The Cambridge Handbook of African Linguistics, 98-114. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

doi: 10.1017/9781108283991.005

Fehn, A.M. (2019) African linguistics in official Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking Africa. In Wolff, E. (ed.). A history of African linguistics, 189-204. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

doi: 10.1017/9781108283977.010

Oliveira, A., Hübner, A., Fehn, A.M., Aço, T., Lages, F., Pakendorf, B., Stoneking, M., Rocha, J. (2018). The Role of Matrilineality in Shaping Patterns of Y Chromosome and MtDNA Sequence Variation in Southwestern Angola. European Journal of Human Genetics 27(3):475–83.

doi: 10.1038/s41431-018-0304-2

Oliveira S, Fehn AM, Aço T, Lages F, Gayà-Vidal M, Pakendorf B, Stoneking M, Rocha J (2018) Matriclans shape populations: Insights from the Angolan Namib Desert into the maternal genetic history of southern Africa. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 165(3):518-535.

doi: 10.1002/ajpa.23378

Köhler, O. (2018). The World of the Khwe Bushmen in Southern Africa. A self-portrait in their own language (4.1). Family and Society; Customary Law: Norms and Practices, ed. by Boden, G., Fehn, A.M. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.

Fehn, A.M. (2018). Review of A Trilingual !Xóõ Dictionary. !Xóõ – English – Setswana. Afrikanistik-Aegyptologie Online. https://www.afrikanistik-aegyptologie-online.de/archiv/2018/4790.

Fehn, A.M. (2018). New data on Northeastern Kalahari Khoe phoneme inventories. Africana Linguistica 24:5-29.

doi: 10.2143/AL.24.0.3285489

Fehn, A.M., Phiri, A. (2017). Nominal marking in Northern Tshwa (Kalahari Khoe). Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics 48:105-122.

doi: 10.5774/48-0-284

Güldemann, T., Fehn, A.M. (2017). The Kalahari Basin area as a ‘Sprachbund’ before the Bantu expansion - an update. In Hickey, R. (ed.). The Cambridge Handbook of Areal Linguistics, 500-526. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

doi: 10.1017/9781107279872.019

Heine, B., Fehn, A.M. (2017). An areal view of Africa. In Hickey, R. (ed.). The Cambridge Handbook of Areal Linguistics, 424-445. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

doi: 10.1017/9781107279872.016

Fehn, A.M. (2017). Marking direct objects in Ts’ixa (Kalahari Khoe). In Fehn, A.M. (ed.). Khoisan languages and linguistics. Proceedings of the 4th international symposium, Riezlern 2011, 121-156. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.

Fehn, A.M. (ed.) (2017). Khoisan languages and linguistics. Proceedings of the 4th international symposium, July 11–13, 2011, Riezlern/Kleinwalsertal. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.

Pinto, J.C., Oliveira, S., Teixeira, S., Martins, D., Fehn, A.M., Aço, T., Gayà-Vidal, M., Rocha, J. (2016). Food and pathogen adaptations in the Angolan Namib desert: Tracing the spread of lactase persistence and human African trypanosomiasis resistance into southwestern Africa. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 161(3): 436-447.

doi: 10.1002/ajpa.23042

Rocha, J., Fehn, A.M. (2016). Genetics and Demographic History of the Bantu. In: eLS. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

doi: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0022892

Fehn, A.M. (2016). A Grammar of Ts'ixa (Kalahari Khoe). PhD dissertation, Universität zu Köln Institut für Afrikanistik und Ägyptologie Abteilung Afrikanistik. http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/7062/.

Güldemann, T., Fehn, A.M. (eds.) (2014). Beyond 'Khoisan'. Historical relations in the Kalahari Basin. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

doi: 10.1075/cilt.330

Brenzinger, M., Fehn, A.M. (2013). From body to knowledge: perception and cognition in Khwe-||Ani and Ts'ixa. In Aikhenvald, A., Storch, A. (eds.). Perception and cognition in language and culture, 161-191. Leiden: Brill.

doi: 10.1163/9789004210127_008

Fehn, A.M. (2012). Some notes on traditional Ts’ixa gesture inventories. In Sommer, G., Vierke, C. (eds.). Speech acts and speech events in African languages. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.

Brenzinger, M., Fehn, A.M. (eds.) (2012). Proceedings of the 6th WOCAL World Congress of African Linguistics, Cologne, 17-21 August 2009. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.

Fehn, A.M., Storch, A. (2010) Water and inversion – African conceptualizations. In Storch, A. (ed.). Perception of the invisible (Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika 21). Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.

Fehn, A.M. (2007). Die lybisch-berberische Schrift. In Kootz, A., Pasch, H. (eds.). 5000 Jahre Schrift in Afrika. Cologne: Universität zu Köln.