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Although the Mande languages are usually characterized as analytic, they demonstrate a broader spectrum of typological features. For instance, Gban (South Mande) was analyzed as having evident infl ective elements. This paper concerns the phenomenon of incorporation observed in some Mande languages (Mandinka, Tigemaxo, Soninke). It also attempts at attracting attention to the interpretation of some facts which do not suit the defi nition of incorporation but demonstrate some phenomena, to a certain extent, similar to incorporation (Gban, South Mande). The author (very tentatively) uses the term “formal incorporation” for them and offers a new variant of the typology of incorpоration, including it into the broader set of different phenomena. It is worth noting that the paper concentrates on the particular sort of incorporation, i.e., object + verb incorporation.

The article presents the available data about plurality marking in two groups (Leko and Yendang) of a hypothetical genetic unit known as Adamawa languages. It shows various strategies that languages of these two groups use in marking plurality. The main focus is made on Nyong and Maya (Bali) languages with which the author worked during field research in Adamawa state (Nigeria). The data of some other languages of these groups (Samba Leko, Kpasham (Sam), Kugama (Wam), Yendang and Waka) are also taken into consideration. This study offers a comparison of plurality strategies in these languages that helps in distinguishing conservative and innovative elements in plurality marking. It also shows some cases of possible plurality/noun class interaction.

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This issue of the journal "Language in Africa" is dedicated to Konstantin Pozdniakov -a well-known specialist in African linguistics, who celebrates his 70 th anniversary on July 24, 2022. The list of the fields in which he has significantly contributed in both African and general linguistics is impressively long: Niger-Congo comparative linguistics (especially Atlantic and Mande), the use of quantitative methods for comparative and typological studies, phonotactic universals, typology of personal markers and numeral systems, general morphology and morpho-phonology, the behavior of units that consist of morphemes' segments (known as "submorhemes"), integration of morphemes into paradigms, the theory of "non-morphemic signs", synchronic functions of diachronic changes by analogy, and finally quite a different problem of deciphering of the Easter Island writing system (Rongorongo) .In fact, the biography and research activity of Konstantin Pozdniakov symbolically realizes the goals of this journal, the main purposes of which are the cooperation between two leading centers of African Linguistics in Russia (Moscow and St . Petersburg) and creating a platform for the international cooperation in the field of African languages .