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Proto-Yoruboid Language
Proto-Yoruboid is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Yoruboid languages, a subgroup of the Volta-Niger languages. It was likely spoken in what is now Nigeria and the confluence of the Niger River and Benue River. The ancestors of the Proto-Yoruboid speakers lived in the southern part of the Niger River Valley region for over three millennia. It split off from its neighbors in Volta-Niger about 3,000 years ago during a time of westward migration. Overview Proto-Yoruboid was likely part of a larger dialectal continuum. Several theories have been created to explain how the language later broke up into its modern descendants, usually identifying 300 BC as the time in which a major climate crisis lasting from the fourth century BC to the third century AD across West Africa, forced Proto-Yoruboid speakers to migrate westward and southward, forming the modern Proto-groups of the Itsekiri people, Olukumi people, Igala people, and Yoruba people, into Proto-Igala, and Proto-Edekiri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Niger River
The Niger River ( ; ) is the main river of West Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in south-eastern Guinea near the Sierra Leone border. It runs in a crescent shape through Mali, Niger, on the border with Benin and then through Nigeria, discharging through a massive River delta, delta, known as the Niger Delta, into the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean. The Niger is the third-longest river in Africa, exceeded by the Nile and the Congo River. Its main tributary is the Benue River. Etymology The Niger has different names in the different languages of the region: * Fula language, Fula: ''Maayo Jaaliba'' * Manding languages, Manding: ''Jeliba'' or ''Joliba'' "great river" * Tuareg languages, Tuareg: ''Eġərəw n-Igərǝwăn'' "river of rivers" * Songhay languages, Songhay: ''Isa'' "the river" * Zarma language, Zarma: ''Isa Beeri'' "great river" * Hausa language, Hausa: ''Kwara'' *Nupe language, Nupe: ''Èdù'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Akoko Language
North Akoko, usually abbreviated as Akoko and also known as Arigidi, is a dialect cluster spoken in Nigeria. It is a branch of the YEAI ("Yoruba–Edo–Akoko–Igbo") () group of the Niger–Congo languages.Fadọrọ, Jacob Oludare. 2010. ''Phonological and lexical variations in Akokoid''. Doctoral dissertation, University of Ibadan. It is spoken in the Akoko Edo, and the LGAs of Akoko North East, Akoko North West, Ekiti East, and Ijumu (''Ethnologue''). Varieties Akokoid varieties include Arigidi, Erúṣú, Oyín, Ìgáṣí Eṣé, Urò, Ọ̀jọ̀, Àfá, Ògè, Ìdò, and Àjè.Oshodi, Boluwaji. 2012The Arigidi Cluster: an Internal Re-classification Towards Proto-Niger-Congo: Comparison and Reconstruction (International Congress), 18–21 September 2012, Paris. Below is a list of Arigidi language names, populations, and locations from Blench (2019). Internal classification The internal classification of Akokoid language varieties is given by Fadoro (2010) as:F ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Akan Language
Akan (), or Twi-Fante, is the most populous language of Ghana, and the principal native language of the Akan people, spoken over much of the southern half of Ghana. About 80% of Ghana's population speak Akan as a first or second language, and about 44% of Ghanaians are native speakers. The Bono dialect is also spoken across the border in Ivory Coast. Three dialects were developed as literary standards with distinct orthographies: Asante and Akuapem, collectively known as Twi, and Fante. Despite being mutually intelligible, they were inaccessible in written form to speakers of the other standards until the Akan Orthography Committee (AOC)'s development of a common Akan orthography in 1978, based mainly on Akuapem dialect. As the first Akan variety to be used for Bible translation, Akuapem had become the prestige dialect. With the Atlantic slave trade, Akan languages were introduced to the Caribbean and South America, notably in Suriname, spoken by the Ndyuka, and i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kwa Languages
The Kwa languages, often specified as New Kwa, are a proposed but as-yet-undemonstrated family of languages spoken in the south-eastern part of Ivory Coast, across southern Ghana, and in central Togo. The Kwa family belongs to the Niger-Congo phylum. The name was introduced in 1895 by Gottlob Krause and derives from the word for 'people' (''Kwa'') in many of these languages, as illustrated by Akan names. This branch consists of around 50 different languages spoken by about 25 million people. Some of the largest Kwa languages are Ewe, Akan and Baule. Languages See the box at right for a current classification. The various clusters of languages included in Kwa are at best distantly related, and it has not been demonstrated that they are closer to each other than to neighboring Niger–Congo languages. Stewart distinguished the following major branches, which historical-comparative analysis supports as valid groups: * Potou–Tano (including Akan) * Ga–Dangme * Na-Togo * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Itsekiri
The Itsekiri (also called the Isekiri, ''iJekri'', ''Itsekri'', ''Ishekiri'', or Itsekhiri) are an ethnic group who mainly inhabit Nigeria's Niger Delta area. They speak a Yoruboid languages, Yoruboid language and can be found in Ondo State, Ondo, Edo State, Edo and Delta State. The Itsekiri population exceeds 1 million people, who live mainly in parts of Ondo, Edo and majorly in the Warri South, Warri North and Warri South West local government districts of Delta State on the Atlantic coast of Nigeria. Large Itsekiri indigenous communities and population can also be found in 7 other local government areas of delta state Okpe, Okpe Local Government, Uvwie, Uvwie Local Government, Udu, Nigeria, Udu Local Government, Sapele, Nigeria, Sapele Local Government, Ethiope West, Ethiope West Local Government, Ethiope East Local Government, Burutu Local Government Areas in Delta Central senatorial district, and Delta South senatorial district of Delta State Nigeria. Other significant com ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Proto-Bantu
Proto-Bantu is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Bantu languages, a subgroup of the Southern Bantoid languages. It is thought to have originally been spoken in West/Central Africa in the area of what is now Cameroon.Dimmendaal, Gerrit J. (2011). ''Historical Linguistics and the Comparative Study of African Languages'', pp. 337ff. About 6,000 years ago, it split off from Proto-Southern Bantoid when the Bantu expansion began to the south and east. Two theories have been put forward about the way the languages expanded: one is that the Bantu-speaking people moved first to the Congo region and then a branch split off and moved to East Africa; the other (more likely) is that the two groups split from the beginning, one moving to the Congo region, and the other to East Africa. Like other proto-languages, there is no record of Proto-Bantu. Its words and pronunciation have been reconstructed by linguists. From the common vocabulary which has been reconstructed on the basis of pres ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bronze
Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloids (such as arsenic or silicon). These additions produce a range of alloys some of which are harder than copper alone or have other useful properties, such as strength, ductility, or machinability. The archaeological period during which bronze was the hardest metal in widespread use is known as the Bronze Age. The beginning of the Bronze Age in western Eurasia is conventionally dated to the mid-4th millennium BCE (~3500 BCE), and to the early 2nd millennium BCE in China; elsewhere it gradually spread across regions. The Bronze Age was followed by the Iron Age, which started about 1300 BCE and reaching most of Eurasia by about 500 BCE, although bronze continued to be much more widely used than it is in modern times. Because historica ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iron-working
Ferrous metallurgy is the metallurgy of iron and its alloys. The earliest surviving prehistory, prehistoric iron artifacts, from the 4th millennium BC in Egypt, were made from Meteorite, meteoritic Iron–nickel alloy, iron-nickel. It is not known when or where the smelting of iron from ores began, but by the end of the 2nd millennium BC iron was being produced from iron ores in the region from Greece to India,Riederer, Josef; Wartke, Ralf-B.: "Iron", Cancik, Hubert; Schneider, Helmuth (eds.): Brill's New Pauly, Brill 2009Early Antiquity By I.M. Drakonoff. 1991. University of Chicago Press. . p. 372 The use of wrought iron (worked iron) was known by the 1st millennium BC, and its spread defined the Iron Age. During the medieval period, smiths in Europe found a way of producing wrought iron from cast iron, in this context known as pig iron, using finery forges. All these processes required charcoal as fuel. By the 4th century BC southern India had started exporting wootz steel, wit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
