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Sudanic Languages
In early 20th century classification of African languages, Sudanic was a generic term for languages spoken in the Sahel belt, from Ethiopia in the east to Senegal in the west. Scope The grouping was based on geographic and loose typological grounds. One of its proponents was the German linguist Carl Meinhof. Meinhof had been working on the Bantu languages, which have an elaborate noun-class system, and he labeled all languages not in Hamito-Semitic or Bushman that lacked such a noun-class system ''Sudansprachen''. There were two main branches; Eastern Sudanic was largely equivalent to Nilo-Saharan sans Nilotic, and Western Sudanic to Niger–Congo other than Bantu. Background Westermann, pupil of Carl Meinhof, carried out comparative linguistic research on the then Sudanic languages during the first half of the twentieth century. In his 1911 study he established a basic division between 'East' and 'West' Sudanic, roughly comparable to today's distinction of Niger–Congo an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Central Sudanic Languages
Central Sudanic is a family of about sixty languages that have been included in the proposed Nilo-Saharan language family. Central Sudanic languages are spoken in the Central African Republic, Chad, Sudan, South Sudan, Uganda, Congo (DRC), Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ... and Cameroon. They include the pygmy languages Efé and Asoa. Blench (2011) suggests that Central Sudanic influenced the development of the noun-class system characteristic of the Atlantic–Congo languages. Classification Half a dozen groups of Central Sudanic languages are generally accepted as valid. They are customarily divided into East and West branches. Blench (2023) Blench cites the following classification: Sinyar–Formona is sparsely documented and its plac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sadanic Languages
The Sadanic languages are Bihari languages in the Indo-Aryan languages. The languages are mostly spoken in the Jharkhand state of India. Etymology The Nagpuri language is known as Sadani as native language of Sadan, the Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Chotanagpur. Sadani also referred to closely related Indo-Aryan languages of Jharkhand such as Nagpuri, Panchpargania, Kurmali and Khortha. The origin of the word Sadan is somewhat obscure. History The Indo Aryan languages of Jharkhand such as Nagpuri, Panchpargania, Kurmali, Khortha are known as Sadani languages. Earlier linguist had classified these languages as dialects of Bhojpuri and Magahi language. But recent research suggest that these languages are developed from a single ancient language in the past and are closer to each other than any other languages. Their differences are due to their geographical distribution and contact with different tribal Munda languages. According to scholars, the Sadri/Nagpuri lang ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lexicostatistics
Lexicostatistics is a method of comparative linguistics that involves comparing the percentage of lexical cognates between languages to determine their relationship. Lexicostatistics is related to the comparative method but does not reconstruct a proto-language. It is to be distinguished from glottochronology, which attempts to use lexicostatistical methods to estimate the length of time since two or more languages diverged from a common earlier proto-language. This is merely one application of lexicostatistics, however; other applications of it may not share the assumption of a constant rate of change for basic lexical items. The term "lexicostatistics" is misleading in that mathematical equations are used but not statistics. Other features of a language may be used other than the lexicon, though this is unusual. Whereas the comparative method used shared identified innovations to determine sub-groups, lexicostatistics does not identify these. Lexicostatistics is a distance-based ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zaghawa Language
Zaghawa is a Nilo-Saharan language spoken by the Zaghawa people of east-central Chad (in the Sahel) and northwestern Sudan (Darfur). The people who speak this language call it Beria, from ''Beri'', the endonym of the Zaghawa people, and ''a'', Zaghawa for "mouth". It has been estimated that there are about 447,400 native speakers of the Zaghawa language, who primarily live in Chad and the Darfur region of Sudan. It is also spoken by a smaller number of people in Libya. Dialects Zaghawa clans are: *Beria (Arabic: ''Zaghawa'') *Tuba (Arabic: ''Bideyat''): Biria, Brogat *Kube (Arabic: ''Zaghawa''): Dirong, Guruf, Kube, Kapka *Wegi (Arabic: ''Twer'') Zaghawa dialects, which do not always correspond to clan divisions, are: Phonology Vowels Zaghawa has a nine-vowel system with advanced-tongue-root vowel harmony. The vowels fall into two sets: * * , with the vowels of affixes depending on the set of vowels in the stem, and with /a/ functioning in both sets. There is some var ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Berti Language
Berti is an extinct Saharan language that was once spoken in northern Sudan, specifically in the Tagabo Hills, Darfur, and Kurdufan. Berti speakers migrated into the region alongside other Nilo-Saharan speakers, such as the Masalit and Daju, who were agriculturalists with varying levels of animal husbandry. They settled in two separate areas: one group north of Al-Fashir, while the other continued eastward, settling in eastern Darfur and western Kurdufan by the nineteenth century. The two groups did not appear to share a common identity, with the western group notably engaging in the cultivation of gum arabic. By the 1990s, Sudanese Arabic had largely replaced Berti as the native language. U.S. |
Ennedian Languages
The Saharan languages are a small family of languages across parts of the eastern Sahara, extending from northwestern Sudan to southern Libya, north and central Chad, eastern Niger and northeastern Nigeria. Noted Saharan languages include Kanuri (9.5 million speakers, around Lake Chad in Chad, Nigeria, Niger, and Cameroon), Daza (700,000 speakers, Chad), Teda (60,000 speakers, northern Chad), and Zaghawa (350,000 speakers, eastern Chad and Sudan). They have been classified as part of the hypothetical but controversial Nilo-Saharan family. A comparative word list of the Saharan languages has been compiled by Václav Blažek (2007). Internal classification * Saharan ** Eastern *** Berti † ( Sagato;Blench, Roger. m.s. Saharan and Songhay form a branch of Nilo-Saharan'. extinct) *** Zaghawa ( Beria) ** Western *** Kanuri **** Kanuri (Bilma, Manga, Tumari, Central) **** Kanembu ( Tarjumo) *** Tebu **** Daza **** Teda External classification Roger Blench argues that t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saharo-Sahelian Languages
The Nilo-Saharan languages are a proposed family of around 210 African languages spoken by somewhere around 70 million speakers, mainly in the upper parts of the Chari and Nile rivers, including historic Nubia, north of where the two tributaries of the Nile meet. The languages extend through 17 nations in the northern half of Africa: from Algeria to Benin in the west; from Libya to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the centre; and from Egypt to Tanzania in the east. As indicated by its hyphenated name, Nilo-Saharan is a family of the African interior, including the greater Nile Basin and the Central Sahara Desert. Eight of its proposed constituent divisions (excluding Kunama, Kuliak, and Songhay) are found in the modern countries of Sudan and South Sudan, through which the Nile River flows. In his book ''The Languages of Africa'' (1963), Joseph Greenberg named the group and argued it was a genetic family. It contained all the languages that were not included in the Ni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kunama Languages
The Kunama languages are a family of languages traditionally considered dialects of a single language, spoken in western Eritrea and across the border in Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken .... They are included as a branch of the Nilo-Saharan language family. The languages are Kunama proper and Ilit. References *Blench, RogerNilo-Saharan languages list Language families Languages of Eritrea {{ns-lang-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gumuz Language
Gumuz (also spelled Gumaz) is a dialect cluster spoken along the border of Ethiopia and Sudan. It has been tentatively classified within the Nilo-Saharan family. Most Ethiopian speakers live in Kamashi Zone and Metekel Zone of the Benishangul-Gumuz Region, although a group of 1,000 reportedly live outside the town of Welkite (Unseth 1989). The Sudanese speakers live in the area east of Er Roseires, around Famaka and Fazoglo on the Blue Nile, extending north along the border. Dimmendaal et al. (2019) suspect that the poorly attested varieties spoken along the river constitute a distinct language, Kadallu. Gerrit Dimmendaal, Colleen Ahland & Angelika Jakobi (2019) Linguistic features and typologies in languages commonly referred to as 'Nilo-Saharan', ''Cambridge Handbook of African Linguistics'', p. 6–7 An early record of this language is a wordlist from the Mount Guba area compiled in February 1883 by Juan Maria Schuver. Varieties Varieties are not all mutually intelligi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Koman Languages
The Koman languages are a small, close-knit family of languages located along the Ethiopia–Sudan border with about 50,000 speakers. They are conventionally classified as part of the Nilo-Saharan family. However, due to the paucity of evidence, many scholars treat it as an independent language family. Among scholars who do accept its inclusion within Nilo-Saharan, opinions vary as to their position within it. Koman languages in Ethiopia are in close contact with the Omotic Mao languages. In Ethiopia, some Koman-speaking groups also consider themselves to be ethnically Mao. Internal classification The Koman languages are: *Koman ** Uduk, or T’wampa, (formerly in South Sudan) — about 20,000 speakers, most at a large refugee camp at Bonga, near Gambela ** Kwama (Ethiopia) — about 15,000 speakers, mainly in Benishangul-Gumuz ** Komo (Sudan) — about 12,000 speakers mainly in An Nil al Azraq ** Opuuo (Opo), or Shita (Ethiopia) — spoken in 5 villages north of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Komuz Languages
The Komuz languages are a proposed branch of the Nilo-Saharan language family which would include the Koman languages, the Gumuz languages and the Shabo language, all spoken in south-eastern Sudan and western Ethiopia. Nilo-Saharan specialists have vacillated on a genealogical relationship between the Koman and Gumuz languages, a relationship called Komuz. Greenberg (1963) had included Gumuz in the Koman language family. Bender (1989, 1991) classified them together in a distant relationship he called Komuz, but by 1996 he had reversed himself, though he kept both groups in core Nilo-Saharan. Dimmendaal (2008) kept them together, though expressed doubts over whether they belonged in Nilo-Saharan, later referring to Gumuz as an isolate (2011). Ahland (2010, 2012), on the basis of new Gumuz data, resurrected the hypothesis. Blench (2010) independently came to the same conclusion and suggested that the Shabo language might be a third, outlying branch. The classification of Shabo is d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
